Nintendo eShop

Adding personalized recommendations to promote tailored browsing and discovery

Introduction / Overview

The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service allowing users to browse, buy, and download software accessed exclusively via the Nintendo Switch gaming console.

However, users can have a hard time discovering games and can be unable to obtain the information they need to make an informed decision when purchasing a game.

Providing personalized recommendations could encourage additional browsing and discovery, improving the chance users purchase a game they’re likely to enjoy through their Switch.

Note: This is a personal conceptual project.

Empathize

I began by conducting user interviews and contextual inquiries to better understand:

What motivates users to make a purchase
What motivates users to not make a purchase, and
What might users feel is missing from their experience using competitors' digital distribution systems (if applicable)

3/5 participants expressed explicit interest in being presented with personalized recommendations when shopping for games

4/5 participants felt the need to conduct external research prior to purchasing a game

5/5 participants shared feedback about the homepage:

4/5 participants disliked that the “Featured” category felt like Nintendo trying to sell them something
4/5 participants were interested in browsing a user-generated category as they felt like it would provide them with some unbiased information about the games

I also conducted a competitive analysis to learn more about other digital distribution services, where I realized that:

The eShop isn't personalized despite requiring that users log in to use it, and
Allowing user reviews is risky: companies like Amazon and Steam attempt to restrict user behavior while companies like PlayStation and Nintendo disallow user reviews entirely

Define

To improve my understanding of a typical eShop user, I synthesized my research into an empathy map:

I also wanted to keep Nintendo's business goals in mind so that I wouldn’t move forward with a non-viable idea. For example, despite demand for a rating/review system, such a feature wouldn’t wouldn’t align with Nintendo’s goal to drive more purchases to be made on the eShop while also providing family-friendly entertainment.

Goals shared between Nintendo and eShop users include:

Browsing the eShop being an engaging, educational, and entertaining experience,
The eShop providing sufficient information toward helping users make a purchase, and
Users purchasing games that they are likely to enjoy toward improved trust and retention

Ideate

Taking everything thus far into consideration, incorporating personalized recommendations could:

Help users discover new games they’re likely to enjoy,
Reduce their need to gather information externally, and
Better support individualized user experiences

Users could spend more time on the eShop that they would have otherwise spent browsing external resources, and would also be more likely to enjoy their purchase, leading to improved trust and likeliness of returning to the eShop to make additional purchases.

Adding personalized recommendations could lead to improved sales and revenue alongside improved user engagement and satisfaction!

After narrowing in on the idea, I designed an ideal task flow for users to discover a game similar to one they've already played:

And explored additional alternative paths in a user flow, further organized by potential user risk:

Prototype

Using my flows as a guide, I sketched low-fidelity wireframes:

Then, I recreated the existing screens and drafted my proposed high-fidelity wireframes for testing from there.

On the homepage, I moved the “Account Information” page button to be within the navigation drawer for improved visibility/accessibility:

On the Account Information page, I added a new page allowing users to view their owned games as well as a simple visualization of the user’s friends that also own each game matching existing UI:

On individual game pages, I added a carousel with “Similar Games”, and replaced the less necessary Account Information button for a similar visualization of the user’s friends that own each game:

Test

To simulate the purchasing experience to the best of my ability, I conducted usability testing both remotely, instructing users to use their keyboards as they might use a controller to navigate through the prototype, and in-person, instructing users to use the touch screen as they might use their Nintendo Switch.

I asked participants how they might find a game they'd like to play based on the last game they played:

2/5 participants felt that the feature was “buried”, of which one suggested the feature be incorporated in some capacity on the homepage for greater visibility

3/5 participants expressed that they may not have seen “Similar Games”, of which one specifically stated that they would not typically browse games they already own

Likely because of the way I asked the question, 4/5 participants tried to search for the last game they played (an alternate flow) — a good lesson learned for the next round

4/5 participants also expressed that the feature as is would make browsing easier for them, improving the chance of finding a game they're likely to enjoy

I used the feedback to make some initial revisions:

Retrospective / Next Steps

I’d like to A/B test the design to confirm more quantitatively if it would help users discover more games they may enjoy (measured by purchases, playtime, etc.) and/or increase revenue.
If successful, I’d also like to try implementing the "Similar Games" feature elsewhere in the overall Switch user flow.
The feature should also aim to include transparency as to how recommendations are curated (from owned games, playtimes, friends' playtimes, etc.) to improve overall trust in the system.