Bryan Leung

Zynga Poker

Four features from a live social poker game, designed during its move from native iOS to Unity.

Employer
Zynga
Role
Principal Designer
Team
Pods of 5 to 8
Scope
Feature design, mentorship
Year
2020
Zynga Poker table during a hand. Zynga Poker lobby with event and game mode cards.

Summary

Context
A social poker game, during its move from native iOS to Unity.
Shown here
Leagues, Challenges, the VIP Center, the store and the style guide.
Results
Leagues raised retention and revenue per daily player. Challenges raised retention, not revenue.

Poker Leagues

A league system to raise engagement, measured by hands played. Players compete to climb tiers, and highly engaged players are more likely to spend to stay in a league.

From requirements to screens

The team brainstormed player stories and requirements together. I sorted the requirements into groups, and the groups became the screens.

Requirements sorted into columns: Home, Leaderboard, Progression and Rewards.
Requirements grouped into what became the four screens.
League Center wireframe. Career wireframe. Leaderboard wireframe. Rewards wireframe.
Wireframes.
Leagues home screen. League career screen. League leaderboard. League standings shown at the poker table.
Final screens.
Animated league badge. Animated league badge. Animated league badge. Animated league badge. Animated league badge.
League badges.

Impact

Leagues raised every KPI we tracked, which were retention, session play, hands played and revenue per daily player (ARPDAU).

The follow-up plan was an exclusive top tier, better prizes and more limited-time events.

Poker Challenges

Every game needs objectives. Challenges gives players a tuned set of them, rewards each completed set, and then offers the next.

Introducing Challenges screen. Lobby with the Challenges panel. Challenges list with progress. Challenge progress shown at the poker table.

Impact

Retention rose at 1, 3, 7 and 30 days, and hands played rose with it. Revenue per daily player barely moved, probably because of too many prizes, which is easy to adjust.

VIP Center refresh

The VIP program gives the game's biggest spenders purchase perks and personal support. The refresh added new tiers and spelled the perks out more clearly.

The earlier VIP screen.
Before.
VIP Center showing the Gold and Platinum tier. VIP Center showing a lower tier. VIP Center showing the Emerald tier. VIP FAQ table of perks by tier.
After.
Recording of scrolling through the VIP Center tiers.
Scrolling through the tiers.

Purchase store

The old store was plain and left no room for new content.

The old store: a vertical list of chip packages.
Before.

Problems

  • Vertical scrolling on a landscape screen left little room for art.
  • The switch to the Gold page was hard to find, and players contacted support to ask how to buy Gold.
  • Every package needed highlighting, and a narrow row has room for very little of it.
  • Tap areas sat close together, so mis-taps were common.

New design

  • Horizontal scrolling to match the landscape screen.
  • Tabs that also show the wallet balance, with a tab of their own for special promotions.
  • Larger cards for chip and gold packages, with room for bigger art and highlights.
  • Bigger tap areas.
New store showing chip packages as large cards. New store showing gold packages. New store showing special offers. New store showing another tab of cards.
After.
Recording of scrolling and switching tabs in the new store.
Scrolling and switching tabs.

Style guide

Without shared guides the game would have drifted visually. Our team unified its visual language.

Color palette page of the style guide. Component page of the style guide. Icon set page of the style guide.
Colors, components and icons.