PANTHEON: RISE OF THE FORUM
This was a speculative project for Visionary Realms. Pantheon is a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) currently in development. A small but growing team, their focus has been on developing the game and not their website. Their forums needed an overhaul to match the standards of the rest of the game, so I tackled the problem for them. Additionally, I gave their landing page a refresh.
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
Speculative
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PROJECT BRIEF
This was a speculative project for Visionary Realms. Pantheon is a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG) currently in development. A small but growing team, their focus has been on developing the game and not their website. Their forums needed an overhaul to match the standards of the rest of the game, so I tackled the problem for them.
TASKS
Design a responsive website for their Community Forum
Update the landing page
PROJECT LENGTH
80 hours
TOOLS USED
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Survey Monkey
UX Design
UI Design
Visual Design
Speculative
80 Hours
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DESIGN PROCESS
RESEARCH
Secondary Research
Competitve Analysis
User Survey
Site Audit
DEFINE
Feature List
Users
DESIGN
Lo Fi Wireframes
Hi Fi Wireframes
TEST
Prototype
Usability Test
THE CHALLENGE
Forum users want to find relevant information quickly and feel like part of a community. However, this means something different to different people.
Primary research showed that 92% of forum visitors use forums for learning, while only 75% of visitors use them for entertainment.
"A key advantage traditional forums have over their modern social counterparts is the ability to find information."
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Search and filtering options on the forum home page allow users to quickly navigate to the content they would like to see.
During my research I uncovered four primary user types across two different spectrums.
Content creator
Daily usage
Consumer
< Once per week
Healthy forums I encountered during my research all catered to multiple user types by utilizing a wide variety of features.
THE SOLUTION
A forum that utilizes a wealth of modern features for consuming and creating content to improve user experience and encourage social interaction.
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TESTING
Overall, user tests on the prototype were extremely positive. Readability was very high, and users were able to find and recognize common features very quickly. More "unique" features were all positively received and considered "improvements" to other forums.
Usability testing on the prototype turned up two potential issues that would require more testing.
Issues & Solutions
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Issue: The mark read/unread feature seen above was difficult for people to find, but users agreed that it was likely a highly learnable feature due to the changing graphic and pop up. Solution: One change I made to help recognizability for new users was moving the icon from the end of the subject line to a single column in front of all the subjects. This is a common place for checkboxes of lists.
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Issue: The list view and card view feature was also largely missed by users when exploring features. This was partially due to the testers not being accustomed to having the option to change the way content is displayed in forums. Solution: I changed the menu label from "view" to "list view" or "card view" to help better indicate the current state.
PROJECT DEBRIEF
This was a fun and interesting project for me that actually involved a lot of research. I was constantly evaluating the value of features and where/when to display them. Visual real estate in a content driven product is important and adding interactive social elements alongside content was a challenge. I found many different types of users throughout my research. Creating a final design that worked for all of them was a challenge I think I met.
With more time and access to website data, I would track how much certain features are being used and make adjustments from there. I would introduce a light mode for the forum as well.
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UPDATED LANDING PAGE
see original
