Fantasy Funds

Our Process

Problem

Prior to our redesign, Fantasy Funds was already on the iOS App Store. Unfortunately, they had issues with user retention and engagement which is why they reached out to us.

Upon exploring the app, we noticed that their main problem was that they had two competing value propositions, making the purpose of the app ambiguous.

On one hand, they wanted to lead with fantasy leagues as a way to compete and learn about investing in a fun way. However, they didn’t want to leave out another user segment: people who didn’t want to compete, and just wanted to practice investing.

But trying to achieve too much left them with an unfocused and confusing user experience. Users couldn’t understand how the two parts of their app worked together. So my advice to them was to focus in on one user segment and build up value for those users first, before trying to add supplemental features.

But which user?

So then the main question was, which type of user should we target? To answer that, we first needed to identify what type of users would even be interested in an app like this. Did people even understand the concept of combining gaming and investing? And if they did, would that be appealing to them?

We conducted 6 user interviews — with users all along the spectrum of gamers, fantasy league lovers, and investors — with the goal of answering those questions.

From there, we were able to identify two different types of users who could find value in an app like Fantasy Funds.

Ultimately, the clients chose to target Ian Bennett, the Gaming Persona. They felt like this user would align more closely with their overall vision, and that they would be able to grow and add new features tailored towards this type of user more easily in the future.

Rethinking the User Experience

So we established a focus on the gaming (over the educational) aspect of the app. I started to think about how we could restructure their app in a way that would emphasize the fantasy league (and competition) part of Fantasy Funds, rather than the individual portfolio.

I started by mapping out their current app to identify areas of improvement.

A couple of issues I found were:

• Search pages were spread throughout different pages, which made finding things really hard

• The individual funds page being in the main navigation made it compete with the Leagues value proposition

• It wasn’t clear what the user should be doing when they log into the app.

So then the main goals for redesigning the user experience were to:

• Keep the current functionality of the app, but redesign it in a way that shows clear hierarchy of value and action

• Utilize our user research to emphasize features that our interviewees deemed as “important” e.g. progress tracking, simplicity, accessibility to information

• Tailor the experience more towards the target user and focus on features that are meaningful to that user specifically

Guided by these goals, I came up with a new sitemap that would emphasize fantasy leagues but leave room for growth and flexibility for new gaming features later on.

Rebranding

Another prominent issue with Fantasy Funds’ current app was its interface. It was clunky and outdated. With financial apps, it’s really important to evoke a sense of safety and trustworthiness. A clean, futuristic app interface would help establish this.

To help the clients’ with a visual rebrand, I went through a branding exercise with them to better understand who they were, what their vision was, and where they wanted to be in the future.

From there, my team came up with four different branding options to present to the clients.

The clients chose Option 1.

Designing the Platform

Finally, we got to the point of redesigning the platform using the new sitemap as a guide. We started off by creating wires for the less major screens: the home page, explore, notifications, accounts.

We saved the leagues part for last.

Final Designs

From the wiring stage to the final designs, I worked iteratively with the clients, meeting with them weekly to present work, receive feedback, and execute in time to meet again the following week. The clients were afforded one round of revisions on the wires, and one round of revisions on the initial designs (for each group of screens).

Next Steps

Prior to ending this initial redesign project, I held a one hour brainstorming workshop with the clients and my team to ideate new gaming and league features that could be implemented during a future release.

Fantasy Funds is going to take the next couple of months implementing our new redesigned platform. I’m looking forward to working with them again when they’re ready to create new features and take their gamification to the next level (pun intended).