Creating an app to foster connection within the Pokémon GO community.

With an impressive 80 million monthly players, Pokémon GO is an AR mobile game that has formed a vast and active player community. People across the globe come together to collect Pokémon, engage in battles, and forge friendships while navigating the real world.

While Pokémon GO has created an expansive community due to its substantial player base, it currently lacks integrated communication features, which could further enhance player interaction and collaboration. As an active player myself, I set out to design an app that meets the Pokémon GO community's social needs.

// note: this is a personal project and not designed with Niantic's terms of service in mind

As an active player myself, I set out to design an app that meets the Pokémon GO community's social needs.

// note: this is a personal project and not designed with Niantic's terms of service in mind

My Role

Sole product designer

Timeline

3 weeks (October 2023)

Deliverables

user research, competitive analysis, usability testing, wireframes, design system, clickable prototype

✦ Final Designs

00

✦ Overview

01

The problem

With an average 80 million monthly player count, Pokémon GO is an AR mobile game with an expansive community. Players around the world gather together to collect Pokémon, battle, and make friends, all while exploring the real world.

While Pokémon GO has such an active player base, the mobile game itself lacks features to allow players to communicate remotely. Because of this, players turn to other platforms, which have high volume but poor organization of content.

✦ Breakdown of the problem

02

01
Socially isolating

Pokémon GO’s lack of communication features make it difficult to connect, coordinate, and collaborate with others in the game, potentially missing out on the social aspect of the Pokémon experience.

02
Disjointed experience

With the lack of community features in the Pokémon GO app, players have turned to several other apps to have their needs met. Not having a singular app consolidating all these needs, many players use various features off of several different apps, creating a disjointed experience.

03
Not beginner-friendly

Outside apps may not be beginner-friendly due to their complex features and the need for users to understand individual Pokémon statistics and strategies, which can be overwhelming for newcomers to the game.

✦ Setting goals

03

How might we statement

How might we create an app that brings the Pokémon GO community together in a more social environment?

Design goals

01
Social connection

Allowing players to communicate and feel a part of the community enhances the experience of the game.

02
Personal empowerment

Allowing players to show off their progress to friends helps them feel more accomplished with their own results.

03
Ease of use

Prioritizing a user-friendly and familiar interface will streamline the experience for both avid and new players.

✦ Competitive analysis

04

Understanding what works for our competitors.

Without a place to communicate within the game, players have turned to outside apps and social platforms. To better understand our audience’s need regarding socialization within the Pokémon GO community, I constructed a competitive analysis chart to compare the most popular of these applications.

✦ User Research & Affinity Mapping

05

But what do players really want?

To understand user wants and needs, I collected responses from both user interviews and from the Reddit community. I asked questions such as “What features would you want added into Pokémon GO?” and “When you use outside apps to enhance your Pokémon GO playing experience, what are you looking to accomplish?". After collecting various responses, I grouped them into five main categories, which would later help me determine what features to prioritize in the development of my app.

Affinity Map

✦ Key motivations & solutions

06

Identifying and summarizing the root motivations of our users.

Community

Community is at the heart of the Pokémon GO experience. There is a sense of camaraderie and shared enthusiasm for capturing Pokémon, battling in gyms, and participating in events that binds the Pokémon GO community.

With the lack of communication features in Pokémon GO itself, players need a designated place to be able to connect and chat with each other.

Consistency & Simplicity

Many of the popular outside apps that the Pokémon GO community has turned to involves a steep learning curve which may deter and overwhelm newer players.

By creating an interface that is recognizable and consistent, we can streamline the experience for advanced users while concurrently eliminating the overwhelming experience for new players.

Accomplishment

Players are motivated by a sense of achievement— allowing players to show off their progress to friends can help them feel more accomplished with their own results.

Rather than simply listing users' profile achievements, we can display them in the form of rankings to create a sense of friendly competition.

✦ Ideation

07

Putting all user's Pokémon GO related needs into one app.

Utilizing the results from the affinity mapping, I consolidated the most valued features into four pages, keeping in mind our goal of consistency and simplicity.

✦ Development

08

Cleaning up my ideas through
Mid-Fi wireframes.

From the lo-fi sketches, I began to block out the features I wanted, taking into account the affinity map of what features users value. I decided to consolidate all the features into four main pages: community, raid, friends, and profile. To reduce clutter, the pages have a sliding navigation at the top to break up the key features (such as remote and local raids).

✦ Iteration

09

Time to get down to the details.

When in the process of creating the final components for Pokéverse, I went through several iterations to determine the most user-friendly option.

✦ Design System

10

Typography

For my typography scheme, I chose simple sans-serif fonts that still kept the "gamey" feel.

Lato Black
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789

Inter Medium
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789

Colors

I chose to keep the color scheme close to the original app to keep it familiar to users.

✦ User testing and validation

11

Putting my design to the test.

To test my design, I conducted short interviews with three Pokémon GO players, where I let them test the prototype and I collected significant comments and feedback.

Users expressed their satisfaction with the simplicity and ease of navigation, additionally, they found the features aligning with their needs. Although, some users wished there were more informative resources for battles.

“Navigating through it felt really intuitive and straightforward”

“I wish it had more info about Pokémon battles, raid battles, and gym battles.”

“I like how it shows where, how far, and when the raid is for local raids.”

✦ Solution

12

Final Design: Highlights

Share and interact with the Pokémon GO community.

The Pokéverse community page offers a consolidated experience for Pokémon Go players seeking social interaction and community involvement.

Here, users can seamlessly post and discuss anything related to Pokémon GO, like sharing memes, or seeking answers to their questions from fellow community members. This platform not only provides a space for casual conversations but also serves as a valuable resource where players can access important Pokémon GO news, all conveniently gathered in one place.

Sort and find friends by region.

In Pokémon GO, players are encouraged to exchange gifts with players from other regions to collect different variations of the Vivillion Pokémon.

I incorporated regional tags into the Friends page, so that players can add friends from regions they need to complete the challenge.

Additionally, to prevent players from adding inactive friends, an activity status is shown so players can add friends based on this.

Easy access to find the raids you need.

On the local raid page, users can find nearby raids and sort by distance, tier, and type of Pokémon. Additionally, they can join nearby groups to engage with the local Pokémon community.

On the remote raid page, users can join and battle any current raid boss. Whether a novice or a seasoned player, finding the raids you want is made accessible through sorting tags.

View achievements & compete with others.

While Pokémon GO does display player stats, it often lacks features that encourage friendly competition among players. Pokéverse provides users with a platform to showcase their progress and personal milestones, allowing them to share their accomplishments with friends.

This focus on personal achievement creates a supportive environment where players can celebrate their unique journey and also feel more accomplished with their individual results.

✦ After thoughts

13

What I learned.

Constraints

Timeframe
Due to time constraints and multitasking with schoolwork, this project was a bit of a challenge to pull together. If allotted more time, I think there are a lot more changes I could implement.

Amount of content
Pokémon GO being such a complex game, the sheer amount of possible features and content that could be beneficial to players forced me to discern and prioritize specific features over others.

Improvement & Next Steps

More user perspectives
While I did conduct user interviews, having more than 3 users would allow for a more diverse range of perspectives and skill levels.

More features for advanced players
If I were to continue developing this app, I would add more features related to Pokémon stats and info to better cater to the more advanced side of the audience.