Tombola

Overview

Tombola have two established gaming products, Bingo and Arcade. Following an acquisition, they approached us to help them understand how they could improve the promotion and discoverability of their games online.

We tested their apps and website to identify the motivations and needs of Tombola customers and their competitors so that these could inform which designs would best convey their USPs.

Research services

Usability testing

Expert review

Competitor analysis

The challenge

Discover more about game playing and the community

As an established online gaming brand, Tombola have a  loyal customer base with millions of visitors per month. They found their websites and apps struggled to encourage users to play new games and engage in the community aspects of their online experience.

Our approach to solving the problem

Using our expertise to review the Tombola website

We started with a “stepped back approach” by conducting an expert review to understand the user experience and identify potential issues.

Our review collated a list of potential pain points in the user journey and identified areas for enhancements. The findings gave Tombola a framework to consider the needs of different customer types.

Testing our hypothesis with users

Highlights

Remote research with a mix of users
Understanding audience behaviour
Uncovering brand USPs

We tested our hypotheses with in-depth usability sessions covering a mix of current and competitor players. Our goal was to gain a deeper understanding of how people approached choosing a game.

Exploring the live site first allowed us to establish a baseline of people’s experience and natural behaviour. It allowed us to observe real users engaging with the site in a natural way and gather their feedback on the games, layout and USPs of the brand.

We then tested two design concepts focusing on how well they met user needs and which elements appealed. Our analysis provided a breakdown of the success of the two concepts, including visual appeal, page layout, game tile design, and motivations to play.

Delivering value

We collated our expert review, a competitor analysis & user insights into detailed reports and presentations, defining for Tombola the most relevant design elements and game aspects likely to enhance discoverability and uptake.

Our research showed that choosing particular games was often influenced by a mix of factors. This highlighted how the design needed to strike a balance to cater for the mix of user needs.

This provided Tombola with a detailed understanding of which design elements to implement so that the site encourages browsing, demonstrates variety and creates a clearer game proposition.

Outcomes

A framework to consider the needs of different customer types

Understanding user behaviour to inform design choices

A springboard to iterate designs that will increase engagement

Our thoughts

Many entertainment services struggle to encourage their users to discover and explore new content they might like. The testing with Tombola customers gave us a clear insight into how different visual elements contribute to what people choose. It was important to get this right for Tombola as it showed that playing something they didn’t enjoy was a real turn off, which could be detrimental to their time spent on the apps.

An Marien, Senior User Experience Researcher

Taking part in user research in the gaming sector is fast-paced and great fun! Working on Tombola allowed us to delve into the needs of both current Tombola players and competitor players, leading to clear insights based off gaming preferences, to inform future design decisions.

Scarlet Eadie, UX Researcher & Designer

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