lucky buddha
Lucky Buddha is a Vietnamese card game app, with the intention of cultivating a global community of card game enthusiasts.
the background
Tiến Lên (Thirteen) is an extremely fun and fast-paced Vietnamese card game, which could be played between 2, 3, and 4 players. Traditionally played during Lunar New Year, the game is now extremely popular amongst many card game apps, and has garnered a big community of international players.
roles
UX design / Wireframes
the PROBLEM
Many card game apps on the market required users to join pre-existing games that are created and managed by the app. Our client's goal was develop an app that allowed users to host their own games and to invite their friends to join their clubs.
the products
As the sole UX designer for this project, I was in charge of creating 3 different user profiles:
The Player
The Manager
The Club Owner
On top of designing the app, I was also in charge of designing an Administrative web portal, which functioned as a game management platform.
the research
“We just want to have fun!”
To understand the rules and the pacing of the game, we played the game ourselves and watched others play the game in person. We also researched other game apps to observe how users interact with each other, and how long they stay engaged in one game.
In doing so, we were able to identify why people play card games: To have fun with others. It was the human interaction - the cheering, the talking, the camaraderie - that made people stick around. We also noticed that there was usually an audience of people watching the game in person. The bigger the audience, the more energetic the game became. Therefore, it was important that we generated the same atmosphere of fun competition in our app.
the design
Bringing the real life experience into the digital space
In order to cultivate an environment that promoted fun and engagement, we incorporated the chat function so that users could chat with fellow players. Users could also join the chat as an observer, similar to how the game operated in real life.
We also enabled users to view and share their winning hands with other players in their clubs. By doing so, we further encouraged users to build a community with others on the app.
The ”game changer"
The distinction between our game and other games available on the market was the ability for users to create their own games and to invite other users to join their games.
Most of the games on the market were pre-generated, and typically required 4 players. Players did not have an option to decide how many players they could played with. Because the card game could be played between 2,3, and 4 players, we wanted to include all versions in our product. By allowing players to select different versions of the game, we tackled an area that had not been explored in the current market.
Replay to improve!
The Admin portal served as a management tool for all user data and activities. Admin could manage all game settings, oversee game tokens/products, create reports, oversee clubs created by users, and access all user information.
To help admins better monitor user activities, we also included the “Replay" feature, which allowed them to manage all games and players activities. This feature helps track unsafe behaviors and allow admins to continuously improve the gaming experience for users.
the results
