A new way to buy games
Stadia is more than just a new way to play games, it opens up entirely new business models and ways of acquiring games. I led design for our entire commerce platform which encompasses all ways that Stadia made money. The bulk of this initiative was the Stadia store, an ecommerce platform where users discovered and purchased games.
Learning how people by games
The first thing we worked to do was understand how customers bought games, and what the purchase journey looks like. This was a multi-phase study consisting of both in depth qualitative and quantitative research. We conducted large scale surveys as well structured interviews. We used insights from Googles existing shopping and ads teams along with expert interviews with top publishers. These insights became the foundation of our customer journeys.
Critical User Journeys
1. As a user I want to quickly find and buy a specific game
This is our most common journey. Most users already know which game they want and they have already made the purchase decision. They want to quickly find and buy the game on the Stadia store. Search is the core feature that solves this user need.
2. As a user I want to browse for games that meet a specific criteria
Many shoppers don’t know what game they are looking for, but they do know an attribute that game needs to have. They may for example be looking for a game with local multiplayer, a specific genre or from a particular publisher. Building useful categories in addition to sort and filtering features is the best way to satisfy this need.
3. As a user I want to browse the Stadia store for something to play
If you create an engaging store, many users will regularly browse and impulse purchase games or add-ons. These shoppers are most interested in games on sale, new releases or what is popular. Having good merchandising and information architecture is the key to success here.
The store homepage
The store home page was created to be extremely flexible. When the store launched Stadia only had 30 games, but it would quickly need to grow to hold hundreds. I organized it into customizable categories that had programmable layouts. Some categories are programatic and personalized rather than manually merchandised.
Game tiles are the atomic element of the store
The basic game tile needed to be simple and scan-able, while also being immersive and beautiful. It also needs to contain a huge amount of information and different states that a product could be in.
The game detail page is the heart of the store
My goal was to create an extremely simple detail page that would hide the complexity of this page. Our studies helped us focus the page down to what users care most about.
The “button block” enables dozens of unique states with a simple call to action.
Games can be for purchase, on sale, free with subscription, free to play, purchased, shared, and several at the same time.
Content ratings support for every region
I was one of our two points of contact for the various ratings boards and I developed a design treatment that works in all regions for all ratings boards.
Most games offer multiple editions, we make it easy to compare between them.
Editions are clearly listed for each title and within each edition page we show the unique add-ons and their value.
We made it easy to discover add-ons
Add-ons are core to the modern games business and this design brought add-ons to the forefront.
Store search
The most common way to purchase games is through store search. We made a search that is quick to use and help you jump into both games you own as well as new games you want to purchase.
Google Play Payments
We integrated with Google Play payments on Android devices, which required special billing, checkout and return policies.
Transaction history
We created an easy to use transaction history page and transaction detail page. Users can easily check every purchase and subscription payment along with details on that transaction and return options.
Pre-orders are critical to game sales
A huge percentage of game purchases happen as pre-orders. We created a system to support pre-orders along with making it very clear when a game is available.
Google Payments
We created unique payments systems for web, mobile and Chromecast, including payments widgets and invoicing.
Returns and subscription management
We made returns very user friendly along with a generous return policy. In addition subscription management was made clear and straight forward with none of the typical dark patterns.
Early access is a super power of Stadia
Many great games launch as early access and Stadia makes that even better without the need for downloads or installs. Our system helps make it clear what state the game is in.
The store is always evolving and we are always looking for ways to improve
We analyze data and usage and consistently look for new ways to improve the store. This example shows ways we might improve the Stadia store in the future.