The Problem
SongPop is a free-to-play mobile music trivia game with a massive music library. I noticed during user tests that new players were often only playing one playlist over and over. They lamented that there wasn’t more music, but we had thousands of playlists available, and this is the reason for SongPop’s enduring success.
Turns out the layout was gating the music library content way too aggressively and people thought they had to pay to play more than one playlist, which was not true.
Selecting a playlist was a key part of the core game loop and new players were not figuring it out.
The Solution
We were hemorrhaging new users. I proposed the parameters of an A/B test and created the designs. In less than a week, the test was up and running with new variations. I added a clear title to the screen and an extra-bright card element above the fold that housed a playlist recommendation. Some additional direct labelling helped players understand what all the cards and boxes mean.
Results
The new layout was a success, it won the A/B test. We found a significant increase in the number of rewarded. ads that players elected to watch. Additional user testing revealed that new players figured out the mechanics of picking out alternative playlists sooner, and played longer sessions overall.