Revamping in-line sign up for metaverse gaming
SPATIAL / SUMMER '23


Context
1 Developer (also me)
2 Engineering Leads
The Problem – Capturing Sign Ups
Identifying design challenges by analyzing competitors
Growth strategies
🥾 Foot-in-the-door & sunk cost carries users to completion
🥽️ Immersive copy and visual design builds excitement
🏆 Highlight rewards and incentives to motivate action


UX Audit Time – Sticky Notes Galore!

Mapping out Spatial's end to end user flow and some colourful feedback to go with it
Prompt, Sign Up, Remind – a framework for auditing Spatial's challenges


Remind
❌
Content strategy should be specific to user history.
Prompt
❌
Sign up prompts rely on user engagement

Sign Up
❌
Sign up lacks "wow" factor
❌
Users are taken to a tutorial space instead of returning to game
->
->
Spatial's sign up prompt being triggered by low-value actions, e.g. chat, liking etc
The tutorial space that everyone gets redirected to when they try to sign up
A Spatial promotional email that could use a little TLC
Design Challenge #1
How might we make sign up prompts discoverable and compelling in-game?
Tying sign up prompts to game progress to increase the value of signing up
Trigger 3: Quest Completion
(credits to Jimmy for this sick quest animation!!)
Trigger 1: Item Collection
Trigger 2: Time in Game
This acted as a failsafe for legacy spaces without game features
Ideating on the prompt
Nudging vs Disrupting
Don’t lose your progress! Create your account to save
Sign Up
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close
✅
Discreet and unlikely to cover critical game elements
❌
Easier to ignore or immediately dismiss

✅
Highly noticable and provides room for more compelling copy/visuals
❌
Could result in frustration by interfering with gameplay
❌
Can cover up important game elements
Static vs Animated Content

Don’t lose your progress! Create your account to save
Sign Up
close
close
A banner with a static asset and copy that focuses on sunk cost

Sign up or log in to start saving your progress
Sign Up
close
close
Banner with dynamic assets and avoiding fear-oriented copy
Save your progress by creating an account or logging in
Sign Up

close
Visually bold banner with assets that may struggle against certain spaces' content
Design Challenge #2
How might we make sign up both fun & exciting?

Reducing the friction to sign up – or at least the illusion of it 👀

The red frames are those that were non-modifiable by engineering specifications
Iterating – from solid to shnazzy ✨
V1

V2

Stress testing – handling edge cases & optimizing for Spatial's games
Testing against Spatial's Games

Spatial's racing game called Racing Empire

Spatial's platformer called infinite ascent
Edge Cases

Testing against potentially darker user-generated thumbnails

Testing for accessibility against lighter user-generated thumbnails
Using code to empower better design – building a Figma Plugin!
Aggregating needs from our team






The working prototype – search, copy, and insert to your delight
Copying the description of a Spatial game
Searching for a space

Design Challenge #3
How might we remind users to come back to Spatial without introducing new game mechanisms?


Content Map
Notification Messaging
Email Design & Messaging
Assets & Imagery
Content mapping – taking an end to end approach

Prioritizing content for game features & Spatial's games
Spatial's games
Completing previous quests
Putting content in context

Metrics for the future
Prompt
Sign Up
Remind
Reflections