Athena Luna | JigsawPlanet Re-Design

JigsawPlanet Re-Design

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Tailoring gaming experiences for a neglected audience

JigsawPlanet is a website dedicated to virtual puzzle games. Many of the site's avid users skew toward being Gen Xers and Baby Boomers. Despite this knowledge, the site’s interface isn’t well-catered to these demographics.

I was excited to improve the site’s content hierarchy, re-design existing pages, and create new pages that would aid users in searching for puzzles. To complete this, I used social data mining to learn about who I was designing for and performed usability testing with users who matched the intended audience.

I was excited to improve the site’s content hierarchy, re-design existing pages, and create new pages that would aid users in searching for puzzles.

To complete this, I used social data mining to learn about who I was designing for and performed usability testing with users who matched the intended audience.

User Research

Social Data Mining

I dug deep into JigsawPlanet’s Facebook page to learn more. I viewed JigsawPlanet’s most recent posts and the people who interacted with them via comments and likes.

User Persona

Through social data mining, I found was that most users were women ranging from 50 to 65 years old. Looking through their photos, posts, and profile details, I noticed many were homemakers, mothers, and grandmothers.

Usability Testing

Testing Material

I created a test script and test plan and individually tested users who matched my persona. The testing prompts were mostly focused on content layout and accessibility concerns.

Testing Scenarios

First Impressions:

Unwinding for the night, you search “free online jigsaw puzzles.” JigsawPlanet is the first site to pop up! You open the homepage.

Task: Please describe your first impression of the home page.

Task: In your personal opinion, is the information on the homepage important and relevant?

Task: How do you feel about the placement of the banner ad?

Color Theme:

Imagine that you have a preference for dark mode but the site is showing in light mode.

Task: From the homepage, please find the link to change the site’s color theme.

Task: How was your experience with finding the Color Theme link?

Task: What is your impression of the site's color palette?

Search Functions:

Imagine you have a preferred puzzle piece. You start clicking around on the site to find a puzzle.

Task: With your preferred puzzle piece in mind, please find a puzzle with that piece type.

Task: How was your experience with searching for that specific puzzle piece?

Information Architecture

Sketching & Revisions

After the usability testing phase, I noted which parts of the website were the hardest for users to navigate and revised the pre-existing site navigation.

Site Navigation

User-Centered Design

Sketching & Revisions

The main content displayed on the website are the cards showing the puzzle’s information. I did a few quick thumbnail sketches to iterate upon the existing puzzle card. Based on user feedback, I included tool tips to improve icon clarity.