We make a stopgame mobile application. Part 1

If you read this text thanks to the clickbeat name, then I need to explain myself. I do not work for SG, I do not cooperate with the site team or with other game sites (the second, believe me, is also important). And to be honest, according to the results of a long trip from 4 parts, you will not see the finished StopGame application that can be downloaded and used. However, we will look at the work of the game site a little on the other side, delve into the study of user experience and fantasize on the topic of how you want the SG mobile application to look like. This post (like all subsequent ones) was not agreed with the editors, but I believe in the usefulness of the process that I conceived, and with pleasure I will transfer the site all the results of the studies that I will conduct.

Who am I at all like

To begin with, I will appear. My name is Yura, and I knew exactly 5 minutes on SG, when during the second stream on StopGate I registered on the site, left the only comment and won the competition for the best slogan for the game. But with the site I am familiar after all the longer. It so happened that from the very beginning of the pandemic I am a big fan of everything that the authors and the community produce.

In general, I am a designer from sunny Petersburg and I am mainly engaged in the design of broadcasts on the Internet. Brodkast, mowing design and video editing-this is what I do at the main place of work. If you are a programmer or tester, visit online conferences like Joker, Heisenbug or Holyjs, then everything that you see as part of the broadcasts is my hands. And ux/ui, research of user experience and an application for mobile phones – rather a hobby, which, thanks to the prize for the best slogan for Stopgate, has again become relevant.

Why does Stopgame have no application

The idea that SG is not enough for my application I came by chance. At some point, I realized that this is the only site that I visit daily, but only through a browser on a laptop. Honestly, I have never even opened a mobile version before. And I was interested in why other news sites are presented in the App Store and Google Play, and Stopgame is not.

The first and most obvious answer is expensive. In truth, it is very expensive. Millions of rubles are needed to develop and support the application. And here you should not believe resources, such as FL.ru or Avito, where you can find a third -year student who will do everything for 10,000 and a basket from KFC.

I’ll try to describe all the hemorrhoids in several sentences. We have two current platforms: iOS and Android. Accordingly, there are two developers’ teams if you write native (made for a specific platform) application. SG has already established architecture (probably ancient and difficult) with databases, which for many years, in which in addition to the site it will be necessary to somehow integrate and applications. But just start the applications and forget – it will not work, because it will constantly have to be fixed. And if you need to fix something, then you need a support service that will collect bugs from users. In short, two suitcases (Battlefield and Valorant), obviously, will not be enough, and the fourth mafia will not be released soon.

Probably, you can already end this blog, but there is one nuance.

Zumers and where they live

On the Internet you can read a million articles, which generation z is active, determined and, as they say abroad, Open-Minded. It seems that there is nothing to argue about here. It is much more interesting that young people who are now plus minus are 20 years old, do not represent their lives not just without the Internet, but even without mobile Internet. Plus, the young generation manifests itself as a very demanding client who can easily abandon the service after a small bug in the first 5 minutes of use. That is why Fintech, and specifically banks, gnaw at each other’s throats for high -quality programmers and designers and invest in their own laboratories to study people’s behavior. The logic is simple: if you do not make these investments now, then the younger generation, which is already using the services of banks, can irrevocably lose among competitors.

It is still difficult to understand, where is Stopgame. But answer the question: and where it will be more convenient to read news and articles to the user, who sits with a mobile phone on Instagram* and Tiktoka, most of the free time? This is the same user who processes photos not in Photoshop on the computer, but in the application on the phone. This is the same user who picks up on a virtual keyboard faster than on a regular.

In most countries, the audience of mobile applications grows mainly due to generation Z. Experts calculated how much MAU (monthly active audience) increased in the 25 most popular Android applications in the third quarter. For example, in Indonesia, the audience younger than 25 increased by 40%, while the audience 25+ – by 35%. In Brazil, the difference between two groups is 3.2 p. p., In Mexico – 4.9 p. p., In France – 5 p. p., In the USA – 5.3 p. p.

Average monthly increase in mobile users. Red columns – Zumers, black – users 25+.

That is why it is increasingly difficult to find services that are presented exclusively in the web. The presence of their own mobile application allows companies to expand the audience and offer a more diverse ways of integration for advertisers.

The seemingly fair remark that Stopgame is a https://kingdomcasinouk.net/mobile-app/ game site, and those who play games mainly do it on computers, is divided about the growth graphs of mobile gamers from the same article. But still people who do not have their own PC, but they play games on the prefixes. For example, I.

Stopgame is not a site

Something similar can be said about Stopgame. The main thing in SG is not a shell, but a community. A narrower part of it creates something, and a wider part-absorbs and enriches. And if you leave business for brackets, it doesn’t matter at all on which site it will happen. Move the entire editorial office to a game type.Mail.RF, nothing will change in terms of the quality of materials. And the audience will easily re -sign to new accounts in social networks. But specifically now SG exists on several sites that perform different functions.

In the context of the conversation about the mobile application, the right part of the diagram is very interesting. We can definitely say that the application will not replace YouTube and Twitch as a platform for delivery to users video and streams. Just nothing more convenient to come up with. Well, the huge numbers of subscribers in the container cannot be thrown away. Perhaps the application can become convenient tools for listening to podcasts, such as this is implemented by a jellyfish. But the jellyfish makes 5 podcasts per week, and Yan Gribovich – 0.15 podcasts per week (no complaints, waiting for the next issue). Therefore, the only use of the hypothetical application is the STOPGAME website mirror.ru. As they say, the same eggs, only the application.

In this case, let’s take out a virtual scalpel and dissect the site a little to figure out how convenient it is to use from the computer and phone.

Cards, buttons, two screens

The most popular (and latest) method of studying the service or site is Customer Journey Map (or Code of User Way). Then we will just call CJM. This tool allows us to evaluate how comfortable the user is on his way from the first date with the service to reaching any result from interaction with him. Along the way, at different stages, identifying strengths and pains. All this allows you to find insights that you can use for the development of the service: improve usability or solve business. CJM is an excellent tool for analyzing services, where the user comes with a specific purpose, for example, buy a ticket for aircraft systems. In this case, we can trace his entire path from the randomly seen integration on YouTube, to landing on the plane.

With Stopgame, everything is a little more complicated, because everyone’s goals on the site are different. Someone comes in to sobbing under the news of Last of US 2, someone is trying to watch the schedule of streams (Rip 404), and someone to read the text review of the new game. Therefore, I tried to consider the site from different sides, without delving into rare user scenarios, so as not.

The screen is rather not to make something out on it, but for a general idea, what the study looks like. If you notice, on the right there is a column that is not filled. This is the stage of posting publication in blogs, which I will fill in when you are clicking to “publish” under this post in the blog editor.

If you give a small resume, then it is convenient to use the site both on the dextop and on the mobile phone. At first I even planned to disassemble separately browser and mobile versions, but they work exactly the same with all features and bugs. In such an analysis, it is important to note that the site adapts to the width of the screen with some nuances that are described in the study. I will not post a complete study here, and in words I will describe some problems that surprised me a little.

Firstly, this is a search. There is a lot of work ahead, I will not say anything new. High -quality sorting – Mast Hev.

Secondly, the game card. Here, the screen below will say everything for me.

Green and red cards – positive observations and pains, respectively. Blue – development tips

I will not dwell on this study for a long time. I have two conclusions on it:

Gambling in the top

And here I did not lie, because the game of gambling in the TOP-1 among applications from Russian game sites. But not everything is so simple, because besides them there are no applications. In addition, the game of gambling was abandoned, unable to withstand 2 months of support. Right now there in the top news of the start of the pandemia and a proud inscription “0.1 DEV “, denoting the version of the application in the description.

Gambling Appendix and everything connected with it

Again, this situation makes you think about whether the application for the game site is needed. At least development should be approached with a more thorough analysis than colleagues from another site did it.

There are positive examples, but already abroad. For example, the IGN large portal has an application that works great and provides the same expirpeens as the decstrous site.

What will happen next?

First, I want to say thank you for being read until this point. I deliberately do not conclude about the need or unnecessary of an individual application, because I am not inside the company. And if it were, then this is the inner kitchen. I just want me to look at the site a little different and thought together: “What if …”

The next part will be less than theories and thoughts, and we will begin to figure out how the StopGame app will work. It will be interesting, because any application, among other things, also opens up many new opportunities that are not on the site. For example, in mobile phones, user-intercuts work differently, there is a camera and a microphone that can somehow be used in interaction with the application.

In the meantime, I will ask you to answer 5 simple closed questions from the questionnaire. https: // ru.SurveyMonkey.COM/R/FKNZFKW

I am very interested in what share of readers of this post would have used a mobile application. Filling the questionnaire will take no more than a minute, and the site does not collect your personal data. Thank you in advance for responsiveness.

And of course it is interesting to see what you think about everything that was written above, so I’m waiting for your comments.

Funny May holidays!

* The activities of the parent organization META are recognized as extremist and prohibited in the Russian Federation