Make it make sense | 2025
Case Study
UX//UI
Branding

A gamified approach to boosting app engagement

We studied the effectiveness of the Footy Addicts app and theorised how they could use a gamified system to encourage user engagement.

Project Overview

Footy Addicts is a platform that allows football enthusiasts to find, join, and organise casual football matches in local areas.

The Footy Addicts app connects players with local games well, but we felt that the overall app experience was missing something. Aside from its core functionality, we couldn't find many significant retaining factors that brought users back to the platform outside the game/match day organisation.

This revealed an opportunity to conceptually transform Footy Addicts from a transactional tool into an engaging, community-driven space—one that not only made match discovery and organisation effortless, but also kept players coming back for the experience beyond the game itself.

Timeframe
2 Weeks
Approach
UX Design (OOUX), UI Design, Branding, Strategy
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
The challenge
Building a modern experience

We began our conceptual redesign by analysing the key issues we needed to address.

With platforms and brands attempting to adapt to changes in user habits and expectations, modernity became an important aspect of our focus.

We also wanted to create a concept that refreshes the app without digressing from what initially attracted users to the platform. Retaining core values whilst initiating an overhaul became our prerogative.

The Process

Our design process follows a series of design stages that help to refine the final execution.

Isolate
Discover the initial problem
Validate
Validate gathered insights
Ideate
Brainstorm solutions
Build
Implement the solution
Test
Test the impact
Isolate
A complete audit to define the focus

We began by auditing the current Footy Addicts platform and brand to understand where the improvements could be made.

We found the central navigation clear enough for users to reach the goal of finding and booking matches, but with the overall aesthetic seeming to lack a striking factor, some of the features that could serve as delights, seemed neglected.

Platform Audit
To get an initial understanding of how the platform looks and feels, we conducted a UI Audit, compiling the main screens of the app to gauge where the improvements could be made.
Brand Audit 1: Logos
To understand the current band, we isolated the logo options that Footy Addicts are using across their platforms.
Brand Audit 2: Material
We could also see examples of how the elements of the branding system are used across varying formats.
Validate
Removing bias from our initial approach

After conducting our audit we set out to gather user insights on the platform, to remove any judgement bias that might’ve influenced our analysis.

We gathered a small sample of app users and posed 3 questions that could help us understand how they used and engaged with the app.

Q
Describe the process of finding, booking and sharing games on the Footy Addicts App.
Q
How often do you use the Footy Addicts app when you’re not searching for or booking games?
Q
What initially drove you to download the Footy Addicts app and use it to attend games?

User Comments

Based on the three questions posed, we used user interviews to gather feedback.

Booking Games
“I can find games but it’s strange I can’t filter by things like price”
App Usage
“If I’m not booking a game there’s not much to do on the app”
Initial Drive
“I like competitive football, even more so when it’s local to me”
Initial Drive
“I was looking for a way to stay active and meet new people through football.”
App Usage
“I mainly use the app to find and book games. I don’t really bother with the other features.”
Booking Games
“The filtering options should be more reliable. Sometimes I get games that don’t match what I’ve selected.”
App Usage
“It’s a good app, but it doesn’t really keep my interest.”
Booking Games
"The booking process is quick, but I often find irrelevant matches before finding the right one."
Initial Drive
“I downloaded the app because I missed playing regularly with the same people.”
Booking Games
“I can find games but it’s strange I can’t filter by things like price”
App Usage
“If I’m not booking a game there’s not much to do on the app”
Initial Drive
“I like competitive football, even more so when it’s local to me”
Initial Drive
“I was looking for a way to stay active and meet new people through football.”
App Usage
“I mainly use the app to find and book games. I don’t really bother with the other features.”
Booking Games
“The filtering options should be more reliable. Sometimes I get games that don’t match what I’ve selected.”
App Usage
“It’s a good app, but it doesn’t really keep my interest.”
Booking Games
"The booking process is quick, but I often find irrelevant matches before finding the right one."
Initial Drive
“I downloaded the app because I missed playing regularly with the same people.”
Booking Games
“I can find games but it’s strange I can’t filter by things like price”
App Usage
“If I’m not booking a game there’s not much to do on the app”
Initial Drive
“I like competitive football, even more so when it’s local to me”
Initial Drive
“I was looking for a way to stay active and meet new people through football.”
Booking Games
“I can find games but it’s strange I can’t filter by things like price”
App Usage
“If I’m not booking a game there’s not much to do on the app”
Initial Drive
“I like competitive football, even more so when it’s local to me”
Initial Drive
“I was looking for a way to stay active and meet new people through football.”
App Usage
“I mainly use the app to find and book games. I don’t really bother with the other features.”
Booking Games
“The filtering options should be more reliable. Sometimes I get games that don’t match what I’ve selected.”
App Usage
“It’s a good app, but it doesn’t really keep my interest.”
Booking Games
"The booking process is quick, but I often find irrelevant matches before finding the right one."
Initial Drive
“I downloaded the app because I missed playing regularly with the same people.”
App Usage
“I mainly use the app to find and book games. I don’t really bother with the other features.”
Booking Games
“The filtering options should be more reliable. Sometimes I get games that don’t match what I’ve selected.”
App Usage
“It’s a good app, but it doesn’t really keep my interest.”
Booking Games
"The booking process is quick, but I often find irrelevant matches before finding the right one."
Initial Drive
“I downloaded the app because I missed playing regularly with the same people.”

What we are trying to establish

With these questions, we tried to establish behavioural motives among the users. We wanted to know how and why they use the app, whilst also noting potential opportunities for improvements. The answers we found were split into three categories for us to address:

Finding and booking games:

  • Users found the general process straightforward
  • Users found the filtering system to be inconsistent
  • Users focused on one page (games) and generally neglected the rest of the app

App usage outside of booking games:

  • Users wouldn’t feel the need to use the app if they weren’t booking a game
  • Users rarely engaged with additional app features like player ratings, messages or feedback
  • Users found the general app good, but mundane

Initial drive to download the app:

  • Users are motivated by the community nature of football
  • Users wanted to keep fit and track their performance
  • Users are generally engaged in the wider football community

User Personas

Based off the insights gathered, we developed personas to represent the apps primary user groups. These personas would also help guide our design strategy going forward.

Concluded Findings

With these set of personas we were able to extract information to create clear objectives that would guide the rest of our process.

We found the main pain points revolved around the inefficiency of game searching and filtering, issues with general app engagement, and the lack of additional features that would drive consistent app usage.

With these in mind, our objectives aimed to address these issues and turn weaknesses into strengths.

Project Objectives
Improve the search and filtering options
Allow users to locate games and browse venues more efficiently.
Improve the level of in-app engagement
Give users more of a reason to revisit the app.
Leverage community values of friendly games
Create in-app experiences that replicate the feeling of competing in matches.
Ideate
Creating a gamified experience

Gamification is an approach used to increase user retention, engagement and motivate users to take specific actions. This process involves utilising game mechanics like points, badges and leaderboards to encourage user activity towards specific goals.

We wanted to explore how a gamification strategy could be used to improve the Footy Addicts platform, but first we needed to understand the mechanics of user behaviour.

Player Archetypes

We first defined the types of players that could align with our objectives and, based on traditional player type strategy, described the variety of motivations that could influence their behaviour. This information was represented as player archetypes, to which we would create the game mechanics around.

Achievers
Motivated by consistently earning recognition and rewards
Player Archetype
Explorers
Motivated by discovering new ventures and expanding their reach
Player Archetype
Creators
Motivated by finding, curating and contributing content
Player Archetype
Socialisers
Motivated by community interaction and relationships
Player Archetype
Killers
Motivated by competition and dominating leaderboards
Player Archetype

Game mechanics

To drive meaningful user engagement, we designed a gamified framework based on dynamic motivators. In reference to our player archetypes, we identified four core behavioural attributes—Performance, Attendance, Support, and Creativity—as the foundational pillars of our game mechanics system.

Performance
Rewards users for in-game performance when attending matches
Attendance
Rewards users for their availability and consistency of attending matches
Support
Rewards users for engaging with the wider FA community
Creativity
Rewards users for customisation and curating content
A personalised experience
We mapped each user action to one or more of these attributes. By integrating mechanics such as progress tracking, achievement badges, and real-time feedback loops, we aimed to reinforce desired behaviours through a reward system that promotes habit formation and ongoing participation.
A system to reward player actions
Importantly, each mechanic was carefully selected to complement the user journey without obstructing the platform's core functionality. Users, by interacting with the app's core functions, can gain experience (XP) to progress through the game, creating a desire to consistently engage with the platform.
Unlockable Achievements
Achievements mark key milestones, providing players with a track record of their in-game accomplishments, increasing player motivation. We introduced these achievements to notify player progress towards specific performance attributes.

Re-working the platform

After agreeing on a proposed gamification strategy, we shifted our focus to enhancing the visual identity of the platform. The new gamification changes would be ineffective without a strong visual system to support the level of engagement that gamification can achieve.

This step required us to evaluate the platform's user interface and brand aesthetics in order to create design components that users expect from a modern, dynamic platform.

Using the initial audits as a reference, we aimed to modernise the Footy Addicts branding to align with the current trends of the football industry.

Build
A refreshed identity

Before we were able to rework the UI, we needed to create a visual direction for the brand that would guide the design of the platform.

Trends have seen brands focus on more dynamic and flexible design systems to meet the need to communicate and build audiences across multiple platforms. Knowing this, drove us to shift away from flat, traditional assets and towards a renewed system consisting of refreshingly modern elements.

Logo design primary
We re-designed the Footy Addicts primary logo mark, to feature as a dynamic badge that can also pair as a multi-use icon.
Logo design secondary
In the secondary option we introduced “blurple”, a bold contrasting background that retains the same high visibility as the primary.
Transforming the brand
To push the brand concepts further, we applied the re-design across familiar Footy Addicts materials and merchandise, to test how flexible and adaptable the visual system could be.

An OOUX approach

In order to re-design the platform, we used an OOUX (object-oriented UX) approach to break down the system and its elements into objects. In discovering the main objects, we explored how they related to one another, what actions could be taken on them, and the attributes held within each.

Visualising the objects
We created an object map that illustrated the structure of each object, detailing the various types of content it contained. This provided a better understanding of the objects, and ensured they could be accurately translated into design components.
Visualising the system
Defining a navigation flow for the objects, details how users moved between the screens and the particular elements that linked them together. Similar to a site map, this provides a holistic view of the current system.
Mid-fidelity wireframes
Upon understanding the relationships between the flow of objects across pages, we then set out to map the individual pages. We achieved this through wireframes that highlighted the main pages and the key actions users could perform on them, this helped us to experiment with and display our proposed UI improvements.

A clear design direction

In breaking down the app into its fundamental building blocks, we ensured that our redesign was grounded in a deep understanding of how users interact with key elements. Translating this understanding into wireframes allowed us to design high-fidelity components and screens, creating an intuitive and scalable design system.

Below we've highlighted the key functions and features of our redesign to showcase how the proposed gamification strategy and design system would look as a real-life product.

Venue feed / Details
The venue feed was re-designed with an emphasis on adding more intuitive search filters to improve results.
Game feed / Details
Much like the venue screens, the game feed/details page were also updated with an improved filtering system, and an aesthetic upgrade.
Player Gauges
The game mechanics we established in earlier stages of our research enabled us to create player attribute gauges. These gauges serve as a summary of each player's experience using the app, progressing when desired actions are performed and milestones are achieved.
Trophy Room
Trophies are rewarded are when milestones are achieved. The trophy room is a section on the user profile where user rewards and trophies are stored and showcased.
Profile Breakdown
User profiles display a summary of stats, and rewards achieved from playing matches and engaging with the app.
Engaging Games
A refreshed look and feel across the game screens provide better information into the games that can be joined, and insights into the type of players they will play with.
Improved feedback loop
To improve the post-game engagement, we reimagined the review process, allowing for better feedback to be collected at a higher frequency.
An improved UI journey
The overall redesign featured a variety of exciting additions that would transform the way the Footy Addicts platform works, but it was important to remember that at this stage, our ideas were entirely conceptual. We’d have to test these concepts with an active audience made up of users to gauge if they’d be effective enough to warrant development.
Test
Testing the final product

In the final stage of the project we’d usually find ourselves conducting some usability tests to gauge the effectiveness of the re-design. However with this project being self-initiated and conceptual, we could not expend the additional time or resource to plan and conduct the next steps.

Conclusion

In conclusion, what we have developed with this project is the groundwork that could lead to a successful redesign. However, the perceived success relies on contributing factors that are largely be out of our control at this stage.

Despite saying this, there is enough insight and development for this project to be picked up and improved upon if the opportunity was to arise.