From zero to 15000 players
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From zero to 15000 players -
Redesigning a casual gaming platform to make play safer, faster, and more fun.
Project at a glance
Client/Product: Vedia games
My role: End-to-end product designer (Research, UX,UI, Testing)
Team: Myself (design + 1 developer
Duration: 8 weeks (concept → launch)
Tools: Figma, Figjam, Google Forms
A story intro
A few months ago, the owner of the Vedia Games company approached me with a problem in his mind.
In the past, they developed a platform of the same name, with at least a hundred games and a few categories from which you could choose and play games.
It looked like this:
As you can see, it is a very simple-looking site. When you open the page, you can immediately understand what it offers — lots of free games, which you can search by categories and a search feature.
However, something about it didn’t work.
Case study in Q&A mode
The business problem
Q: How did this project begin?
Martina: The owner of Vedia Games reached out with a concern: traffic and retention were both low. They had over 1000 games on the platform, but players weren’t sticking around. Since monetization relied on ads, both numbers were critical for survival.
Interviewer: So the stakes were high — without growth, no revenue.
Martina: Exactly. It wasn’t enough to attract visitors; we needed them to stay and come back.
The Audience
Q: How did you research the audience?
Martina: I started broad, looking at online gamers in general, but quickly narrowed down to casual gamers — the true core audience.
To understand them better, I:
Reviewed academic studies on casual gaming behavior.
Reached out to Reddit and Facebook communities.
Collected reviews and forum posts about similar platforms.
Created a survey to capture qualitative insights: how gaming fits into their daily routines, their emotions while playing, pain points, and demographics.
Interviewer: So you combined existing research with your own direct outreach.
Martina: Exactly — I wanted both scale and lived experience.
Q: And what did you discover about casual gamers?
Martina: Several things stood out:
They play in short bursts. Casual gaming is like TV or reading: play a bit, stop, and return later.
They grew fast during COVID-19. The number of casual gamers jumped by 55% when people were stuck at home.
Strong female presence. Studies show women make up 53% of casual gamers — a majority.
They weave games into daily life. One woman said: “I leave for work at 7, get home, help the kids, do chores — and then we play to relax.” Another admitted she played as soon as her husband left for work and her kids for school.
They want stress relief and small wins. Many described games as “meditation” or “a little time out.” One player said: “Playing makes me feel less depressed … it’s my way to escape.”
They seek social rewards, competition and challenge. Some play to stay close to distant friends, or for competition: “I love to beat my friends.”
Interviewer: So casual gaming isn’t mindless — it’s emotional, even social.
Martina: Exactly. Players look for relaxation, connection, or a quick sense of achievement. That made clarity and trust in the platform absolutely critical.
Competitor research
Q: What did you learn from competitors?
Martina: I analyzed platforms like Poki, CrazyGames, and Coolmath. The numbers were huge:
Poki → 160M visits in 3 months.
CrazyGames → 71M.
Coolmath → 50M.
And 30–40% of their traffic came from organic search.
Interviewer: So SEO was a massive growth driver.
Martina: Yes — and their sites were structured to maximize discoverability.
→ Takeaway: To compete, we needed both clear UX and stronger SEO.
Constraints
Q: What limits did you face?
Martina: The constraints shaped everything:
Games weren’t ours. They came from distributors — we couldn’t fix quality, remove ads, or add instructions.
Ads had to stay. Even though players hated them, ads were the only revenue model.
No gameplay data. We couldn’t track scores, so features like leaderboards or badges were off the table.
Interviewer: That’s brutal — the very product was outside your control.
Martina: Exactly. The only thing I could truly shape was the experience around the games — discovery, clarity, trust, and navigation.
→ Takeaway: The constraints forced ruthless focus on UX touchpoints we could control.
Ideation & Prioritization
Q: How did you brainstorm solutions?
Martina: We started with How Might We questions:
How might we help users find games quickly?
How might we improve ads without breaking the business model?
How might we ease guilt about playing?
How might we improve SEO?
Then we did a Braindump workshop and mapped ideas on an Effort/Impact matrix.
Q: And what rose to the top?
Martina:
Organize content. Weekly updated sections: “5-minute games,” “Holiday picks,” “Featured game.”
Help users choose. Better categories, tags, search improvements, one-line descriptions, and a “Don’t know what to play?” feature.
Ease guilt. Add copy highlighting the benefits of gaming (stress relief, relaxation).
Ads. Curate games with fewer, less intrusive ads.
SEO. Add descriptive fields to improve search ranking.
→ Takeaway: To compete, we needed both clear UX and stronger SEO.
Final results
You can check out the new redesigned platform on: vediagames.com
Q: What happened after launch?
Martina: After implementing the redesign, we started to see clear improvements across three areas:
Traffic growth. The site began attracting more visitors organically, thanks to a clearer structure and improved SEO. Over the following months, traffic grew steadily and reached around 15,000 monthly players.
Stronger engagement. Instead of leaving after one or two clicks, players explored multiple categories, used tags, and played for longer sessions.
Improved retention. Weekly updates and curated sections gave players a reason to come back, and many did.
→ Takeaway: The redesign drove gradual but sustained growth in traffic, engagement, and retention — validating the platform’s business model.
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