Blossom Blast UX Case Study
Heuristic Analysis of The Onboarding & Ads for Lives Redesign
Blossom Blast is a mobile match 3 type of game by King.
1. Heuristic Analysis of the Onboarding
To conduct an heuristic analysis of the game’s onboarding, I first tested the game myself as a first-time player, observing and noting down my thoughts, frustrations and feelings throughout the process. I then assessed the game’s onboarding using relevant principles from Jacob Nielsen’s 10 usability heuristics.
What is Done Right
The game’s onboarding does a good job explaining how to play the game:
- It visually and clearly shows what to do in a nice animated way.
- It is not too long.
- It generally uses easy to understand words and language.
- The nature of the onboarding steps and language are consistent.
- There seem to be no error-prone conditions to be encountered.
- Players don’t need to remember many things because it’s all clear and simple.
What Can Be Improved & How?
- Selection of messages and steps
Some messages and steps are redundant.
How to improve:
Unless there’s some valid reasoning behind having 2 of the same steps, only keep 1 of each.
- Clarification of scoring and system status visibility
Players aren’t always aware of what, why, and how certain things are happening. For example, as a new player, I was left wondering and trying to figure out how the blossoms worked, and what number or sizes of flowers they needed in order to bloom. I was also wondering what radius does the bloom affect, what the bar at the top meant, and how it worked. I also didn’t know what the sizes of the flowers were, for example, I didn’t know if a flower needed just 1 more combination to bloom or needed more than 1 combo.
How to improve:
– Include 1-2 onboarding steps or messages to mention or explain to players what the top bar is and how the blooms work. Ex. A bloom affects all flowers around it, and the tiles of the affected flowers will glow.
Ex. Once the top bar meter fills, you get a superbloom.
Ex. Each flower corresponds to a number based on its size.
– Add a “garden guide” section accessible from the settings menu, that shows the growth levels (pics) of each type of flower so players can learn and recognize what level a certain flower is at.
- Help and documentation
There’s currently no quick help/restart tutorial/how to play option.
How to improve:
– Add a “restart tutorial” button or a “how to play” button in the settings menu that allows players to either restart the tutorial or access a how to play section.
– Also add a “garden guide” button and section as mentioned previously.
- Flexibility and efficiency of use
– It might be unclear for players how to undo a certain move.
– There’s no option to restart the tutorial or to skip tutorial.
– On Android, there’s no option to exit game if the tutorial is running.
How to improve:
– Mention how to undo a move in the onboarding
– Add a “skip tutorial” button/option when onboarding messages are displayed, and add a “restart tutorial” button in the settings.
– Enable someone to exit the game if they press the back button on Android. Use an exit confirmation dialogue before exiting.
2. Ads for Lives Design
Ads for Lives Flow
