Steam Desktop Application: A Usability Test and Redesign
Overview
I have always had difficulty navigating Steams user interface. I wanted to prove my hypothesis that Steam could improve its usability in some areas of the desktop application.
Purpose
The purpose of this usability evaluation was to discover frequent and long standing users possible issues with steams user interface.
Role
User Experience Designer and Researcher
Tools
Figma, Qualtrics, Miro, Excel, Procreate
User Research
To understand how regular and longstanding users use Steam, an unmoderated usability evaluation was created based on key tasks you would expect to perform in Steam regularly. Participants were asked for their age, gender and current country(as Steams servers change based on IP address). All participants were asked to start each task in the Library Tab of Steam. I asked each participant to record the steps they took to complete the task and record each item they clicked on within the application.
The unmoderated usability evaluation consisted of four tasks:
Download a free game
Find the review section of the game that was just downloaded
Send a friend request to this user [redacted]
Add a Game to your wish list
Participants were then asked two questions after they performed each task:
What do you think about the way you [complete the task]
How would you change the way you [complete the task]
The evaluation began with demographic questions, how long have participants used Steam and how often they access the application. The evaluation ended with three open questions about their Steam likes and dislikes and three closed questions, with a 5 point Likert scale. The initial pilot with three users found the following task void, as they expressed that they had never done the following:
Share a game with this user [redacted]
Results
There were 29 responses to the survey
There were more Male participants than Female and a majority of the participants were 18-24. 8 participants were from the UK, 6 were from the US, and the rest of the participants were from other regions.
The mean time for users to have held an account is 9.27 years
User Flow Diagrams
Breaking down the steps taken by users highlights that different groups of people access the same information in different ways. For example, People can select a game from the rolling menu that appears when users enter a query into the search box or users can press enter or select the magnifying glass which takes users to the games store page. When user interfaces offer alternative routes to the same destination or end goal, it is interesting to examine which routes are most popular.
Task 1: Download a free game
Task 2: Find the review section of the game that was just downloaded
Task 3: Send a friend request to a specified user [created for this evaluation]
Task 4: Add a Game to your wishlist
Tasks two and three also have varying routes through the application, the diversity of finding different information shows that there is a complex information architecture, but from this alone we can not determine whether or not users have an issue with the varying options presented to them.
Content Analysis
Question 1
What do you think about the way [you complete the task]
Question 2
How would you change the way [you complete the task]
The first question was coded by; positive, negative and neutral comment split. The second question was coded by the number of suggestions made by each participant. The second question was coded by the number of suggestions in an individual comment. Task 3 has the most negative and neutral comments and also the greatest number of suggestions per participant. Task 2 has the second greatest negative and neutral comments with a joint number of suggestions as task 1.
Task 3 had the most neutral and negative comments and also the most suggestions for changes from users. Task 3 also has three different routes. Some users said it would be easier to add the user as a friend if they had been provided with an invite link would have been easier than searching for a username, while others said being able to generate the invite link or code would make adding friends easier. As this functionality is already in place, some users do not know that this is something they can do. As summarised by participant one: “ The friend code system is new and wasn’t clearly explained”.
When asking participants what they liked most about Steam, ease of use, preference over other platforms, game accessibility and friends/ social aspects of Steam are the most frequently mentioned. Looking at this in conjunction with the comments made by participants about task 3 would indicate that users enjoy the ability to communicate with friends and socialise using the platform, but unfortunately, users believe there are ways this specific functionality or task can be made easier or improved upon. Because of this finding, the redesign will focus on improving the usability of adding friends.
Redesign Focus
Send Friend request redesign
An affinity map was created based on user comments from task three. The comments were grouped into five sections, search functionality, adding friends from other users’ friends lists or social media, the friends and chat window, users not knowing about the link/code generating feature and general UI or UX problems or suggestions.
Users suggested that when searching for friends, there should be filtering options, as users of Steam can have the same name as another user, including filtering options or unique codes would aid users in connecting with the correct person. Being able to add friends from other people’s friends lists or being able to link to other social media platforms would also enable users to add friends with ease.
When selecting the friends and chat window a new window appears, which some users are not fond of. Not being able to add people directly from this window was also confusing. Users not knowing that you can generate a link or share friend codes with other users indicates users are not finding this page and are not able to benefit from this functionality despite suggesting it as an improvement. Users also said there were too many steps and too many options to take to find friends.
The evaluation highlights that users enjoy the social aspects of Steam but that there are improvements to be made. The users also being frequent and long-standing users indicates that even users who have been using the platform for years still encounter obstacles and have suggestions for key user journeys within the application.
Wireframes of current system and flow
The Flow diagram can be seen in wireframes. I have broken down each step into its main components. I want to combine the ‘friends and chat’ page and the ‘friends’ page + combine the ‘add a friend’ page and the ‘search for friends’ page. Along with this, users will also be able to apply filters to the search so that they can have the confidence that they are adding the correct people.
Wireframe Of New Flow
New user journey
The new flow allows users to always end up on the same ‘add friend page’ inside of the username tab. regardless of where they select ‘add friend’ throughout the steam application. Here they can enter their friends: code, link or username/nickname. They can also copy their own link or friend code to share with others.
Focus Group
Before creating the final prototype of the redesign of steam, A focus group was conducted with 3 participants that were invovled in the initial usability evaluation, they consented to being contacted for further research in regards to this project. They found the new flow easier to navigate and also provided feedback on the design. They felt that it was important to also add a recently played with tab so that users can add people from multiplayer games they have recently played through steam.
Prototype link can be found here.
Final Prototype
This final design was tested with the same five users from the previous focus group. They agreed that move the friends and chat to the profile page made the most sense. Removing unnecessary steps that users take to communicate with friends. Adding new friends is now easier, having filters enables users to have confidence in in who they are adding to their friends lists. They can now filter by country, nickname and enable ‘recently played with’ to find users they have played with in multiplayer and online games. None of the users reported having any accessibility needs and thus it is difficult to know whether or not this type of interface is accessible to a wider range of users. The full prototype can be accessed here.