Advergames | Alice Duncalf

Gamifying ads to create user engagement

5 months

UX-Design

Role

Duration

Tools

Team

Miro
Figma
Visual Design Studio

Alice Duncalf
Matilda Nimvik

This project was part of our thesis where we researched if gamified ads could increase user engagement on a video streaming platform such as Youtube.

To get a deeper understanding, we studied peer-reviewed papers and articles online about how game elements and advertising affect people. We did user research and usability testing to create a website and two games that the user could interact with.

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During the research we noticed a pattern, ads are seen as intrusive and game elements can turn a negative task into something positive. People often skip the ads on Youtube and because the ad stands between the user and the video it becomes a pain point.
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Customer journey showing the users' pain points

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- How can we use the combination of advertisement and games to replace annoyance with engagement.

‍Other companies have successfully integrated advergames on apps or websites. We wanted to test if we could create two different games that would solve the user's pain point and create an interactive and enjoyable experience on a platform such as Youtube.
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Design process:

image showing the iterative process that was chosen

In this part we started to brainstorm what style of games could easily catch users' attention and would be easy to play on a website. Examples consisted of Memory, Cross the road, Tower Stack and platform games such as Dino Rush. In the end Whack a Mole and Filled Glass became the inspiration for the prototype.

We also researched what topics our chosen target group showed interest in. These were sustainability and hiking. Because we wanted to test how they would perform on a platform such as Youtube we created a similar looking website with cute animal videos.

Game 1: Fill cup - promotes a reusable cup
Game 2: Whack a boot - promotes hiking boots

image showing brainstorming document of different games and colors

The moodboards helped us visualize the design and what elements we wanted to incorporate. Afterwards we started working on the wireframes in Figma. After the first iteration the final prototype was created that was also used in the last test.
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Frontpage on the left and the two different games on the right

First iteration:

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‍In the first iteration four participants tested a lofi-version of the prototype. They tested it separately and were instructed to think out loud during the test. The aim of the first iteration was to gather feedback about the design and functionality of the prototype and was used to make improvements for the second iteration.
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Second iteration:

In the second iteration another ten people were contacted to participate and divided into different groups. The interview was semi structured to allow the participants to discuss the matter freely and communicate spontaneous thoughts and ideas. The goal was to gather information about how the users' felt about an advergame instead of an ad at the beginning of a video.

The prototype created many interesting discussions around which platforms suit an interactive element such as a game. The interaction depends on if the user wants to relax or engage. A platform such as Youtube is seen as a platform where the user wants to relax.

The participants felt that the visual design of the games made the company seem more trustworthy. The idea of an interactive ad was enticing to the participants but it interferes with the users' intention.

Because of the feedback we got in the second iteration it would have been interesting to go through another iteration where we added more or different game elements. This could have created additional engagement and a higher level of enjoyment for the user. The participants also mentioned that other marketing strategies such as selling the drink in a café that was made in Fill Cup could have increased the excitement.

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