Recently I have gotten into tabletop games, scouring the shelves of local stores hoping to find something new to play with my friends and family. During my experience as a new board game enthusiast, I found that a major pain point was being able to easily search for new games that were similar to games I already enjoyed and keeping track of games on my wishlist.
With that problem statement in mind, I conducted some market research to develop my idea for a "Spotify for board games." Users can browse games that are matched to their profile based on their previous bookmarked games, and there are curated "playlists" of board games to explore. There is also a robust search system that allows users to refine their search criteria to find the perfect pick for their next game night.
Initial sketches of the idea to guide the wireframing process
After the initial sketches, I turned to Adobe XD to build a wireframe prototype of the idea. I wanted to utilize some of their free UI kits to create a clear user flow and quickly iterate through different ideas. I eventually landed on building out the basic flow of the app, which features the search, browse, and "add to list" functionalities.
Wireframe prototype of the app concept, created in Adobe XD
Even though this was only a fun side project born from a recent hobby, I enjoyed the process of identifying the problem, coming up with a solution, and creating some quick wireframes to show proof of concept. My next steps would be to put this prototype in front of some users and gather their feedback before refining and developing a high-fidelity mockup of a finalized app.
