Core loop system
Connecting isolated experiences into
a cohesive loop to drive engagement.
Overview
Spatial's creator-built spaces provided each unique experiences but lacked a connected journey that encouraged continued engagement. We designed a platform-wide loop connecting quests, rewards, and cross-space discovery to turn isolated visits into continuous exploration. Following launch, space session time more than 2x, while monthly active users grew +15%.
Role
Product Designer
Team
2 Designers
5 Devs
1 Product Manager
Impact
2.3x Session Time
1.2x Cross-Space Visit
+15% MAU
Timeline
2024' Q4 - 2025' Q1
Process
From behavioral insights to launch.
We analyzed engagement metrics and user voice to establish hypotheses, then collaborated across a cross-functional squad to design, refine, and launch the design through internal usability reviews.
Background
Spatial: a platform of creator-built immersive experiences.
Spatial is a platform that enables creators and businesses to easily build and share immersive digital experiences.
It runs directly in the browser without requiring any download, so users can embed it on a website or dive into a space instantly with a single backlink.
Spatial's primary goal was to ensure that users visited many spaces and spent much time within them. This is because the key metrics that enterprises focus on most when making deals with Spatial are traffic and session time.
Data to Problem statement
High space entry volume
wasn't translating into sustained engagement.
Despite substantial space entry volume, average session times remained short, and few visits continued to another space. This revealed a gap between bringing users into spaces and sustaining engagement across the platform.
Research and Interview
Understand how users experience
and explore spaces with different purposes.
01
Observing the user journey.
I explored a variety of spaces to observe the users' behavior as they enter the spaces,
breaking down actual journeys to understand how people navigate and engage.
01
Discover a space. Users discover the space from the homepage or enter the space from an external deep link.
02
Move around the space. Users are curious about this space, so walk around it but there's no context or guide here.
03
Chat with someone If there are other users. the user will either talk to them briefly or walk past them.
04
Don't know what to do more and leave. Users who move around the space but don't know what to do. So they leaved.
02
What we heard from users.
We spoke with selected creators + users we met across different spaces to understand
why they leave or explore further. I gathered the responses and categorized them based on the pain points.
*We were running "Global Spatian Guide Program", which includes 30+ creators. We had interviews and gathered feedback from them. In order to hear from non-professional creators, we had the rest with users I randomly encountered in spaces.
Insight to Hypothesis
Engagement required clearer guidance,
sustained motivation, and less resource for creators.
By combining our journey analysis with feedback from users, we identified 3 barriers to sustained engagement.
Challenge and Constraint
Building a scalable engagement system
across thousands of unique spaces.
Building a platform-wide engagement system meant working with Spatial's existing structure and constraints.
Design Solution
Connecting independent spaces:
A shared quest system and reward loop.
We designed a platform-wide system that helps creators guide visitors through quests, while using rewards to encourage engagement and discovery across spaces.
Why these solutions?
We compared different approaches against user needs, creator effort, and platform constraints to determine which could best support engagement and continued exploration.
User flow
A experience loop of engagement, rewards, and discovery.
Completing quests earns users badges they can wear and display. Users can discover where those badges were earned, creating new opportunities for exploration and engagement.
Creator flow
How did we reduce the effort required for creators?
Instead of manually coding every interaction, creators can publish engaging experiences
by simply installing Spatial’s plugin and adjusting a few options.
Design
Quest pill: Guide engagement
We designed the quest system to give users a clear starting point, progress and completion.
These interactions helped transform open-ended exploration into a more guided and engaging experience.
01
Clear starting point on entry.
Quest pill gives users quick access to their objectives as soon as they enter a space.
We designed the quest UI as a pill to keep visually consistent with the in-space UI.
In order to avoid distracting users from the space experience, the pill only shows essential quest information.
Design iteration process.
We iterated and polished designs through several rounds of feedback with designers and the squad.
Mid-left UI (Subtle)
Immersive background protection looks good.
It doesn't seem consistent with the HUD.
Position looks weird when we see all UIs together.
Mid-left UI (Translucent box)
Position looks weird when we see all UIs together.
Always showing quest details and progress takes up too much screen space.
Bottom-left UI (Translucent pill)
It seems consistent with other UI elements.
The expanded UI could have more cohesive look.
Showing the rewards might provide even more motivation.
Bottom-left UI (Translucent pill)
The expanded UI has a cohesive look.
Showing a reward to improve user's motivation.
02
Quest marker: Guiding users with real-time navigation.
Real-time marker guide users toward destinations, connecting objectives and reduced spatial navigation friction.
Since 3D space has X, Y and Z axis, there were limitations to providing directional guidance using only text or images,
So we designed real-time responsive markers in the 3D space.We designed the marker with distance indicators to help users understand how far they are from their destination.
Design iteration process.
We iterated and polished designs through several rounds of feedback with designers and the squad.
Quest clue in the mini map
Mini map might be familiar for users.
But It cannot account for Z axis.
Users have to switch their attention between the minimap and 3D space.
3D spot picker
It can account for all axis well.
But if the goal is too far, users can't see the spot.
Mini map + Real-time 3D marker
Users can see the goal, regardless of distance.
Same, if the goal is too far, users can't catch how far they still need to go.
It would be better if we could make a consistency between the quest and marker icon.
Real-time 3D marker (+distance)
Users can always see the goal and how far it is.
All quest elements have visual consistency.
While a minimap improve navigation, each creator’s space would have a different style unlike the quest pill. So we decided to drop it.
03
Each space features different quests by creators.
A shared quest system supports diverse activities designed by a creator, tailored to each space.
Collecting - Quiz
Talk to NPC
Find things - Open the door - Talk with monster
Pick up - Ignite - Reach a goal
Design
Reward badges: Self-expression and social discovery.
Users can wear and display earned badges on their avatars and profiles.
Other users can explore these badges to discover the spaces where they were earned.
Cosmetic rewards had previously driven strong participation in Spatial's own spaces.
Based on the insight, we made badges wearable so users could express their achievements through their avatars.
Design
Making one experience lead to the next.
01
Badge-based social discovery.
Given users' strong interest in cosmetic rewards, we linked badges to their origin spaces, letting users jump directly to earn the ones they want.
02
Contextual recommendation.
Quest completion means interest in an experience.
We recommended similar experiences to help users continue exploring without returning to the homepage.
Impact
Longer sessions + more exploration across spaces.
Following launch, users spent more time in each space and were more likely to continue exploring others.
Platform MAU also grew during this period.
Hypothesis to Outcome.
Reflection and Takeaways
What I learned, and what I underestimated.
Better engagement can come from structuring experiences, not only adding more content.
I learned that improving existing experiences can be just as valuable as creating new ones. Before adding more content, it's worth looking back why users aren't getting enough value from what's already there.
Scalability depends on creator enablement, not just end user UX.
On UGC platforms, great UX has limited impact if creators can't easily deliver it. I learned that scalability depends not just on the end-user experience, but also on how easily creators can build and maintain it.
Improved engagement, but underestimated the difficulty of continuing it.
Session time more than 2x, but growth in cross-space visits was much lower. The experience may not have been compelling enough to motivate users to explore more.
There were likely many possible causes.
Earned badges but never explored the recommended spaces.
May have dropped off before completing the quest.
Recommendedation may not have matched users’ interests.
Moving between spaces may have required too much effort.
Looking back, I'd explore ways to connect users to their next experience earlier, rather than relying mainly on quest completion and badge discovery. It'd be beneficial if I could track where users drop off to better understand what's holding them back.
Please watch it on your PC.
Please watch it on your PC.