Overview
I designed an experience loop that could circulate in Spatial's virtual space. Up until now, the experience in Spatial has been pretty limited: Users couldn't experience the space the way the creators intended, so they lost interest in the space and leave it. This led to users leaving the platform. To address this, we designed a core experience loop that organically circulated between the virtual space and the platform, allowing users to better experience the space and increase their interest in the platform.
Role
Product Designer
Responsibility
Product Design
Impact
2x Session Time
3x MAU
Timeline
2023
Background
Quickly lose interest and leave though,
great virtual environments and visual.
Spatial is a platform that provides users with immersive experiences in a variety of virtual spaces. Creators create spaces with their own intentions, but when users enter a space, they don't know what to do within it, so they naturally lose interest and leave.
Problem statement
01
Limited
In-space experience.
Contrary to the creator's intent, users walk through only a portion of the space and then leave.
02
No context,
No guidance.
Users visiting the space have no background or context. So users don't even know what to do in the space.
Current user journey
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, but no context.
Users are curious about this space, so walk around it but there's no context or guide here.
03
Talk with someone.
If there are other users in the space, the user will either talk to them briefly or walk past them.
04
Don't know what should do more and leave.
If there are other users in the space, the user will either talk to them briefly or walk past them.
Challenge
There are many considerations when designing experiences in Spatial. There are a number of limitations, such as a large number of virtual experiences in different categories and different types of users.
01
Design experiences that can be applied to thousands of spaces,
each with its own individuality.
02
Need a design for both perspectives.
Spatial has two kinds of users: space creators and explorers.
03
Experience must be chained
For space-to-other spaces experience in the platform.
Design concept
Creating a reward-driven loop
that connects users across different spaces.
Users earn rewards by completing quests created by creators in the space. Users can equip these rewards as a way to express their identity, and they are archived on their profile page. Users experience different Spaces to earn new and different rewards, and other users who see their badges click on them to visit those Spaces, creating a basic cycle between the different virtual spaces on the platform.
Quest pill: onboarding system.
Guide user experiences via light, scalable quest systems.
With quest pills provided by Spatial, creators can design explorer’s experiences within a space in stages. This allows creators to intuitively communicate the intent and experience of a space to users with fewer resources. Current quests include talking to NPCs in the space, collecting items, and opening treasure chests, but you can also design linked quests.
Quest marker.
Guiding users with real-time navigation.
When a quest starts, a quest pill will appear in the bottom left corner,
showing the user in real-time where they need to go to complete the quest.
Space quests.
Each space features unique quests designed by a creator.
Complete quests and earn space reward
Space badge reward.
Creators deliver meaningful identity rewards.
Explorer-user side
Collectable, accomplishment
and use for cosmetic.
When a user completes a quest, they are rewarded with a space badge created by the creator. This badge gives a sense of accomplishment and can be used as an cosmetic to represent their identity.
Creator-user side
Fewer resources to create
iconic originality of the space.
Creating 3D rewards for virtual experiences can be a barrier for any creator. Spatial provides badge presets and guidelines. This allows creators to put fewer resources to create simple badge.
Wear to express identity.
Wear earned badges under their nametags.
Badges in virtual spaces
Badge on one's nametag
Badge on the people tab
Design platform-wise cycle:
badge discovery and navigation to connect users across spaces.
Impact.
2x
Space session time
As users follow the quest and progress on their journey, the session time spend in spaces has increased significantly.
3x
Monthly active users
Spaces helped creators achieve their goals effectively, the number of active users increased significantly.
Need to improve in the future.
More beneficial badges. Entering a space with a badge gives you a more unique and beneficial experience, such as a special ability or faster movement speed. And you may also receive exclusive benefits when purchasing items from the badge's creator's brand or space.
Align achievements, rewards, and platform. The achievement menu could also be used to further enhance user achievements. Providing additional platform-wise rewards over time, based on the number of badges earned or achievements completed, will help motivate users and make the core experience loop stronger.
Complete freedom in reward-type. We chose badges with templates to lower the huddle for creators to create rewards, but in the long run, creators should be able to reward avatars and other items they create themselves, rather than badges, if they choose. This will allow users to become more immersed in the creator's world.