Metabloqs – Using UX Insights to Alleviate Cognitive Load & Streamline User Journeys
Overview
Metabloqs.com is a metaverse platform offering professional spaces and events in following four areas: Meta Paris, Meta Games, Meta Lands and Meta Events.
Metaverse can be thought of as a vast city with unlimited exploration sites and stores where the sites operate independently but still are connected to the larger city.
My Role
UX Designer
Deliverables
Research-led UX Insights
Team
1 Designer, 1 Stakeholder
Scope
Meta Events (Events Module and Metaverse Environment)
Tools
Eye Tracking (Tobii Pro Fusion, Tobii Pro Glass 3), Figma, Google Sheets, MS OneNote, MS Teams.
Time
6 Months
Challenge
Metabloqs aspires to be at the forefront of the virtual event-hosting space. The company’s goals are multifaceted and are outlined as follows:
Expand market reach by hosting virtual events: Understand the user journey of those unfamiliar with gaming/crypto that could help reach a wider potential audience.
Increase user engagement and participation in virtual events: Understand the challenges for navigational improvement.
Build a community and social connections: Understand the barriers to social connections.
The following pivotal questions emerge that shape the exploration of issues underlying on the Meta Events. And based on initial observations and understanding, I derived a hypothesis to steer the research.
1. Research & Analysis
How can the user journey on Metabloqs be optimized for those unfamiliar with gaming and crypto, ensuring better adoption and engagement?
What are the initial challenges or barriers these users face when navigating the platform?
How can Metabloqs be refined to make it more user-friendly and intuitive for this demographic?
2. Hypothesis
Users unfamiliar with gaming and cryptocurrencies might face navigational challenges and cognitive load on the Metabloqs Events platform.
3. Research Methods
Execution
There are two platforms in Metabloqs Events: Events Module (Hosts) and Metaverse Environment (Guests).
Events Module: A platform where hosts create and manage events and connections.
Metaverse Environment: Platform where guests enter into the metaverse to attend events and create connections.
I conducted various research methods, derived key insights and redesigned for both the platforms.
Before that, the participant recruitment and screening process was aligned with the company’s goals and the research’s primary objectives to ensure the research findings were relevant and actionable.
Participants were manually screened based on the condition that they had limited to no experience with gaming and crypto or were lightly acquainted at best and had not participated in any usability tests related to Metabloqs in the past six months to ensure a fresh perspective.
Pilot testing was also conducted to test the feasibility and effectiveness of using audio and video recording in tandem with the Tobii eye tracker for the research.
For Ethical Considerations, participants were asked to sign a consent form detailing the study’s objectives, methods, and rights. It highlighted that they could refuse questions, withdraw anytime, and understand the data removal cut-off date.
1. Heuristics Evaluation
Events Module
Metaverse Environment
2. Eye Tracking
Platforms
Metabloqs Event Module (Hosts),
Metaverse Environment (Guests).
Devices
Tobii Pro Fusion (for Hosts),
Tobii Pro Glasses 3 (for Guests).
Participants
16 in total, 8 for each platform.
Tasks
9 tasks for Hosts, 8 tasks for Guests.
Tasks for Hosts
Participants guided through a series of 9 tasks from navigating the platform to creating an event.
Tasks for Guests
Participants introduced to guest dashboard and metaverse environment to complete 8 tasks.
Metric Recorded
Task completion time for each participant, anomalies and fixation points.
Purpose of Metric
To gain insights into the efficiency and intuitiveness of the platform’s design.
Events Module
The heat maps revealed two key observations: participants’ gazes were scattered when locating Interests and Goals, and there was notable fixation on the event permalink during event creation.
Logging out and adding interests and goals to an event took significant time, while editing and viewing profiles were the most natural. Additionally, creating interests and goals for events was particularly time-consuming for almost all participants.
Metaverse Environment
The eye-gaze glasses offered some insights into guest interactions within the Metaverse Environment but no unique fixations were observed beyond what the participants were thinking out loud.
All participants, non-gamers or occasional gamers, needed assistance sitting on a specific seat, struggling with distance judgement. Some needed help with other tasks, while others managed after taking time to understand what was going on.
3. Think-Aloud Protocol
The think-aloud sessions revealed cognitive challenges faced by hosts. The table below highlights common problems identified during task performance.
Events Module
Metaverse Environment
4. Key Insights
The think aloud sessions revealed cognitive challenges hosts faced. The following table pinpoints common problems among participants while they were performing the tasks after analysing the data from the think aloud sessions.
5. User Interface
Comprehensive analysis of user interactions and feedback revealed several navigational and cognitive challenges. Design changes were made to address these, ensuring a more intuitive platform, with visual representations provided for clarity.
Events Module
Streamlined Navigation: Refined and decluttered navigation menu for intuitive access.
Optimised Event Creation: Unified event setup with integrated interests and goals.
Intuitive Event Editing: Simplified event management with clear editing tools.
Enhanced Homepage Experience: Immediate event visibility with a user-centric homepage redesign.
Clear Logout Mechanism: Distinct logout icon replacing the ambiguous company logo.
Metaverse Environment
Enhanced User Search: Swift user connections with advanced search and sorting.
Prioritised User Interactions: Event interactions forefronted for enriched user engagement.
5. Usability Testing
The original site’s task completion times, averaged from 8 participants (due to time constraints), were compared to data from a “Wizard of Oz” session participant for select redesigned tasks.
The redesigned website prototype performed 74.085% faster on average than the original, significantly enhancing efficiency.
Outcome
The updated Metabloqs platform shows improved user sentiment. The redesigned Event Module and Metaverse Environment have fewer touchpoints, now aligning with or surpassing the neutral line, indicating enhanced user satisfaction compared to the previous design’s negative feedback.
Events Module
Metaverse Environment
Reflection & Future Work
Although the research provided valuable insights, there were some limitations such as lack of detailed demographic data, technical issues causing recording interruptions, limited scope of usability testing due to time constraint, and possible influence on Think Aloud sessions due to participants’ awareness of being recorded.
Despite these limitations, the study underscores the importance of continuous user feedback and iterative design to ensure platforms like Metabloqs remain user-centric and evolve in line with user needs and preferences.