AliExpress - Prize Land
Leveraging User Research to Revamp Gameplay & to Improve Player Retention and Engagement
In this project, I worked on improving player retention and onboarding for a mobile game featured on AliExpress.
I led UX research alongside product designers to investigate low engagement among new players, using gameplay analytics, community feedback, and usability testing
Our work led to a full game revamp and major improvements to gameplay clarity, visual localization, and onboarding.
As a result, after 6 months, DAU increased by +16.6%, engagement increased by 15 points, and retention by 10 points.
My role:
UX Writer
User Researcher
Skills
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Playtesting
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Preference test
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A/B Testing
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Gameplay Data Analysis
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Heuristic Evaluation
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UX Audit
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Social Listening
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Naming & Localization
Time frame:
From May 2024
To Sep 2024
(5 months)
Games on an e-commerce platform?
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Chinese shoppers enjoy gamified experiences across their digital products, and e-commerce platforms are no exceptions.
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At Alibaba, advanced gamification and even fully-featured mobile games, are a fundamental part of their “shoppertainment” strategy.
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Therefore, it is no surprise to see fully-featured mobile games connected to real and virtual economies on AliExpress.
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These games rely on the endowment effect, making users feel they have earned their rewards through effort, which enhances their value in their eyes. Those rewards are also directly applicable to any orders on AliExpress, making them super attractive to any regular shoppers.
Background
About the game
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The mini-game 'Prize Land' on AliExpress (previously named Grow to Get) is an hybrid-casual game, where players collect water (hyper-casual mechanics) to grow a tree (mid-core/meta level) and earn nearly free items (a small fee of $0.1 is required).
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Players must grow the tree 15 times through multiple stages and can gather more water by inviting friends, using bonuses (like a water-saving bottle or scarecrow), and completing missions.
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Initially launched in Korea in 2023, AliExpress game team had plans to introduce it to other markets in 2024, but encountered several issues.
Challenge
While some players regularly played the game, its growth was stalling, and the bounce rate for new users was high.
Our product team approached us with this challenge, and wanted to take another approach and learn from the user perspective. By taking a look at the business analytics, we could see that:
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Daily Active Users (DAU): Too low according to our partners, which means few people were playing regularly
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Retention Rate: Overall retention rate was satisfying and some players would regularly come back ; but new players retention rate was much lower, meaning that they were leaving too soon.
Research
We started by understanding the game from a player perspective
Once we understood the ‘what’ - user behaviors, through data analytics, we set-off to understand the ‘why’ - the user motivations and perceptions.
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User Comments: We read online feedback on sites like Reddit and gathered insights from players
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UX Audit: We ran an audit ourselves, following usability heuristics, and found over 60 potential UX problems.
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Playtest: We ran 4 tests with players from different countries to see how they felt about starting the game
Describe your image
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What we learnt:
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Localization Issues: Some parts of the game - particularly its visual direction - didn’t feel relatable to players from other countries
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Poor Navigation: Players had trouble finding where to go and what to do.
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Desire for Clarity: Players wanted specific details about how long things would take and what they would earn.
Solutions
We suggested a few solutions... that eventually led to a complete new game, named "Prize Land"
We presented 5 solutions with the objective to fix the game’s UX problems and improve its retention.
The team in charge of the game adopted 3 out of 5 of them (see below), and we were expecting a classic optimization of the existing game
But an even bigger win happened: following our research, they decided to initiate a complete revamp of the current game, to the point that the new game was considerably different.
This clearly shows the amplitude impact that user research can have on product development,
🌍
Optimize Localization
🚀
Simplify Onboarding
🎮
Revamp Gameplay Mechanics
Make the game fit better with what players expect based on where they are.
Create a more welcoming and clearer introduction to the game for new players.
Add new fun features while fixing the ones that were confusing.
Action #01
First, we simplified and improved its gameplay mechanics for retention and engagement
My first step was to make players feel good about progressing and to reduce their impression of the game being too slow.
Simplification of
core/meta gameplay
We simplified from growing 15 trees in 4 steps each, to growing just 1 tree in 20 steps.
Also, now there's one progress bar for this unique tree allowing for clear tracking, helping players set their goals more easily.
Addition of multiple
mini-games
We added more engaging ways for players to collect water in order to improve retention and help complete the game faster
Prizes now have different levels of difficulty, each of them requiring more or less time to complete. Right at the start, players can see how long each prize will take to get, helping them set their goals.
Introduction of
difficulty levels
Action #02
Then, we opted for a more localized visual direction
Graphics and visuals are crucial elements of a game. So we carefully worked on it to make them better suited for players.
Brainstorming
& Preference tests
We first got the team together to think up a few directions.
We then tested them with players to gather what visuals they liked best.
Better Localization
for Global Player base
Based on previous user research results and through several rounds of drawings, we changed the style - from cartoonish to 3D - and the theme - cotton tree to a regular, geographically non-distinguishable tree - to feel more relatable to the many different culture of our player base.
Later, we brainstormed some cool new looks for the game. Those would be virtual rewards that can be earned through the game.
We regularly added new content to keep our players engaged.
New skins
for the Game
Action #03
We then clarified the game mechanics, make them easier to understand and more exciting to play
Later, we brainstormed some cool new looks for the game. Those would be virtual rewards that can be earned through the game.
We regularly added new content to keep our players engaged.
Clarity and Consistent Introduction
We worked on all game features - such as the Storage Bottle - and ensured they have clear names and explanations to prevent confusion
We created a glossary to maintain consistency in all 16 languages the game supports.
Later, we brainstormed some cool new looks for the game. Those would be virtual rewards that can be earned through the game.
We regularly added new content to keep our players engaged.
Progressive
Disclosure
For the onboarding, we gradually introduced less game features, through more waterings/actions by players, instead of all at once to avoid overwhelming players.
Action #04
Finally, we expanded the reward system
We ensured it was more exciting and flexible to keep players engaged.
Higher Value Rewards
We introduced more interesting rewards that players would really want, such as electronics or mobile phones.
Exchange Rewards
Players can now swap their rewards if they want without loosing progress, giving them more control.
Early Redeem
Players who want to complete the game early can now redeem prizes early: their % of progress becomes a discount.
Iterations
After launch, players were still not clear on some aspects of the game. We set out to fix that through successive patches.
At the launch of the first version of the game, we conducted further user research and noticed that:
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69% of players are still unaware of the total number of levels in the game (55 out of 80 users)
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Over half of the players believe the game duration is too long, with engagement noticeably slowing down after reaching 90% progress.
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By implementing a clearer level-up system (how many levels there are in total, at which level players are currently at etc.) to give players clear tracking of their progress, as well as a comprehensive how to play page to clarify game mechanics
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By introducing additional bonus and mini-games (flip-a-card, water duel etc.) that allow players to earn more water, thereby increasing the average session duration and enhancing overall lifetime value (LTV).
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Results
Several iterations later and 5 months after released, engagement and player's satisfaction drastically improved - meeting our expectations.
Business metrics also significantly improved, encouraging us to keep iterating further on the game throughout the next semesters.
More importantly, this helped prove to our stakeholders the impact of user research, and build our team's influence.
Later on, we got to collaborate more closely with AliExpress game team on various projects.
What Did I Learn
This project reinforced the value of combining user research with UX and content design to drive meaningful product improvements.
It also showed me the importance of being proactive—taking the initiative to lead research efforts, rather than waiting to be asked.
By regularly sharing findings with stakeholders and involving them in the research process, I was able to build stronger alignment and become an advocate for the user within the organization.
This experience highlighted how content designers and user researcher can play a key role in championing user needs and shaping product strategy.
