My job during this sprint was to conduct research for a redesign of Pokemon Go. Pokemon Go is an Augmented Reality-driven mobile game that became a cultural phenomenon within hours of its 2016 release. It received over 260 Million downloads within its first year and made $207 Million in its first month. The goal of the game is fairly simple; players catch and collect hundreds of creatures called Pokemon. They can be found by walking to a location in the real world, and once found, players must throw a capturing device at it called a Poke-ball, which is done with the creature superimposed over the real world in AR. The game is based on a Japanese property of the same name, which has had a devoted fan base around the world since its inception in the 1990s.

Pokemon Go was developed by Niantic, a company that specializes in mobile games with a focus on Augmented Reality. Its mission is to use AR games to motivate people into exercising, exploring outside, and interacting with others, while respecting privacy and promoting inclusivity. The goal of the redesign was to emphasize Niantic’s mission so that their significantly less popular games can succeed as well.

Understand how players feel about Pokemon Go’s current version, and use those insights to emphasize Niantic’s values in exercise, augmented reality, and exploration in Pokemon Go so that their significantly less popular games can succeed too.

3 research methods were used in this phase. The first was a survey completed by over 400 participants. The next were user interviews of 5 participants, who answered both qualitative questions and quantitative SUS questions. Finally, there was an affinity map used to find commonalities between the interviewees’ answers. All tests were conducted in October 2022.

Our synthesis involved breaking down the qualitative results of the surveys and usability tests, as well as uploading the recorded interviews and usability tests to Otter.ai for dictations. Highlights of the interviews and usability tests were pulled and placed on digital sticky notes for an Affinity Map on Figjam.

I took the sticky notes and divided them into categories to better understand how users think and feel. The categories were What It Does Right, Issues with the Game, Why They Don’t Play As Much, How to Improve the Game, What Not to Change and numerous others.

Survey Insights:

• 76.4% of current players still play every day

• 78.9% of current players have AR turned off when they play. That means that the number of people who don't use Pokemon Go's AR is slightly higher than the number of people who play every day.

• 43.1% of all users felt that the game's AR requires too much energy or movement as a major cause for them to turn the function off.

Interview Insights:

• The AR function needs an overhaul of improvements. It needs smoother motion and graphics, better floor detection, less battery drainage, an easier way to play with one hand instead of two, more immersion, more to do in AR other than catching Pokemon, backgrounds and item discovery in AR, and a more believable blending of AR and real life, among other things.

• Players believe AR was a fun novelty when it first came out and was the closest thing to what some interviewees called, “a 90s kid’s dream of Pokemon being real”, but the novelty wore off fast. It needs to do more to succeed at making Pokemon in the real world more believable. 

• They believe Pokemon Go’s AR is a gimmick. There isn't much sense in using it if it's not mandatory. 

• AR is still considered a good gameplay mechanic specifically for the occasional in-game events that require it, such as the quests used to catch very rare mythical Pokemon.

• The game can be too expensive at times

• Working full time makes the game extremely difficult to keep up with  

• Despite these issues, it still does plenty for longtime fans of the brand

Pokemon Go players need an improved Augmented Reality system that’s more immersive, less gimmicky, and requires less movement. With a more respectable AR system, players will be more likely to seek out meaningful AR experiences similar to Pokemon Go. How might we:

• Make Pokemon Go's AR function with little to no movement?

• Make the AR feel less like a gimmick and more like an enjoyable gameplay mechanic?

• Use AR to make Pokemon Go more immersive?

• Create a meaningful AR experience for players that will inspire them to seek out Niantic's other games?

• Make Pokemon Go more usable?

• Create personas and journey maps. 

• Research AR programs

• If possible or doable, learn to use a few AR design tools to visualize how an updated Pokemon Go would look and feel. 

• If using said tools is possible, experiment with AR glasses as a solution to making Pokemon Go require less movement. 

• Develop prototypes on Figma for any and all problems that can be fixed on the current mobile version.

• Perform tests on these new prototypes to gauge their usability.