INDUSTRY:
Gaming
PROJECT TYPE:
Internship
YEAR:
2025
ROLE:
UX Designer & User Testing Lead
Project Snapshot
Problem: Monster Walk’s “Welcome Back” screen — the first touchpoint after logging in — lacked clarity, emotion, and reward energy, undermining retention.
My Role: UX Designer & User Testing Lead. I owned user testing design/execution, synthesized insights into product direction, and aligned cross-timezone teams and clients.
Outcome: Redesigned flow validated by moderated testing — 100% clarity on rewards/streaks, users described the redesign as “fun, supportive, motivating,” and design direction reinforced retention goals.
Overview
Monster Walk by Talofa Games motivates players to walk in real life so they can convert steps to in-game stamina to save monsters from the “evil fog.” The “Welcome Back” moment — the first screen players see when they return — should be an exciting re-entry into the game. But our review of the app and user testing revealed that this critical touchpoint lacked clarity, emotion, and reward energy.
Intended purpose of the Welcome Back experience:
See how many steps players have tracked since their last login
View how much in-game stamina they’ve earned from converting their real-world steps
Claim rewards from the Daily Login Streak
My Role & Contributions
Owned all user testing design, execution, and pivot strategy — ensuring research directly informed product direction.
Synthesized findings into actionable design changes adopted by the client.
Facilitated cross-timezone team alignment and client communications to keep delivery on track.
Identified future opportunities beyond this redesign to inform roadmap discussions.
The Gap in the Player Experience
We reviewed Talofa’s prior research and ran our own testing. While the game concept had strong appeal, the execution of the Welcome Back moment was underwhelming and sometimes confusing.
1. Stamina Cap Confusion → Loss of Trust
Players understood step-to-stamina conversion, but many didn’t realize stamina is initially capped at 500. Steps beyond the cap disappeared without explanation — leaving players feeling like they were “losing” steps.
2. No Emotional Payoff
The panel felt static and transactional. No animation, haptics, or celebratory effects. “Welcome Back!” text didn’t meet WCAG contrast standards, dulling visual impact. Without personalization or narrative framing, players lacked a sense of belonging.
The intended loop (cue → routine → reward) broke down. Stamina caps undermined routine; flat payoff undermined reward.
Large step count is shown, but it's unclear how that factors into total stamina.
Business Context
As a free-to-play game, Talofa Games depends on retention to drive ad views and in-app purchases. Our goal was to strengthen the Welcome Back experience — making it clear, rewarding, and emotional — in order to increase day-1+ retention, session frequency & length, and higher stamina spent per day.
Success Metrics:
Improved day-1+ retention
Longer average session duration
Increased player engagement
Higher stamina gained/spent per day
Constraints
No social mechanics
Must use existing rewards
Existing design system
No social mechanics → designs had to motivate players solo since social mechanics had not been built yet.
Rewards limited to existing in-game resources → no new items or art.
Fully developed design system → all new flows had to reuse existing patterns and assets.
These limits forced us to focus on emotional payoff, clarity, and sequencing rather than entirely new systems.
Process: Iterative and Adaptive
My ideation focused on how we might motivate players to continue their daily login streak.
I created a mid-fi design that emphasized reaching specific milestones, in this case one week straight of logging in.
Key Insights
Emotional monster interactions motivate returning players.
Streak milestones excite players but clear progress indicators are essential.
Teasing upcoming rewards builds anticipation.
We iterated on the daily bonus/streak feature with client and player feedback - optimizing over time for monster engagement, milestones, and an element of mystery by hiding upcoming rewards.
Final Design for Delight
We kept all designs within the existing Monster Walk design system and in-game assets, but emphasized personalization, monster connection, excitement, and clarity.
Highlights:
Personalized monster greeting with playful, character-specific copy.
Animated stamina meter + streak indicator for clear progress visualization.
Teasers for upcoming daily rewards to encourage return visits.
Rotate in hidden monster welcome back screen to add novelty and surprise on subsequent logins.
Impact & Product Direction
A taste of the positive feedback we received from power users during our 1:1 moderated user interviews.
What I Learned
How to:
Run lean user research on tight timelines.
Balance emotional design with business/tech constraints.
Pivot quickly when early tests lack depth.
These lessons strengthen my ability to design habit-forming systems in health and access contexts — where clarity and motivation are critical.
Testimonial from One of my Coaches
Vanessa confidently led both unmoderated and moderated user studies, turned insights into actionable next steps, and iterated effectively based on client and user feedback. She’s flexible and adaptable, revisiting ideas when new insights emerge while keeping the team aligned and moving forward.
Her reliability, proactive problem-solving, and strategic thinking makes her someone the team can always depend on, both as a collaborator and a leader. Anyone would benefit from Vanessa’s combination of skill, work ethic, and user-focused mindset. I’m confident she’ll continue to grow, contribute at a high level, and excel.
Jenny Park
UX Content Designer @ Meta
