DNF: Longitudinal Study

Background

The product team brought up a hypothesis that the reason behind the slow rate of new player acquisition is due to poor onboarding.

Objectives

1️⃣ Identify players’ pain points in relation to skills mastery during onboarding

2️⃣ Understand how players’ onboarding experience unfold over time

Methods

⚗️ Diary Study & In-Depth Interviews

To understand the pain points players might encounter during onboarding, we had our participants play DNF Duel for a reasonable amount of time as part of a diary study. Following this, we conducted in-depth interviews to explore their challenges in more detail.

1. Diary Study

We partnered up with an agency, which helped us recruit 11 participants. They were dedicated fighting game players with little to no prior experience in DNF Duel. We had them play the game for at least 1~2 hours every day for the diary study.

Recruitment Criteria (Diary Study):

• Male (all ages)
• Players who can play PC games at home
• Players who enjoy playing fighting games (on PC, Steam)
• Players with little to no experience (<10 hours of total playtime) in DNF Duel
• Players who have played fighting game(s) for over 100 hours of total playtime

2. In-depth Interview

Considering the level of participation and engagement demonstrated during the diary study, we selected four individuals for further in-depth interviews. These individuals were chosen based on their consistent involvement.

Recruitment Criteria (In-depth Interview):

• Level of participation during the diary study

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1 copy 4(revised)

Reporting

Summary

Half of the participants experienced turning points then got back on track — but the rest struggled all the way.

Player Journey

We journey-mapped each participant’s experiences (P2, P3, P4, P10) by their touch points, goals, actions, etc.

DUEL 23(PF Final)_Summary_new

DUEL 23(PF Final)_P2_new

DUEL 23(PF Final)_P3_new

DUEL 23(PF Final)_P4_new

DUEL 23(PF Final)_P10_new(very last)

Major Pain Points

Participants’ major frustrations centered around skill mastery, Survival Mode, and others. We identified key pain points, prioritized them, and highlighted the player-reported causes behind each.

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Research Impact

Product Impact

Based on our insights delivered through the readouts, the product team outlined the following actionable plans:

• Combo Learning and Usage
  • Implement a “Combo Maker” feature to help players learn combos in-game.
  • Improve in-game combo guides by incorporating user-generated combo videos.
• Additional Stage Rewards
  • Consider ways to boost player motivation through in-game rewards for clearing stages.
  • Focus on communication, such as sharing developer notes, to improve user engagement.

Strategic Impact

• Post-Project Research Readouts
  • Product team requested that we present our findings directly to the development team for greater impact.
  • Product team reaffirmed their hypotheses about the identified problems and successfully prioritized them.

My Role

Project Lead

As the Project Lead, I managed a small group of researchers and oversaw the entire project, from the initial stakeholder interviews to successful delivery. Collaborating closely with research coordinators and the product team, we recruited participants, designed and conducted research, and delivered a comprehensive report.