bwin (bwin.party) and the release of a new poker app for Windows Phone
Today bwin and partypoker remain well-known brands even after mergers and acquisitions. At a time, bwin alone was the largest online gaming operator with more than 20 million customers. I worked on the Sports Book including Live Betting at their headquarters in Vienna (Austria), and on the Poker apps for desktop and mobile in Stockholm.
My Role
I had different roles during my time at bwin but this showcase focuses on my last project: Leading a small product design team in the development of a new mobile poker app for Windows Phone.
Highlights from 5 Years
- Lead product designer on Sports Book and Live Betting in Vienna, the flagship products of the company
- Moved to Stockholm to work on Poker apps for 3 in-house brands on desktop and mobile as well as the product portals
- Redesign and relaunch of the PokerRoom brand
- Worked on an achievement system, novel to poker apps at the time
- Leading the design of a brand new poker mobile app
The Project: A Fresh Breeze of Innovation
Poker apps had lacked innovation for some time. The market was saturated and it was dominated by a single operator. Mobile poker apps often were basically just desktop versions ported over. We were given the opportunity to build a completely new mobile poker experience, based on a touch-screen design concept created earlier.
We only had a few months to make this happen and the first designs needed to be delivered within a couple of weeks. First, we mapped out the app, created wireframes and identified the key features for the initial version. Some ideas were put as stretch goals or removed and put on a backlog for later releases. Since the app was planned for Windows Phone, we also spent some time researching the Windows Phone OS interface and guidelines.
The MVP included features for playing tournaments and regular cash games. Additionally, we had a concept for an innovative multi-table view for advanced players.
Some of the early stage wireframes
Design and Development Phase
While there was not much time, we wanted to make sure to make improvements wherever possible. For instance, a frequent oversight is how an app needs to adapt over time. What does the initial state look like, what if there’s only one item, what if there are many? In this case, this led to different start screens that would tailor content to the user. A first time user would see items like a tutorial or deposit, while a user who has already experience with the app would see other items like his bonus points or last games played.
Motion – when done right – is a strong enhancement to the user experience and helps the user understand the space they are operating in. This is certainly true for a poker app which has lots of events and micro interactions. To ensure to get this part right, we created little animation previews for each of them.
Within just a few weeks, we finalised high-fidelity mock-ups and development began in parallel. I traveled to Hyderabad/India to meet with the developer team and the local designer to share the design vision.
Conclusio
During my time at bwin.party, I worked on and led the UI design for many projects. Everything I had learned about poker and product design went into this project and it received positive reviews after the first internal testing. It was planned to be ported to iOS and Android.
However, a few weeks after my visit to India, the company decided to close the Stockholm office and move operations to other locations. I had another job offer and decided to leave the company. After several delays, as far as I know, the projects were eventually discontinued.
bwin Poker on Desktop
The following was a design concept for the desktop client done prior to the Windows Phone app. Some ideas, like the new, compact multi-table view, were adopted for the mobile app.
