IGN

A UNIQUE AND PERSONALIZED IOS APP FOR PASSIONATE GAMERS AND ENTERTAINMENT FANS.

Role
Design Director
Product Manager
Product Design Lead

What I Did
Product Strategy
Design Leadership
Design Direction
Product Design

Contributors
Rudy Tcruz
Josh Schroeder
Alex Ivlev

IGN is the online destination for serious gamers and those seeking entertainment news and reviews. While they had carved out a niche audience and destination early on, others were now challenging them for attention. Reddit, Wikia, Machinima, Twitch, and Amazon quickly became direct competitors.

Leaning into IGN's company goals, which included growing owned & operated video revenue, discovering better ways to monetize mobile content, and growing / diversifying ad products across consumption surfaces, I led the product direction and design for a ground-up redesign of the IGN core native app for iPhone and iPad.

I worked across Product, Research, Editorial, Engineering, and Executive teams to inform the app strategy and direction. Focusing on two of four audience personas with unmet needs, we designed a native iOS experience with personalization built in from day one. We ditched poor-converting ad units and replaced them with fewer, higher-CPM units that feel at home on mobile devices, and leaned into design patterns and features to surface video content and enhance discoverability.

OUTCOMES
& IMPACT

4.5

Stars in the iOS app store

^10

Made the Top 10 Most Popular Apps list in the iOS app store

1000+

User reviews in the iOS app store

USER RESEARCH

We focused tightly on "Influential Core" and "Prestige Gamers", who proudly identify as gamers who are reliable early adopters, and are multi-screen and multi-platform users.

SHAPING THE
PRODUCT VISION

Personalize the IGN experience

Allow users to tailor the IGN to be THEIR IGN app. Our target audience carries strong opinions about which entertainment genres, gaming consoles, and franchises they prefer. Prioritizing the content they care most about will result in higher return use and pageviews per session — a win for our users and for the business.

Prioritize video

Establish design patterns and features to surface video and enhance discoverability. Encourage deeper engagement by giving users the ability to consume video content where, when, and how they wish.

Lean into core content

Users visit IGN most often in search of gaming and entertainment reviews and articles. By prioritizing these core content types, we can focus our efforts on features that best benefit our audience.

Revise the ad mix

Replace outdated, low-CPM ad units that undermine the user experience. Explore ad products, mix, and frequency that feel native to both the app and mobile context.

Leverage IGN to leverage IGN

Utilize the desktop site, email newsletters, and IGN video series' such as "The Daily Fix" and "Up at Noon" to promote the new app. Additionally, take advantage of our mobile web article reach by utilizing iOS Smart App Banner promotion modules at the top of mobile pages to raise awareness of the app and encourage downloads.

APP DESIGN

I created a mood that was graphic and stylized, allowing the content to be the hero. Full color imagery against a backdrop of dark tones create a content-forward gallery, and modular content cards work seamlessly across surfaces.