NBA 2K Case Study
A solo extracurricular project. As a student who is extremely interested in the research side of UX, I wanted to give myself a challenge to work on during the winter break.
The brief
As a long-time consumer of NBA 2K video games, I wanted to know what the player based favoured the most about the current game, as well as what held them back from enjoying it to the fullest. I decided to focus on the MyCareer side of the game as that is the most popular according to my survey. The hope was to get to the bottom of held them back the most, and propose a player-first approach to fixing the issue. I also wanted to use the Adobe Creative Suite to help demonstrate what those changes could like fully realized.
The Direction
Gain insight from the community using surveys, analyze the data, and propose a solution to evolve the MyCareer experiencce with the use of creative software.
Role: UX Researcher, UX Designer, UI Designer
Tools: Google Forms
Timeline: 2 Weeks
The Research
Research Goal: To identify the target audience, learn about their favourite features of the game, and learn about what holds them back from enjoying it further.
Research Methods
Primary Research
Surveys
Usability Testing
Interviews
Survey One
After creating my survey, I gathered participants by personally contacting users who frequent the NBA2K official discord server. Out of all the users I pursued I managed to gather 26 people who were interested in helping me out. I also recruited 4 friends to round out the responses to 30. These friends play frequently and commonly critique the game’s systems and features.
Favourite Aspects of Gameplay
My research showed that players are primarily playing the game for the ability to play basketball online with friends, with the chance to possibly make new ones. This may be due to the cooperative nature of basketball as a sport and it’s intersection with casual gaming, but I have not confirmed this.
The ability to express the player’s creativity in the form of creating builds (build being another way players describe a created avatar) was also ranked very highly. Most likely as it serves to connect the player to the game, and allow them to experience it in different ways depending on the archetype created. The general gameplay and loop was ranked third. I allowed users to select up to four answers.
Rankings Based On Votes
Socializing with Friends (and meeting new ones) - 28 (93.3%)
Creating Builds - 25 (83.3%)
Gameplay - 16 (53.3%)
Competitive Games - 13 (43.3%)
Performance Based Rankings - 12 (40%)
Talking trash to other players - 11 (36.7%)
Player customization - 9 (30%)
In Game Rewards - 5 (16.7%)
MyCareer Story - 1 (3.3%)
Pain Points
Next, I wanted to understand exactly where the game fell short in the opinions of the players. The biggest gripe with the game thus far seems to be with the fact that you cannot refund attribute points spent. Currently, NBA 2K24 allows for players to play the game in order to earn a currency called VC, alternatively, they can also spend real money to gain VC. This currency can be used to purchase clothing/accessories, modes of transport (skateboards, bikes, etc.), and attribute points. All respondents are aligned with the idea that their hard earned VC should be more flexible, as it remains impossible to test out a build to its full capabilities before VC is spent to raise the avatar’s overall (or level).
Other highly rated pain points included the ability to adequately find new people to play with (discord remains the most effective way to find teammates currently), and a lack of social features for players who already have teammates.
Rankings Based On Votes
Unable to respec/refund a created build - 30 (100%)
Finding others to play with - 21 (70%)
Shallow Social Features - 21 (70%)
Lack of Interesting Quests - 15 (50%)
Poor Matchmaking - 14 (46.7%)
Lack of in game tactical adjustments- 4 (13.3%)
Not enough Events - 2 (6.7%)
Lack of Customization - 1 (3.4%)
Current Sentiment
4.26/7
Survey participants were asked to rate the game on a scale from 1 to 7.
NPS Score: 6
Participants were asked the likelihood the would recommend the game to a friend, 1 to 10.
The First Design
Using photoshop, I came up with a design interventions that could help with the pain points “Finding others to play with” and “Shallow Social Features” detailed by our surveyed users.
“Draft Boards”
The Draft Board design was created to add the ability for players in the game to find others and quickly squad up. The idea is to give users more chances to meet new teammates and friends, without making them waste time looking waiting for their real friends to get online, or roll the dice looking for new teammates in the middle of a game.
The interface opens as the user interacts with the Draft Board. The initial screen shows the availability of squads currently online, what game mode they are looking to play, and what positions are filled. By pressing one of the bumper buttons on the user’s controller, they can swap to the “Players” overlay that shows the players available to recruit to your squad. The option to sign up solo, or as a squad is included on these screens as well.
“Reset Build”
In regards to the highest voted item “Unable to respec/refund a created build”, I decided to take a feature that is present in many role-playing games, and present in some online sports games. The ability to refund used digital currency is extremely important, no one wants to spend money or time gathering funds just to waste it on a build that isn’t fun. On the attributes screen I have added the possibility to do this with a tap of a couple buttons.
The Testing
Unfortunately, I was unable to test with the same group I gathered my research from initially. However, 6 of the 30 respondents were gracious enough to donate their time again to conduct an A/B test, and a short survey.
Design Satisfaction
Of users reported
being “Very satisfied”
with the new designs
100%
Post-Solution Sentiment
Of users agree the
new rating would be
5+ after design changes
83%
Post-Solution Sentiment
Of users believe the
NPS would be 7+ after
design changes
100%
The Retrospective
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this one as it was first time doing a case study on a video game. I’m very familiar with the game but it wasn’t until I connected and empathized with other players did some fun ideas start popping up. I believe I did a good job addressing their main concerns, and hope to do another case study on a video game again soon.
Should Have Dones
I was in a bit of a rush but next time I’d like to get a more committed group of participants to ensure accuracy. I’m really interested in a future role in UX Research, so I should have spent more time gathering and analyzing my data.
Want to chat about this project?
You can contact me to learn more or check out my other work!