Steve, the owner, runs the business and operations of City Fun Center (CFC), a local San Diego arcade entertainment center.
How can we redesign City Fun Center's website that will:
Create a fun, clean, and simple interface design so customers can intuitively find the information they were looking for.
Increase brand awareness of CFC's as a fun, clean, retro-nostalgic arcade with unique attractions and offerings.
Incorporate captivating and authentic arcade photos. Communicate more with visuals and less with wordy text.
Our concept City Fun Center redesign showcased the highlights of the brand as a fun, playful, retro nostalgic arcade all housed in a clean and comfortable space.
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Who exactly are the main demographic of City Fun Center's online viewers and what are they looking for?
After evaluating 9 user interviews (3 conducted by me), we defined 3 frequent customer archetypes to help guide our design decisions.
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Parents/Guardians
Parent caretakers are looking online for a legitimate, safe, and clean arcade to take their kids to as a fun getaway.
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Kids (~ 4-12 years old):
Kids gravitate towards fun, exciting, and visually engaging websites and likely won’t bother to read too much text.
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In the San Diego area, who are the other comparable competitors in the arcade market?
City Fun Center (CFC) operates within the family entertainment industry business. The owner wants to position CFC as an arcade more mature compared to Chuck E. Cheese and distanced from the night club party vibe of Dave & Busters. In addition, CFC has a laser tag arena that rivals Ultrazone.
In short, City Fun Center strives to be the one-stop arcade for family fun and games.
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Slogan:
“Where a kid can be a kid!”
Info:
Chuck E. Cheese's is extremely well known in the family entertainment industry. They excel at prioritizing the play needs of kids in terms of fun, engagement, and safety.
Branding:
The website is full of pictures of smiling, gleeful kids with toys, tickets, and fun crowns. They even hired a kid as a “Chief Play Officer” to be the advocate for children’s fun.
Slogan:
“Have FUN winning e-tickets and prizes!”
Brand Info:
City Fun Center is the only arcade in San Diego with the unique combination of mini-bowling, laser tag, retro video games, and arcade games all in a clean, comfortable space.
Branding:
Usage of darker shades of saturated primary colors present CFC as more mature than Chuck E. Cheese’s overly kid-friendly vibe.
Slogan:
“Eat, Drink, Play!”
Info:
Dave and Buster caters to the more mature demographic. D&B is a great time for an adults’ night out with their selection of food, games, bar, and televised sports events.
Branding:
The low-lit, night club vibe present D&B as a more sleek adult social arcade experience. Alcohol served at a bars sets this place apart as a more sophisticated arcade
Slogan:
“Where Family Fun Rules!”
Info:
Boomers is the family fun amusement park with the main attractions being their mini-golf and go-karts.
Branding:
The zany and energetic aesthetic alludes to the message that Boomers will provide an exciting and wild group outing experience.
Slogan:
“Enter The ZONE.”
Info:
Ultrazone is only laser tag arena to house a two floor arena, which makes it the place to go for laser tag enthusiasts.
Branding:
The futuristic, sci-fi aesthetic theme gives Ultrazone the edge in creating the brand that Ultrazone holds the crown as the ultimate laser tag arena.
Slogan:
“All you can eat food & fun!”
Info:
John's offers an all-in-one eat and play buffet style experience. Admission into John's arcade requires the purchase of an all you can eat buffet.
Branding:
The website shows the joys and wonders of John's Pizza with its zany aesthetic and carnival-like food, games, and attractions.
The client updates and manages City Fun Center on a WordPress platform, a website builder. Back-end forms and functionality, such as birthday reservations, are managed by 3rd party sources.
Decisions we focused on:
Presenting our client with a gray scale wireframe prototype allowed us to get client feedback that focused more on the structure, content, and functionality of the website rather than the visual aesthetics of the design.
Early usability tests with 2 people helped to pin point usability issues, validate common user flows, and uncovered user expectations.
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The home page is geared towards welcoming customers new to City Fun Center.
This is the first implementation of the card form aesthetic. Tapping the images reveal the hidden description.
Accessible store information is placed in the most frequently searched area: the navigation bar.
From wireframe user testing, we discovered that “Visit Us” was bloated with unexpected information. The vague “Visit Us” label didn’t properly allude to the content the page contained.
We split the "Visit Us" page and created a new page, “Pricing”, to contain any pricing related concerns and arcade deals.
The client reiterated that the website design should lean towards being more informational than promotional.
From the wireframes, we refined the visual aesthetics. We established a bold, saturated color theme throughout the website. We kept a clean feel but softened the corners and shadows to make it feel more welcoming.
A brief welcoming statement describes to new customers what City Fun Center is and what they offer.
Images visually showcase the attractions at a glance. Description texts are hidden in drop downs.
To provide clarity of CFC's pricing model, pricing tables neatly organize otherwise overwhelming information.
The pricing page was too transparent about cost. The pricing page should provide informational clarity about pricing policies rather than transparency about internal pricing conversion rates.
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The final design tied together final feedback from the client, 3 facilitated in-person usability tests (1 conducted by me), and design critique sessions with my design professor and TA's to validate design trade offs.
Using a video gif as the focal point made the website feel lively and active. The side notification contains any updated news.
The content writing for the description went through 2 client revisions and meetings, Wireframe and Prototype 1.
The pricing table structure matches common syntax customers use when making a purchasing decision.
The image gallery allows customers to get a better understanding of what CFC is like to play at.
Tab navigation effectively categorizes the food menu. Previously, all the food items were on one long page.
Group packages now include information on venue booking. These are the prominent group events hosted at CFC.
The home landing page is important in establishing initial impressions with the customer and making a statement about CFC's brand image.
The initial draft carries over the image gallery of the old website while updating it to a cleaner aesthetic. Promotions are given priority to display new updates promptly.
Prototype 1 introduces a brief welcome text to help orient new customer. The "Come Visit Us" button isn't effective because it is difficult to know where the button truly leads to.
The vibrant panorama video tour captures the joy of CFC. Announcements are tucked off to the side so games, especially laser tag, can be more prominent and engaging.
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