This week I’m redesigning Betfair’s header, in the not logged in state, which I think is a cluttered with a few too many options and different design elements.
The header should give all different players (target groups) options to find what they want to do next. It could for instance be:

Register
Log in
Get help
Contact Betfair
Get to know more about Betfair

Today

Image 1. Betfair’s current page header (Want it larger? Click on the image)
The header today have many different design elements in different places: a top menu, the logo, the login box and the …

Summer is over and it is time to start blogging again. Welcome back everyone!
The igaming industry have an interesting future with all that is happening in the business at the moment. Everything from regulated markets, the decline in poker to merger talks between bwin and PartyGaming.
What will it take to be a winner (survivor) in the igaming industry?
I believe igaming companies need to focus on user experience to be a winner! You need to take your business goals and match them with the user goals of your user groups (current …

On Sportingbet you can use your iPhone and Android phone to place bets. They have optimized their site for the phones.
The problem is getting started! You have to go too many steps and get an SMS to get started. It could work much simpler!
Today

Image 1. Steps today to get started
When you want to play you have to go through four steps to do so.

Click on a link
Fill out all your phone details
Read information page
Click on the SMS in your phone

To me this is a way to complicated process. And below …

I enjoy playing Sit & Go Tournaments and I do it on a few different poker sites, Full Tilt and PokerStars are among the ones I visit the most.
One thing that annoys me big time is when the tournament gets full just when I try to register for it. In this redesign I’ll make a change to the registration flow to make it faster and easier which hopefully makes a player start playing faster. Which in the end means more rake for the operator.
In this redesign I am using Full …

Expekt.com redesigned their portal a while back. They did a pretty good job and the new design looks much better than the old one.
But I think there are a few inconsistencies when it comes to the player experience in the portal. In today’s redesign I’ll address one of them. It was a pattern I saw myself doing after logging in a number of times over a couple of weeks time.
Today

Image 1. This is how the login and register dialogue looks today.
Today players have the login dialogue in the top left corner. …

Last month I wrote a blog post giving SkyBet a design advice (read the post here). And today when I tried going to SkyBet using my iPhone I noticed that they had implemented the solution I wrote about.
My design advice back in September was “The second solution is just to transfer the user to the “skybet.mobi” site when they are using and iPhone and comes to “skybet.com.” and that is how it works today! Well done SkyBet!
/Staffan

Sky Bet last friday launched an sportsbook for their iPhone users together with mkodo. I think it is great that more and more products and services are optimized for the iPhone and the upcoming iPad. You can read more about that in my previous blog posts.
Today
Today when you type in skybet.mobi you come to the iPhone optimized sportsbook, see image 1.

Image 1. Sky Bet’s iPhone Sportsbook.
But the problem with Sky Bet’s solution is that you have to type in the address “skybet.mobi”. If you happen to type in “skybet.com” then …

I’ve written a number of blog posts regarding folded cards in poker, Show Folded Cards – Great feature implemented differently and Full Tilt improves their Folded Card feature.
Last night when I played on Bet24.com I was surprised not being able to see the folded cards. I looked everywhere but I haven’t been able to see if it is possible to see your folded cards.
So today’s redesign is a simple one adding “Show Folded Cards” functionality to OnGame Network’s poker client.
Today

Image 1. Folded hand on Bet24.com (OnGame’s poker client)
Today your cards disappear when you …

Last night I tried to sign up at 888.com to play casino. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do. The registration form is pretty straight forward but the thing that made me get stuck was the password field. In the images below you see what it looks like.
Today

Image 1. Password fields

Image 2. Help information for password field
What was really confusing and took a while for me to discover was that the password have to be exactly 8 characters long. There are a few things that add to the confusion:

You don’t get …

OnGame Network have a new Sit & Go Coinflip, generating 10,000 plays per day.
I had to try it out since I really enjoy playing around with new features.
It is a fun new game which just last about 10 seconds. But it takes longer to register for  a new Coinflip. You have to click three times before being back in the lobby and then another three clicks before you are registered for a new game.
So 6 clicks before you are seated at a new game. This is way too long! This could …

Do you develop gaming software?
Do you prototype?
If you do prototyping then great! If you don’t, then it is time to start doing it!
A prototype is a representative model of the final product.
Why should you build prototypes?
Prototyping is an interative and generative process. You’ll never get the best solution at your first try. Prototyping will give you many new ideas when you work through the prototyping process. It helps you get your ideas into something everyone can play around with. This will generate lots of feedback and ideas for new and …

I really enjoy playing poker on Full Tilt. They have a good client and lots of tables to play on.
There is lots of interesting stuff both in the client but also on their website. But it is really hard to find it.
So my 20 minutes today is used on redesigning is about promoting more things in the client to help players explore all Fullt Tilt Poker has to offer.
In the image above you see how it looks today. You have one banner and then a message area.
What I’ve done is …

It is just a little over a month left until the International Gaming Expo takes place in London between the 26th and 28th of January.
It will be very interesting to find out if there are any new innovations within the industry. Maybe some new mobile solutions? Or maybe a new poker game?
Will I see you there? I’ll be there for the whole three days this year. Wanna meet up and discuss user experience, social media and igaming?
Send me an e-mail, staffan.schroder@inuse.se, and let’s set up a meeting :)
/Staffan

Unibet was awarded European Sports Betting Operator of the Year at the EGR Awards this year.
This week’s redesign is about two minor changes making the sportsbook even better for the players.
Sports selection today

Image 1. This is how the sports selection looks today.
Unibet gives the player the option to find the sports to place bets on in a number of different ways, search, quick links and by using the navigation structure.
First suggested change

Image 2. First suggested change before (1) and after (2)
My first change I would do is to remove the …

Image 1. 8 steps to start playing Black Jack.
This week’s redesign is just one quick and fast design implementation to Betsafe’s gaming portal.
My design advice to Betsafe is, Let players stay on the same page after logging in!
Today players are redirected back to the start page when they log in . In image 1 you see the steps for a player going to a Black Jack game without signing in. Then the player signs in and is redirected back to the start page and have to find the game again. …

Why not sign up for the weekly UXiGaming newsletter?
The newsletter will be sent every tuesday starting December 1st.
Why should you sign up? You’ll get a newsletter containing:

Blog posts posted last weeks along with comments and relevant links.
Links to industry news concerning igaming, social media and user experience.
“UXiGaming’s weekly offer”
“Question of the week”

So sign up right now! You do it here!
/Staffan

Last night when I played poker on PokerStars I incidentaly hit the “Fold” button when I was going going to “Check”. When I did I got an alert window saying “Checking is free. Are you sure you want to fold?” and then there was two buttons “Check” and “Fold”.
I think there are two things that could be improved here, first the main “Fold” and “Check” buttons at the bottom are “Fold” to the left and “Check” to the right but in the alert window they are the opposite “Check” and …

This week’s redesign is on a small detail on Full Tilt Poker’s client. Full Tilt Poker really has a great poker client and I often play on it, but one little thing kept buggin me yesterday when I played. That was the advance action checkboxes which let you make actions before it is your turn.
Below you can read about “my problem” and my redesign.
Today

As you can see from the animation the checkbox and buttons aren’t in the same place. This is kind of frustrating when you are about to check the …

This week’s redesign (I know it has been a while but now it’s back) is on NordicBet’s deposit page.
I signed up last night on NordicBet and the last step in the registration is the deposit page. It took me probably over a minute to figure out if NordicBet had more deposit options than by credit card.
The main task a player want to achieve when they go to the deposit page is to deposit money and we should help them do it!
On NordicBet’s page they have some banner like links to …

This week’s redesign will be a quick usability test that hopefully will show the benefits of doing usability tests to increase the user experience in your products.
Purpose
Find out areas for improvement when it comes to finding a table to play poker at.
Settings

3 gaming portals: bwin.com, betsson.com and unibet.com (will use their instant poker version)
5 users: All Swedish players.
1 user scenario: “Find and sit down to play at a €1/€2 Texas Hold’em table of your choice”

Result
Redesign of one finding per portal
Please come back early next week to see the results from the …