Leading design for a VR gaming marketplace, and building the Indie Alliance from scratch...
The Challenge
SideQuest had 500,000+ users but no sustainable revenue model, and indie VR developers were struggling to get discovered. I came up with the Indie Alliance, a freemium community where premium members get access to bigger giveaways, exclusive discounts, and personalised content. Half the money raised gets reinvested into the indie VR community, funding new games. The challenge was designing the acquisition and onboarding to convert browsers into members without eroding trust.
The Approach
Created the Research club
Built a research panel from scratch to help shape the product. Grew to thousands of active members. This gave us a continuous stream of insight rather than one off studies. It also built trust with the community. They could see we were listening and shaping the product around their input, not just guessing.
User research
Flew to Northern Ireland to run onboarding research sessions with VR enthusiasts and to learn more about their values. Combined with quantitative research I found that around 80% came to discover new games, but fewer than half felt they were succeeding each visit. That gap became the design brief.
Exploration design
Explored how people wanted to find games, complete missions, and track rewards. Tested multiple interaction models including a swipe based discovery prototype I built from our production API and deployed to Vercel. The rapid decision making pattern outperformed traditional browse layouts. I also tested AI powered recommendations, but found that when you can ask for anything, users actually freeze. They needed quick, focused decisions to build momentum.
Onboarding design
Designed the onboarding to feel invisible. Instead of pulling users away from the experience to sign up, registration happens at the point of highest perceived value, like during a premium giveaway. We kept upfront data capture minimal after research showed users were wary of data farming. Get them to the value first, learn about them gradually.
Design system
Built a design system from scratch. Had to scale across a lot of different features without becoming inconsistent.
Prototyping and engineering
Built interactive prototypes to test the whole flow. Easier to spot problems when you can click through it. Worked closely with engineering throughout for follow up variants, questions, and tactical changes during development.
The Solution
Designed the full Indie Alliance platform. Missions that guide you to new games, points that unlock rewards, and a discovery experience that reduces choice fatigue. Free and premium features sit side by side, with premium teased through locked states and exclusive content to encourage upgrades. User research surfaced concerns about data farming, so registration was deliberately minimal. Get people to value fast, learn about them gradually.
The Outcomes
- Research led acquisition design with minimal friction registration
- Freemium conversion strategy with visible premium value
- Working prototypes tested with real users from production data
- Onboarding embedded at the point of highest perceived value
- Scalable design system adopted across web, mobile, and VR
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