Pack Selection drop-off fell from 25% to 22% after restructuring the layout
Context:
A social, card-based party game with themed packs and prompts to play with friends.
01
Contribution:
Data analysis
Competitor analysis
Usability testing
UX redesign
UI implementation
02
Goal:
Diagnose why users dropped off before gameplay and fix it — within the existing structure, without adding extra steps.
03
Platform:
iOS
04
Results:
Completion rate - from 74.8% to 77.9%; Time-to-completion - 41s → 44s; Pack Selection drop-off rate decreased 25% → 22%
Party Up turns any gathering into a game night — pick a themed pack, and the app serves up prompts and challenges to play with friends
Because the entire experience lives inside the packs, the path from opening the app to picking one carries real weight — every extra tap, unclear label, or moment of hesitation between launch and gameplay is a chance to lose someone before they've played a single round with their friends.
Process:
PM Report Data Analysis → Competitor Analysis -> Usability Testing -> UX Redesign -> UI Implementation
Constraints:
The redesign had to work within the existing pack content and structure — the packs themselves weren't being redesigned, only how they were presented and selected. Any solution also needed to ship without adding steps to the flow, and the winning direction had to be validated through an A/B test against the current version (V2) before rolling out fully.
The Problem: Over 25% of Users Leaving Pack Selection Screen Before Reaching the Gameplay
With Pack Selection identified as the biggest leak in the funnel, I was asked to diagnose why users were dropping off before gameplay and propose a fix — with the constraint that any change had to ship within the existing content structure, since the packs themselves weren't being redesigned. Success meant a measurable lift in completion rate without adding steps to the flow.
Onboarding vs. Pack Selection
Of users who completed onboarding, 91% did so successfully — but only 74.8% then made it through Pack Selection, the single step between them and gameplay.
An earlier version of this flow (V1) had its own drop-off issue, though it predates the current onboarding and isn't directly comparable — this analysis starts from the current baseline.
The current version (V2) had already addressed V1's outdated design and usability issues, but the drop-off remained — meaning a good share of users never reached the gameplay that is the app's core value.
The Hypothesis: The Grid Was Hiding the Content
A small, informal testing session surfaced a consistent pattern: users paused before selecting a pack, often tapping between a few options before committing. And even after picking one they expressed confusion. The grid felt visually busy — too many vibrant thumbnails competing for attention, making it hard to tell packs apart at a glance. Users couldn't tell what a pack offered without extra taps, and the grid format compounded it — thumbnails ate most of the space, descriptions were hidden until selection. Competitor analysis reinforced this: several similar apps use a stacked layout instead of a grid, prioritizing content over imagery. My hypothesis was that switching to a stacked format would surface the information users needed up front, reducing the extra taps and hesitation causing the drop-off.
The Solution: A Stacked Layout, Content-First
Based on the hypothesis, I redesigned Pack Selection around three changes: shifting emphasis from imagery to content so packs are legible at a glance, surfacing descriptions upfront instead of gating them behind a tap, and fitting more packs on screen at once to reduce scrolling. Each change targeted a specific friction point identified in the review — oversized thumbnails, hidden descriptions, and inconsistent selection states.
