Case Study: Online Social Casino Product Design
- Role: Lead UX & Visual Designer
- Collaboration: Product ideation with my Creative Director
- Scope: Concept exploration, UI design, design system
- Platform: Mobile
Overview
This project explored a mobile social casino experience inspired by platforms like Chumba, focused on retention, clarity, and a polished, gamified feel. The goal was to translate familiar casino mechanics into an approachable modern app experience across all jurisdictions, with no real-money gambling needed. All currency is virtual, and the structure of this is more mobile-game than iCasino.
Process
I began by gathering competitive references and inspiration from existing social casino and adjacent entertainment apps, analyzing patterns around onboarding, rewards, progression, and monetization cues.
Apps I looked at:
- Chumba
- Sugarhouse social casino
These offered great examples of best-in-class and minimum requirements if we wanted to be competitive in this space. I also kept my eye out for opportunities, aka ways we could make some improvements and innovations without going too far off course.
From there, I
- Brainstormed and explored flows in low-fidelity greybox layouts
- Rapidly iterated on structure and hierarchy to balance clarity with excitement
- Partnered with my Creative Director on feature ideation and product direction
I was responsible for shaping these ideas into cohesive interfaces.
Design & Execution
I led all visual and UI design, including:
- Establishing the overall visual language and tone
- Styling screens to feel game-like without sacrificing usability
- Creating reusable UI components and patterns
- Developing an early-stage style guide and design system to support scalability
The focus was on clarity, affordance, and polish—ensuring features felt intuitive, legible, and appropriately “casino-adjacent” without overwhelming users.
From there, I
- Brainstormed and explored flows in low-fidelity greybox layouts
- Rapidly iterated on structure and hierarchy to balance clarity with excitement
- Partnered with my Creative Director on feature ideation and product direction
I was responsible for shaping these ideas into cohesive interfaces.
Outcome
While the project did not move forward due to a shift in organizational priorities, the work served as a strong exploration of translating game mechanics into a mobile app context and reinforced scalable UI patterns applicable to future products.
