UXR Projects at King

UX Projects at King

From day one at King, I’ve been part of improving the experience for millions of daily Candy Crush Soda players, and while I’d love to share details on my thought process, methodologies, and insights, most of it remains under NDA.

Below are a few projects I’ve proudly worked on and many more aren’t live yet, but I’ll update this portfolio once they launch.

New Navigation Bar
Uncovering navigation patterns to reduce time from opening the app to gameplay

Candy Crush Soda offers many side activities and features beyond the main match-3 gameplay. As the team considered adding more, they wanted to understand how users discover new activities, what challenges they face, and how to make the experience as seamless as possible. I conducted a diary study alongside a survey, which revealed patterns and obstacles players encounter when navigating different parts of the game. Based on these findings, the team removed features that slowed access to the gameboard, eliminated unnecessary buttons, and adopted a more strategic approach to communication timing.

CONTEXT

The game evolves constantly and rapidly. Understanding how players navigate the game interface is crucial for several teams. The Soda team wanted to streamline and organize the game, and as a UX researcher, my role was to inform what needed to change.

MY ROLE

I conducted a diary study, an unmoderated usability test, and a survey.
The qualitative studies helped observe and understand different player behaviors when opening the game, exploring, and starting a game round.
The survey captured how the iconography was understood and ranked preferences for using certain features, which helped inform the reorganization of the navigation bar.

INSIGHTS

The study uncovered pain points in the flow of opening the game, playing, and ending a session, and revealed why each session can feel different for players.

The research showed the team where players tend to skip ahead, what types of communication work depending on session context, and which icons caused confusion.

It also highlighted different behavioral patterns in varying situations, which elements grabbed attention first and last, and what caused friction when starting a game round.

IMPACT

As the UXR for this team, I led a study that informed the redesign of the navigation bar in Candy Crush Soda. The triangulated findings had a business impact and improved the player experience.

The removal of a button saved developer resources and implementation costs.
Players’ time-to-game decreased, leading to more game rounds and an uplift in retention.
The new design made side activities more visible and accessible, which increased participation in competitions and boosted gross bookings by X% (NDA protected)

Improving Perceived Fairness and Participation
Candy Crush Soda's competitions among millions of active players

Candy Crush Soda’s players love a friendly rivalry, but how do they perceive fairness, rewards and decide when to participate?

To answer these questions for one of our most anticipated competitions – Soda Cup. I led a mixed‑methods study to learn what problems existed and the extent of them. The triangulation of analytics reports, a survey, and qualitative studies provided strong findings uncovering pain points, measured their business impact, and delivered insights that directly informed both the next iteration of this competition feature and our approach to future events.

CONTEXT

Competitions are one of the most anticipated features and engage millions of players, whether they compete against other players or try to keep up a winning streak with themselves, it makes players pay attention to details on what it entails to participate. Soda Cup is a quarterly competition and millions of players around the world want to win hundreds of gold bars (in-game currency).

MY ROLE

In collaboration with a data analyst, we launched a survey based on behavioral data to thousands of players to assess the impact of the biggest competition in the game, the perception of fairness, reward vs effort, and uncover potential issues.

Alongside the quantitative data, a usability test was conducted to understand if players comprehend the rules, what strategies they use, and how they strategize when playing in the competition.

INSIGHTS

The main finding that we got from this study was that some players saw the competition advertised in the initial loading screen and pop-up prompting them to participate but when going to the activities panel, they were unable to find it or play in the competition. This helped pinpoint where there was a tech issue that could be later fixed.

Players wanted to be paired with people that were in the same level or as close in level as possible, to balance out difficulty and time and also mentioned how they strategize to receive boosters to help them pass levels quicker. They also had a feeling of unfairness if they were not located in the USA, especially if they lived in Oceania because the game is not adjusted to time zones. These players had a shorter gameplay time compared to those located in the Americas.

IMPACT

UXR and analytics findings guided the design of fairer competition mechanics, smarter reward balancing, and strategies for handling time‑limited features when players take breaks between sessions.

The tech problems identified were resolved and players were able to see the competition in their game after the marketing was launched and the tickets from player support about complaints were reduced.
Players are divided into segments when competing – a newer competition implemented this change (Yeti's Challenge)
Informed the business strategy on when to balance rewards to keep a positive monetization.

LEARNINGS

This study helped inform subsequent ones and I learned that when launching a survey to a broad sample size, incorporating a few questions that fall in-theme of the research but can inform a larger foundational knowledge can be of value for future studies. Keeping the survey concise while gathering wider insights saved time and resources on tight‑deadline projects.

Coordinating with data scientists, analytics, OPS, UX craft, and product managers to launch the study exactly when the feature went live was challenging, but it strengthened alignment across teams.

Impact in Game Economy
Increasing Gross Bookings by Understanding why Casual Gamers Spend Money

This is truly a million-dollar question and one of the most difficult to answer in a straightforward way, as any good researcher will tell you: "it depends".

This is an ongoing research project that has several studies under it because monetization is something important to the game, as well as keeping a balance with reward and effort for players. Some of the studies I've conducted had impact in gross bookings and early-game retention.

CONTEXT

In my work on spending behaviors in Candy Crush Soda, I learned that a complex answer needs thorough thinking and a comprehensive methods approach. Every team and feature has some economy aspect embedded in it, and as a centralized researcher, I brought alignment to different teams to reduce time and friction when redesigning features.

MY ROLE

For most of my projects in this area, I work alongside the UXR Lead, with a wide range of methods—both qualitative and quantitative. While working on projects related to spending behaviors and the psychology behind purchases, I learned how to write interview scripts and conduct interviews when the topics might be sensitive for some players. I also learned how to tie insights from quantitative data sources to the qualitative findings to include in the product strategy.

Surveys + interviews + usability test + concept test + behavioral data

IMPACT

With a deeper understanding of player spending behaviors, I recommended changes to one of our most popular reward screens. These suggestions were based on insights from a usability test conducted for a related feature. The redesigned screen improved how the value of rewards was communicated to players, resulting in a clearer presentation and an %X increase (NDA‑protected) in gross bookings.

UX Projects at King

From day one at King, I’ve been part of improving the experience for millions of daily Candy Crush Soda players, and while I’d love to share details on my thought process, methodologies, and insights, most of it remains under NDA.

Below are a few projects I’ve proudly worked on and many more aren’t live yet, but I’ll update this portfolio once they launch.

New Navigation Bar Uncovering navigation patterns to reduce time from opening the app to gameplay

CONTEXT

MY ROLE

INSIGHTS

IMPACT

Improving Perceived Fairness and Participation Candy Crush Soda's competitions among millions of active players

CONTEXT

MY ROLE

INSIGHTS

IMPACT

Impact in Game EconomyIncreasing Gross Bookings by Understanding why Casual Gamers Spend Money

CONTEXT

MY ROLE

IMPACT

From day one at King, I’ve been part of improving the experience for millions of daily Candy Crush Soda players, and while I’d love to share details on my thought process, methodologies, and insights, most of it remains under NDA.

New Navigation Bar
Uncovering navigation patterns to reduce time from opening the app to gameplay

Improving Perceived Fairness and Participation
Candy Crush Soda's competitions among millions of active players

Impact in Game Economy
Increasing Gross Bookings by Understanding why Casual Gamers Spend Money