Sriya Benjaram

Based in New York, US

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Resume

Redesigning Hitwicket's Home Page in Portrait Mode to offer accessible play to casual users

Duration

5 months

Role

Led the design from research to execution & managed release timelines

Team

1 Product Designer, 2 Developers, 1 Product Manager

Summary

Our team transitioned Hitwicket from landscape to portrait mode to improve early user retention. As the lead designer on this initiative, I primarily owned the Home Page redesign.
I refined the designs through user interviews and A/B testing insights on conducting beta tests.
The beta test resulted in a 7% increase in daily user sessions, a 12% lift in Day 7 retention, and a 17% increase in multiplayer feature adoption.

Our team transitioned Hitwicket from landscape to portrait mode to improve early user retention. As the lead designer on this initiative, I primarily owned the Home Page redesign.
I refined the designs through user interviews and A/B testing insights on conducting beta tests.
The beta test resulted in a 7% increase in daily user sessions, a 12% lift in Day 7 retention, and a 17% increase in multiplayer feature adoption.

What is Hitwicket?

Hitwicket is India's biggest cricket strategy mobile game with 15M+ users competing in matches, climbing ranks, and earning rewards.

Hitwicket is a tap-based game and gets highly competitive as one progresses!

The Problem

While competitive users continue to retain, early retention among new casual users is low.

Hitwicket’s early retention metrics (Day 1 to Day 7 Retention) were trailing behind industry benchmarks for quite a while now. To address this, I led the design effort alongside the CEO, Head of Design, and Head of Technology to investigate the underlying causes and identify opportunities for improvement:

🚨 Primary Reason

Casual users are overwhelmed when they join.

💡 Supporting Insight

Although competitive users are retaining long-term, they find it difficult to play frequently as it feels hardcore.

To summarize,

Early drop-off among new users reflects an overwhelming entry experience, further reinforced by retained players struggling to play frequently due to the game feeling too demanding.

How might we

Help players feel motivated to learn the game with ease and return more often?

The Solution

Transitioning from landscape to portrait to signal an easy-to-pick-up experience!

In this case study, I will be delving into creating the ideal home page experience for all users.

Push the button to activate portrait mode!

How did we get to this solution? 👇

What's the goal?

User Goal

Business Goal

😌🎮

Users want to learn the game without feeling overwhelmed, approach various features easily and jump into the game at anytime.

Conducting Research

Understanding why users aren’t retaining or spending more time on the app.

I, along with a product analyst, interviewed about 20+ new and existing users to understand why they weren't playing Hitwicket enough.

60% of new users who didn't retain mentioned that the game felt complex & hardcore. This led to casual players feeling confused or disengaged early on.

45% of existing users prefer setting aside dedicated time to play, as the game feels too intense for frequent daytime sessions & wouldn't want to be caught playing during work hours.

Understanding how game orientation impacts player behavior through secondary research.

I wanted to understand how current games in the market are functioning based on the orientation.

Portrait Games

Landscape Games

📱

Designed for one-handed play, ideal for commuting or multitasking

📱

Fast-paced, action-heavy games requiring both hands

📱

Short, repeatable sessions — perfect for mobile-first, quick-interaction users

📱

Designed for longer, immersive sessions

📱

Simple, tap-based or swipe-based controls

📱

Usually have more complex controls (virtual joysticks, ability buttons, etc.)

All of which would make it more convenient for Hitwicket players to play more often!

⚡️

Hitwicket’s simple tap-based controls suit multitasking and aren't complex, making portrait mode a more natural fit for mobile users.

⚡️

The general user perception of a landscape game screams "Not casual!". Although Hitwicket is very strategic, we should also be accessible to mass-market casual gamers for a broader appeal through portrait mode as it feels less cluttered & complex.

The research concluded that…

Transitioning to portrait mode would help Hitwicket be perceived as more approachable for casual users, support more frequent & convenient play sessions, and better match the game’s control system.

Improving the Home Page Experience from Landscape to Portrait

Creating the design of the home page for portrait orientation.

I focused on creating clear, straightforward entry points so users would immediately know where to start. After exploring 5+ iterations, I narrowed the designs down to a few strong directions.

Final

Iteration

Before

We ran a Closed Beta with 1,000+ players to gather feedback & validate the designs 🔬

Feedback from the Closed Beta Experiment

Beta test feedback revealed that visual clutter made it difficult for users to discover key features.

I spoke with 20+ users to evaluate their experience using the new portrait mode. Here’s what players consistently told us during User Interviews.

"It was a little hard to find certain features in the game."

-Both Competitive & Casual Players

"I can play comfortably in the metro on my way back from work!"

-Both Competitive & Casual Players

"The match experience doesn't feel as immersive anymore."

-Mainly Competitive Players

"I definitely have been playing more League, it's easier one-handed!"

-Mainly Casual Players

"The home screen felt a bit cluttered, was overwhelming at first."

-Mainly Casual Players

I, along with a data analyst, then conducted a UI performance review using CTRs, feature adoption, and session data to gauge design impact.

How do we tackle this feedback?

Analysis of user feedback revealed that feature adoption took a serious hit, while the experience remained cluttered.

Based on the feedback, two key problems stand out regarding the Dashboard:

1️⃣

PvP (Feature) Adoption - Our long-term goal is to drive higher PvP engagement by helping new users retain and easily discover the feature. A drop in PvP adoption signals poor discoverability.

2️⃣

Season Pass CTRs & Other Feature Adoptions - With such a big shift to portrait, it's crucial we don’t disrupt monetization across Season Pass, Store, and Events.

Let's get into it! 👇

1️⃣

We want all players to naturally transition into PvP as their main mode.

This requires us to rethink our current core loop in portrait.

❌ Current Flow

This way, as new players focus on learning the game through League, PvP becomes more of an optional detour than a clear next step.

✅ Ideal Flow

This way, players start with League, get familiar with the game, and once PvP unlocks, they're naturally prompted to try it every time they tap 'Play'

Final

Iteration 3

Iteration 2

Iteration 1

Here's why we picked this flow 🎉…

✅

This surfaces PvP in the core loop, giving players a clear choice each time they tap 'Play' and building intrigue even before it's unlocked.

✅

The 'Play' buttons on the League and PvP panels give clear, direct cues to jump into a match.

✅

The status info on both panels shows players where they stand and encourages them to keep progressing.

✅

This design also brings Events to the forefront, making them easier to discover and engage with.

2️⃣

Optimizing Dashboard Layout Without Disrupting Key Metrics

This requires us to rearrange some of the elements to ensure that the important features are easy to reach and prominently placed.

Here comes the final look! *drum roll*

Impact

Hitwicket is currently conducting A/B tests to get more input.

The current results from the tests are in:

D7 Retention boosted by

Day 7 Retention boosted by

Sessions/Day increased by

PvP Adoption increased by

🎬 🎬 🎬

Hop on to a bigger screen to unlock the complete case study and for the best experience! 🗝️ 🤩

What is the problem at hand?

User behaviour and feedback revealed untapped potential in daily sessions, with current engagement trailing behind industry benchmarks for casual games.

After talking to more players on why they aren't coming back to play more matches, it became clear that they fell in these two buckets of personas, take a look!

So, what do we have here?

🧐

The casual gamers who find the initial complexity a bit overwhelming. These players have trouble retaining due to either being confused or uninterested.

🧐

The committed strategists who carve out daily time to compete. These players retain better in the long-term but would only play a few but longer sessions per day.

🧐

Currently, data states that PvP (competitive game mode) Adoption is ~50%, out of which ~90% of those players are payers. Casual players are hesitant to explore PvP.

It all boils down to "How do we make our players feel like they'd want to play more often?"

So, here's a crazy idea…