Information Design for
Pokemon Go Community
This project I worked on, was for a Local Pokemon Go gaming community. Through this project I am showcasing my ability to make the design process effortless using Figma Components and Variants feature.
Pokémon Go is a mobile game that uses augmented reality (AR) to blend virtual elements with the real world. Developed by Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo and The Pokémon Company, it was released in 2016 and became a global sensation. The game allows players to use their smartphones to "catch" virtual Pokémon characters that appear on their screens as if they exist in the real world.
Pokémon Go attracts a diverse group of players from different demographics, including:
-
Pokémon Fans (Adults & Kids)
-
Casual Gamers
-
Fitness Enthusiasts
-
Families
-
Social Gamers
-
Competitive Gamers
The objective of this project is to strengthen the Pokémon GO community’s social media engagement, provide consistent updates about weekly Raid Hours, and boost player attendance and check-ins for weekly Raid Hours. By delivering timely, engaging, and informative content, we aim to make the Pokémon GO community feel more connected, informed, and motivated to participate in local Raid Hours, while also enhancing their interaction on social media platforms.
-
Increase Social Media Engagement: Boost interactions (likes, shares, comments) on community posts to build excitement around weekly events and create an engaging, community-centered atmosphere.
-
Weekly Raid Hour Information Sharing: Ensure players are informed about upcoming Raid Hours, including details on which Pokémon will be featured, the start and end times, and tips for participation.
-
Boost Check-Ins During Raid Hours: Motivate players to join and check-in during Raid Hours, thereby increasing physical and digital engagement within the Pokémon GO community.
-
-
Current Pokémon GO Players: Regular players who participate in Raid Hours and want to stay updated.
-
New and Casual Players: Players who may not currently participate in Raid Hours but could be drawn in through engaging, accessible social media content
-
-
"This Week in Raid Hours" Post: Every Monday, post a visually engaging update on social media detailing,
a. Featured Pokémon for Raid Hour
b. Date, time, and suggested level requirements
c. Hints on effective counter Pokémon -
Community Engagement Campaigns:
Raid Hour Highlights and Recaps: After each Raid Hour, share user-generated content and post a highlight recap, showing photos or quotes from players who participated.
-
-
Social Media Engagement Metrics: Track likes, comments, shares, and story views on posts related to Raid Hour.
Weekly Raid Hour Check-Ins: Monitor the number of players tagging the community or using hashtags during Raid Hours. -
Attendance and New Player Growth: Track any increases in attendance or first-time players participating in weekly Raid Hours through social media mentions and campfire check-ins.
-
-
Preparation Phase: 2 weeks to develop templates, hashtags, and visual guidelines for social media posts.
-
Launch: Begin first official “This Week in Raid Hours” post, followed by countdown reminders, Raid Hour check-ins, and recap highlights.
-
Weekly Maintenance: Update content weekly with fresh graphics, polls, and user-generated highlights.
-
-
Social Media Platforms: Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for post-sharing and engagement.
-
Graphics Tools: Figma for quick creation of visually engaging posts.
-
Data Collection: Use social media analytics and engagement metrics to measure success.
-
My role in the project was to conduct research of how current and new players are getting to know about the raid event, the counters and their strategy to win. With all conducted information, prepare an information hierarchy and design a creative to provide all the necessary information a player need to participate the event and win desired raid event Pokemon with the community. By doing this, community is expecting more social media reach resulting into community expansion and more participation into future events.
This project is focused on the skillset of Figma Components, Variants and Information Design to reduce a Designers efforts and achieving desired accomplishments.
Key Features
Augmented Reality
Pokestops & Gyms
Catching Pokemon
Evolution & Battle
Special Events
Counter Card
This component is most complex of all. It has to showcase different Pokemon, their types, their energy form and their attacks required for each raid event. With combination of Energy and Type background variants with Name and Attack type variants, one can easily switch around and create new counter card for a new Pokemon entry.
Figma Designs &‘Time Saving’
Design Components
With the help of figma components and its variants created, the template was ready to create a new design for each raid hour creative required. It helped save lots of time and increased productivity while maintaining consistency.
Research
In Pokémon GO, players often rely on influential social media personalities, like Instagram and YouTube creators such as PokeDaxi and G47ix, for vital raid strategies and event updates. These creators provide an essential service for the community by breaking down complex gameplay elements, particularly when it comes to raids involving powerful Pokémon.
Raid counters and event information will give us a perfect result for new community players to join in and participate in the event. It will help online followers to learn about the strategy and awareness of such events with check-in rewards are taking place near by and around them. So, the creative has to tell a story about the event at the first place and the details of it in the core.
-
What? (What is the Event?)
-
What type of event is it? (Raid Hour/Raid Day/Mega Raid Day)
-
What are the Dates & Duration of the event?
-
-
Who? (Who is Event Organiser?)
-
Who is the organiser?
-
Pokemon Go & Community
-
-
How? (How to participate and win?)
-
The Pokemon being in Raid for the event
-
Name
-
Type
-
Weakness
-
Perfect Iv CP
-
For Non-boosted Weather
-
For Boosted Weather
-
-
Shiny Availability
-
Difficulty Level
-
-
Counters to win the raid
-
Mega Counters
-
Shadow Counters
-
Regular Counters
-
-
-
Where? (Where is it happening?)
-
Event Meet-up
-
Date & Time
-
Location
-
-
-
Other Information
-
Check-in Reward
-
Wireframes
Based on Information architecture a story has to be told through a creative to inform a raid participant about the raid event. What is the type of raid event, when it will be available in game, Which Pokemon will be available to catch through raid, What counters should one take to beat the raid boss etc. Out of all options created, the best one was selected to design and work further upon.
Impact & Statistics
5-7%
Growth in Likes on Raid Hour Posts
68%
Followers Growth on Instagram Account
5%
Growth in Check-ins for Community Events
-
Post Engagement
-
Likes % is increased on Raid Hour posts by 5-7%
-
Share metrics increased by 2-3%
-
As raids are changed frequently on weekly basis, saving posts could not help viewers, so it was not done by viewers.
-
-
Reach and Impressions
-
On an average 3% accounts were unique accounts that viewed the raid hour post.
-
Total views over the posts were falling between 1000-1500 on an average raid hour post.
-
-
Follower Growth
-
Overall gain of new followers is +67.64% within 5 months of span from July to November 2024.
-
-
Community Participation Metrics
-
Increase in players using local gyms for raids increased in the range of 5-10%. As it depends on players' personal interest of Pokemon being in the raid hour.
-
Instagram post gets comments and campfire general group gets lots of approaches to join the community.
-
My Learning
By working on this project, I learnt how efficiently a Designer can reduce the time investment and maintain consistency by using well thought process & designed components. Invested a deserved amount of time in component structure design and variants to be utilised for future scopes and easy execution.
Future Scope
Here is the list scope of improvements in future,
1. The hero image can be replaced by a .gif or video of the Pokemon going to be appeared in raid event.
2. All the attacks can be Defined and combined into type variants. When attacks need to be changed for counters, one can just change the type and related attacks can be updated from dropdown.