Pokémon Home: Strategy Center
Pokémon Home is a cloud-based storage and trading service developed by The Pokémon Company for the Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android devices. It allows players to store, organize, and transfer Pokémon between various games in the franchise.
Role
Sole UX/UI designer + brand designer, with support from my mentor, Ayelén Malaquin, and feedback from design critique facilitators and peers.
Problem
Pokémon players have reported that custom sorting within Pokémon Home is often lost when the app is closed and reopened. Despite organizing Pokémon in a specific order, the boxes can get reshuffled.
Tools
Figma, Google Meet, and Zoom
Solution
A feature that allows players to organize and sort Pokémon in customizable boxes based on their preferences of strategy.
Introduction
User: Players want to efficiently strategize their Pokémon collections.
The Users
Pokémon Home primarily targets players aged 10 to 35, including casual fans, dedicated collectors, competitive battlers, and long-time players looking to transfer Pokémon from older games.
The Feature
For this version, the key feature of the Strategy Center is the ability to create, edit, and permanently save custom sorting boxes.
These boxes can be tailored to sort Pokémon by competitive relevance, move sets, abilities, or any other criteria the player prefers, streamlining the organization process.
The Goals
Business: Ensure that players frequently use Pokémon Home by offering features that keep them engaged, such as strategizing, organizing, and participating in events.
Technological: Retain and explore familiar user experiences and interfaces from the app and other Pokémon games for the new feature.
Research
Methods
Arriving at the proposed solution was the result of integrating insights from multiple research methods.
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Task Analysis
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Four (4) remote and moderated interviews
Objectives:
By conducting these interviews, I aimed to:
explore what drives players to engage with the app
discover how players engage with the app’s features to identify overall usage patterns and preferences
uncover player desires and unmet needs that could inspire new features or improvements
What I learned: Players are motivated by their nostalgic connection to Pokémon and the sense of accomplishment they get from organizing and managing their collections.
Completing their Pokédex and optimizing teams for battles enhances their engagement. A well-organized collection brings players joy, similar to the satisfaction of arranging physical trading cards.
Pain Points
What I learned: I learned that players are frustrated by the lack of permanent sorting features, which forces them to reapply preferences every session, making the process time-consuming and tedious.
This repetitive task reduces enjoyment and can deter players from engaging fully with the app, especially for those with large collections.
Motivations
4. Trading and Collection Management
The app is valued as a central hub for managing collections and transferring Pokémon across games. Players want enhanced trading filters to streamline collection management and improve the trading experience.
Needs
What I learned: I learned that players highly value the ability to efficiently sort, organize, and manage their Pokémon collections.
Flexibility in sorting options—such as by type, region, or stats—is essential, and players desire more advanced and permanent filtering tools.
Gaining Insights
2. Engagement and Nostalgia
Nostalgia plays a big role in player engagement, with many enjoying revisiting old Pokémon and seeing their long-term collections come together. The emotional connection to past games and milestones motivates players to continue growing their collections.
3. Non-permanent Features
Players are frustrated that sorting preferences don’t persist between sessions, forcing them to reorganize each time they use the app. The lack of permanent custom setups discourages frequent use and makes organization feel repetitive and time-consuming.
6. Time and Effort
Reorganizing Pokémon is described as tedious and time-intensive, especially for larger collections. Players want features like saved sorting preferences to reduce time spent managing their collections and focus more on gameplay.
5. Sense of Accomplishment
Completing Pokédex entries, organizing Pokémon effectively, and managing competitive teams provide players with a strong sense of achievement.
1. Sorting and Organizing
Players appreciate the variety of sorting options like type, stats, and region but feel limited by the lack of permanent customization features. Many desire custom tags and boxes to make organizing more intuitive and efficient.
How might we help Pokémon players unlock the app’s full potential through features that support strategic planning?
Mid-Fi wireframe of Strategy Center
Unlocking the App’s Full Potential
User research suggests that without advanced strategy-based tools, players struggle to optimize their app’s experience.
To help them unlock the app’s full potential, how might we support strategic planning through enhanced features?
Proposed Solution
A feature in Pokémon Home that allows players to create and save personalized sorting preferences for their Pokémon collections.
This would render players to apply their desired sorting criteria, such as by type or stats, without needing to reset these preferences each time they access the app.
Feature Ideation
Designing the Solution
User Persona
My research shaped the User Persona, focusing on:
Streamlining large Pokémon collections with permanent, customizable sorting
Enhancing competitive play with advanced battle strategy tools
Building community through events and connections with fellow trainers
How can Pokémon Home improve collection management and reduce repetitive tasks for players like Carla?
User Flows
Early in this project, I ideated the Strategy Center, a new Pokémon Home feature designed to enhance competitive gameplay with advanced team-building and battle analysis tools.
Permanent Custom Boxes let players organize collections efficiently and sort them by strategy.
Create Pokémon Teams allows saving multiple team setups for different battles.
Edit Team Items enables fine-tuning by adjusting held items for peak performance.
Battle Stats Calculator provides in-depth analytics to assess team effectiveness and refine tactics.
UI Exploration
The Permanent Custom Boxes UI in Pokémon Home sticks to the platform’s familiar grid layout, making collection organization seamless and intuitive.
Visually, it pulls from the Pokémon games with vibrant colors—blending nostalgia with brand consistency.
Style Tile
Wireframe Progress
Usability Testing and Feedback
Usability Testing
The testing objectives were:
1) Create and name a new custom box sort
2) View a Pokémon from an existing custom box sort
What Went Wrong
One participant mentioned it took them a moment to locate the Strategy Center.
Several players expressed the desire for more advanced sorting criteria, such as sorting by EV training status, abilities, and moves.
A few participants suggested making the Strategy Center more central or clearly labeled, noting that its current placement wasn’t immediately obvious.
What Went Right
The majority of participants found navigating to the Strategy Center easy and intuitive, appreciating its location on the main menu.
Most participants appreciated the walkthroughs and pop-up explanations, mentioning they made the experience feel accessible and easy to understand.
Players liked that the prototype mirrored the existing app layout, which helped minimize confusion.
Solution, Work-in-Progress
The Best of Catching ‘Em All
The sorting box creation and customization screens allow players to view their custom box sorts, and create, personalize, and edit their Pokémon sorting preferences, including criteria like type, stats, or gender.
The box sort naming screen allow players to assign custom names to their sorting boxes, making it easier to identify and manage different collections.
The box view preview screen helps players quickly view a depiction of the custom box sort’s appearance before they confirm its creation.
Box sort naming
Sorting box creation (left) and box customization (right)
Box preview (left) and sorting box creation (right) post-box creation
The Next Steps
Complete the Strategy Center
The proposed Strategy Center included the permanent Box Sort as a feature, which was the focus of this project.
I would like to develop the rest of the proposed Strategy Center features such as the:
Team Creator
Team Item Edit
Battle Stats Calculator
The completion of the Strategy Center would further improve and optimize the time and effort players invest into Pokémon Home.
What I Learned
This project sharpened my ability to design for niche user needs by tackling the complexities of a specialized app like Pokémon Home. I learned to prioritize features that accommodate various organizational preferences.
A key takeaway was the importance of user-centered design and iterative prototyping. Regular feedback helped refine features to better resonate with users. I also gained insight into balancing innovation with simplicity, ensuring advanced tools remain approachable, brand-consistent, and seamlessly integrated into the app’s identity.
More Projects