Borgata Casino User Experience Redesign

TRICIA SPRINGFIELD MIDTERM

HOMEPAGE, NAVIGATION & CASINO GAMES REDESIGN

It’s easy to get carried away when you’re playing online. Whether it’s Instagram, Words with Friends, or the latest book on your Kindle, we lose hours of time enjoying whatever our digital devices have to offer.

A recent addition to this landscape is real-money gambling, available in New Jersey. To address the major challenges of marketing BorgataCasino. com, we first have to not only understand the market it lives in, but its users and their goals as well.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 2. Research 4. Opportunity

5. Creative Concepts 18. Evaluation

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With offers like $20 free, and deposit matches up to $1,500, it’s obvious that within the New Jersey online gaming market money talks. While gambling is a money market, the brands themselves become lost once the user gets their free money. Every online gaming outlet in New Jersey offers the same games and a similar sign-up bonus. This tells us that sign-up offers won’t differentiate BorgataCasino.com.

Beyond money and games, what does each brand offer the consumer? Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa is positioned within the market as being far superior to its competitors. Borgata has the personality of an upscale and fun, yet affordable Atlantic City destination.

BorgataCasino.com leverages this brand recognition, offering the consumer a sense of familiarity. However, and for good reason, many consumers are hesitant to give out their banking information online Out of 8 people surveyed, every single one said they didn’t trust the site enough to enter any kind of banking information. With current messaging BoragtaCasino. com has already positioned itself in a space that resonates within its target market. To gain great market share, BorgataCasino.com needs to earn the trust of new real-money online gamers and focus heavily on the specific user benefits that it provides.

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OFFERS POKER

BRAND LOYALTY

POPULAR GAMES

H T R G V

SIGN UP OFFER

BORGATA CASINO

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TROPICANA CASINO

RESORTS ONLINE

GOLDEN NUGGET

VIRGIN CASINO

HARRAH’S CASINO

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INSIGHT MEETS OPPORTUNITY WHAT:

SO WHAT:

NOW WHAT:

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Competitors’ advertising is heavily focused on sign up offers and games.

BorgataCasino.com offers what other brands do and more, including a top-notch gaming experience, a variety of people to play against, and fierce brand loyalty through its Atlantic City property.

BorgataCasino.com has the potential to separate itself even more by claiming something everyone else has overlooked.

BorgataCasino.com has the opportunity to reassure new players they are safe, through targeted messaging and a superior user experience.

BorgataCasino.com needs to look at gaming differently – not from a money point of view, but from a consumer point of view.

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STRATEGY MEET CREATIVE OUR LOOK: BorgataCasino.com leverages a clear, fluid color scheme across the casino and poker sites.

It uses the land based berry color to drive recognition, while differentiating itself by using primarily the grape color. BorgataCasino.com uses large, thin headings to create a sleek look that won’t be overpowered by game imagery.

STRATEGIC CTAs: Large call-to-action buttons are placed strategically throughout the site, with four distinct styles; large yellow to be used on top of darker colors as well as large berry to be used on top of light colors. Each CTA is also replicated in a smaller version as well. On hover each CTA receives a drop shadow and the arrow nudges to the right a few pixels, encouraging the user to click while adding subtle motion to the site, further driving brand recognition.

UPPER 50: The updated homepage hero section highlights primarily jackpots, welcome imagery, and no more than one new game release or game highlight. The updated latest winners section is much bigger, and offers more real estate to rotate through winners, reinforcing the idea that you too could win big. The latest winner’s box only features win amounts over $300 and can be implemented in one of three color schemes. (see next page).

LOWER 50: The table games image is updated to show a real mockup of how playing a table game would look so the user learns what to expect. The updated homepage content devotes 1/3 of its copy to safety and security, reinforcing user trust. For those who still aren’t sure, they can read more detailed information into how BorgataCasino.com is regulated by clicking “learn more”.

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GET WHERE YOU’RE GOING The updated navigation uses real user feedback to create a hierarchy of information flowing from left to right. 75% of users polled clicked on “Get Started” before they clicked on “Play in Browser” or “Download”. Users simply want learn more about to the site and its process before downloading any software or entering any sensitive information. “Play in Browser” and “Download” still live right behind “Get Started” because they are still two of the most important links on the site. Once users are logged into the browser app or downloaded client, this is where they will receive future communication regarding promotions and offers, they just need a little more encouragement to get there.

“Casino Games” has moved in front of “Banking” because all of the users polled were genuinely interested in what types of games were offered. 80% of users went to “Casino Games” to see what games were offered instead of “Play in Browser” making this page a powerful acquisition tool for those who simply love to play.

The “Mobile” link has been updated to say “Mobile App”. 100% of Android users who were asked to download the mobile app went straight to the Google Play Store on their phone and downloaded the wrong Borgata app. Since the app is not officially allowed in the Google Play Store, BorgataCasino.com has to create awareness of their mobile apps through the website and again reassure users that this software is completely safe. Changing this navigation item to include the word “app” allows the navigation link to be much more descriptive, increasing the likelyhood that users will click on it, and find the information they are looking for.

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JUST HIT PLAY Building upon the overwhelming number of users who went straight to “Casino Games”, this page needed a facelift. Game announcements and jackpot heroes were filtered out from the homepage, so that the focus is primarily on monetary security there. With the redesign of the “Casino Games” page, those heroes will now live here. This page will highlight specific slot jackpots, as well as new game announcements. The updated grid of game images and titles allows for more games to be visible at once, with options for new games and jackpot tags. The rearrangement of this information offers the user more information with less clicking. On rollover, each game image will offer a play now button, so if the user has found what they need, there is no room for hesitation. The CTAs and information tags use the new yellow to differentiate them from the game art and allow them to stand out to the user.

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MORE MEANS MORE Currently the game rules pages are not very stylized and offer little content to the user other than literal game rules, which are long and confusing. The updated detail pages will include intro teaser copy used for both SEO and to entice the user into playing.

These pages will also include promotional game videos highlighting winning spins and functionality. The page will then offer a large “Play Now” CTA. If that isn’t enough the user can continue scrolling and view the detailed game rules with a tabbed menu. Even with the menu, these pages can still become very long, so a scroll to top button will be added at the bottom of each page, following the user as they scroll.

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EVALUATION BorgataCasino.com will administer a 50/50 split for major changes such as navigation items and winners block changes to evaluate the effectiveness of both.

Tracking will be added to the “Mobile App” link to monitor how many users click on it and what they do once they are there. Tracking will also be added to the “Casino Games” section of the site to monitor how users move around that section so that changes can be made accordingly.

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