A home for Epics

Epics are Prodigy toys for kids to collect in the real world. Each toy includes a digital Epic code players could use to access the in-game characters they represent. Epics are some of the most powerful creatures on Prodigy Island. Players can use them in their math battles to cast super-powerful attacks and even have them as a companion as they explore Prodigy.

As the product owner and designer of the squad, I worked with stakeholders to gather requirements, set a design strategy, and coordinate team members to deliver accurate and timely solutions for designing and deploying an e-commerce website that acted as a hub for Prodigy’s line of toys. The existing page was dated and limited in its presentation of the products. With a new collection of times, Prodigy needed a page that could support multiple toys and collections.

The website was designed as a home for the characters and to connect them to the Prodigy game with illustrations and lore that resonate with a young audience. Launching the website and product line created a lot of excitement among students and led to positive product sales.

 

Team

2 Developers
1 QA
1 Scrum Master

Time

3 Months


Challenge

The journey from the game to the website and cart checkout is visually disconnected. Furthermore, there is a lack of clarity on how the toys work with the game. There’s an opportunity to leverage the game’s visual direction to create a cohesive experience that excites players to purchase a figurine.


Goal

Create a seamless journey

Bring Prodigy’s game, website, and shoppify account together.

Leverage merchandising

Provide opportunities to present the product in fun and exciting ways.

Explain how it works

Ensure the instructions are easy to find and simple to understand.


Business Impact

The product launch was a big success for sales and player engagement. Over the past few years, players and parents everywhere have shared how much they enjoy the Epics. Prodigy Epics were discontinued in 2019 but all the love players had for them didn’t go unnoticed. And while Prodigy couldn’t bring the physical toys back, they decided to give players access to these fantastic pets in the game again through a game update.

Toys sold out

Toys were a huge success with all series being totally sold out.

New graphic assets

Graphics created by in-house talents were used on many other company projects

Junior team onboarded

Junior members were successfully onboarded to the company and Scrum process.


Insights

Lacking visual cohesion

The graphics used on the page were limited for a children's game. It lacked the dynamic visual direction of the Prodigy world.

No merchandising options

Most users buy more than one Epic, and the current layout misses an opportunity to make it easier to purchase multiple toys.

Easy-to-miss information

The steps to activate the toys and the answers to frequently asked questions were limited in visibility or not available at all on the main landing page.

Disconnected shopping cart

Branding on the Shopify cart page did not align with the Prodigy visual branding creating a jarring handoff when navigating from one platform to the other..


Solution

Be playful

Taking cues from successful toys like Lego and Nintendo Amiibos, I designed a layout big on images to let the personality and aesthetic appeal of the characters shine through. The layout also incorporated merchandising components to create bundles and highlight sales and savings.

I worked with an illustrator to create requirements for these graphics and ensure they were delivered on time and with the right specs to match our technical and branding needs.

Tell a story

Each product page was designed as a “home” for the character. We used character and background illustrations to contextualize each character in the game. We also created character descriptions to drive this further.

The product pages allowed users to select multiple toys more easily or see related products to the collection with the addition of a product carousel.

 

Be helpful

Creating a dedicated “How to unlock” page helped make this content more accessible to find. It also gave us the space to be more detailed in the explanations we created based on customer support feedback.

We also included a “Help & Support” component at the bottom of every page with the most relevant information about purchasing, shipping, and other policies.

Be consistent

The design of the toy page was extended to our Shopify shopping cart using Prodigy’s branding. In addition, we added a “Most popular” component, included a mini cart, and made changes to the shopping cart pages to display product images, control quantities, and highlight savings.

We also analyzed our conversion funnel to reduce friction on the forms and fields presented after checkout.


Learnings

This project was valuable as it allowed me to experience a product owner role and expanded my perspective on business objectives and resource management. Epics were loved by many Prodigy employees, which helped me identify interested folks who could contribute to the project. After launch, we received positive feedback on the toys, many in the shape of hand-written letters by students. This feedback encouraged us to lean more on illustrations and find ways to leverage them for the benefit and delight of players.