Unity x Multilot:
XtendGame
Compliance Platform
Providing a centralized compliance SaaS platform for gaming entities to manage games of chance and licenses, thereby minimizing the risk of non-compliance.
Role / UX Designer, UI Designer
Methodology / Research, User interviews, Discovery, Storyboarding, Wireframes, Interaction Design, Mockups
Concentrations / Remote Operation, Real Time 3D, Computer Vision, Digital Twins, Machine Learning, Robotics, 5G Network
Overview
There are severe consequences when gaming entities are not compliant when running games of chance. As a way to simplify and centralize the process, Multilot is a company that aims to provide a comprehensive compliance SaaS platform to clients to ensure compliance in managing all components of their games of chance and their respective licenses.
The Opportunity
Multilot saw a gap where gaming bodies struggled to build a platform to undertake the complicated and decentralized system of managing games, games instances, players, limits, transactions, licenses, and generating reports. To improve this process, Multilot wanted to create a platform to leverage for their games and later whitelabel to sell to potential clients.
How might we centralize management of games of chance so that users can navigate complex compliance requirements with ease?
Requirements & Constraints
As compliance issues can be complex, we determined 4 pillars that were key to the success of our platform
Versatile for different use cases and localized
As Multilot intended to whitelabel the XtendGames solution, the platform required that the product be flexible according to Multilot’s client’s needs. Since Multilot and their clients work in different locales with distinct legal requirements, we had to make sure the platform was scalable and could be localized appropriately.
Management Ecosystem
Due to a need to strictly be compliant with individual licenses, we focused on creating an ecosystem for managing licenses, games, players, limits, and transactions as well as empower clients to generate reports for legal requirements. Additionally, clients need to create a way to manage gift cards and communications with users
Keeping in mind “who is our user”
To remain compliant, it was also vital to establish user permissions correctly and accurately. We accounted for the two main and distinct user groups when using the SaaS platform: Multilot and their clientele. Depending if a user was a Multilot administrator or a client user, each account type would have different viewing, editing, creation, and destructive allowances and privileges.
UX over UI
As a lean team, it was imperative to focus on the UX. As a platform with many interweaving and complex components, it was paramount to make sure that the experience was optimized despite the available resources to work on the platform. Also since the platform was being built from scratch, resources had to piecemeal the solution together. Each release needed a UX that was scalable and built upon and enhanced past features while accounting for future features.
Exploration
As our team was building the XtendGames platform from scratch, I had to build a solid knowledge base of what was already built and what Multilot and their clients required moving forward. Part of my due diligence as the UX designer for the team was to delineate the use cases and permissions of each user type. This was vital as each user type dictated the design for flows and wireframes that were used in communicating to Multilot and for reference developers.
Personas & Use Cases
PERSONA
DESCRIPTION
EXAMPLE USE CASES
System Administrator
This user has access to most permissions to add, change, alter, and delete for all accounts in the system. This individual is a Multilot user and has oversight for all client accounts
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Create, modify, delete new users on system and client level
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Create, schedule, modify, and delete game templates and instances for clients
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View, edit, flag, activate, and deactivate player accounts
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Send communications system and client wide
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Generate reports
Client Administrator
Client administrators have permissions only to add, change, alter and delete for their organization. They can only access their own client account.
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Create, modify, delete new users for their organization
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Create, schedule, modify, and delete game templates and instances for themselves
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View, edit, flag, activate, and deactivate player accounts in their account
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Create gift card programs
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Generate reports
Notary
Notaries are required in some countries to oversee and approve of drawings for games. They are a precautionary measure for entities to ensure that their games are using Random Number Generators (RNGs) and that their games are fair and legal.
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Certify draws, reject draws, or initiate a redraw for games
Regulator
At least two regulators are required to create and approve of a license so game templates and instances can be run
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Create and approve licenses for their games
Reporter
Some countries require weekly and monthly reports. A reporter will provide these reports to the governing body or will create reports for internal purposes.
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Generate reports regarding the games a company is supporting, number of players, revenue, winners, etc
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Produce reports for internal auditing
Help Desk
Help desk personnel assist players by troubleshooting and modifying their account.
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Help players reset their password, understand why their account is disabled, adjust their wallet limits, etc.
Assist players contest transactions
Report and escalate player’s technical issues
Notary
The individuals who are partaking in playing game instances.
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Players do not have direct access to the Xtendgames platform. However, the platform stores their account, wallet, transaction, games, and PII data. To some extent, they can manage their account on the game directly or through the Help Desk.
As I joined the project midway, I held many investigative conversations analyzing each existing feature and created flows to illuminate gaps where more clarification and decision making from Multilot was required. Creating flows not only aided my onboarding onto the project but also highlighted areas where the user experience needed improvement. For example, going through email template creation, I requested that the pattern to create templates should be the same as other creation patterns on the platform.
Explorative flows also assisted in raising questions to clarify functionality. While exploring the client administrator player management flow, it was brought forth that we required the client to define what would be required for banking information management. It was later determined that banking information would be managed by a third party.
Example flow capturing a client administrator the navigating player and wallet management release. Mapping out the flow raised questions (in red), raised questions about the UX, and highlighted areas that still needed to be defined.
Design
While working on the XtendGames platform, I provided UX guidance on 6 releases. The features I designed are detailed below:
FEATURE
DESCRIPTION
DELIVERABLES
Client API key Management
The release which enabled the client to create and manage API keys on the platform.
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Design Review
Games Management
(Stage 1)
This feature introduced new infrastructure where administrators could create, modify, cancel, and duplicate parent game templates and child game instances for game licenses. This release focused on simple sales game instance types where there were single layer prize structures and winning tickets were determined before purchase.
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Flows
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Wireframes
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Mockups
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Design Review
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Dashboard
Dashboard
To improve the experience and onboarding of client administrators, a dashboard was implemented to give users better context and understanding of what they can do on the platform. This replaced a landing page that was lacking content and was largely blank.
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Wireframes
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Mockups
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Design Review
Games Management
(Stage 2)
We built upon the previous games management release and enabled users to further configure post-drawn games where winning tickets would be determined after tickets were purchased and had complicated, leveled prize structures.
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Flows
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Wireframes
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Mockups
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Design Review
Notary Processes
This initiative incorporated the notary user type into the environment. The release created pathways for notaries to oversee and approve draws for games that required notary signoff.
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Flows
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Wireframes
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Mockups
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Design Review
Player and Wallet Management
To further expand on the platform, we integrated player and wallet management (includes transaction management)
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Flows
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Wireframes
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Mockups
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Design Review
Each release needed investigations into what would be required for each initiative and to aid Multilot interpret and distill their needs. To do this, I captured loosely defined requirements into flows to shape an actionable experience. Once flows were approved, I created wireframes and had to provide mockups with interaction design annotations and account for the different paths that the user could take for development as I was the only designer allocated to the project.
Example wireframes for post drawn game configuration. The wireframes under the yellow header account for the screens to create game templates whereas the blue are the screens for game instances. You may take a closer look here.
Once feedback was received from the team and Multilot, wireframes were then translated into mocks with interaction annotations. These screens capture the interactions for the player management table.
Once developers built a release, I performed design reviews where I cross referenced my designs with what was built by developers. This would include further clarification of the UX to match the intended design, and raising UI and style discrepancies in the designs with the build version.
Audit and Iterations
As the platform passed through several designer’s hands, between releases I worked with another UX designer to conduct a comprehensive design audit of the platform. Our objective was to meticulously examine every user interaction so I created detailed flows that captured all possible user pathways. This exercise allowed us to uncover any potential UX or UI issues present in the platform's current implementation. Throughout the audit, we identified several concerns regarding the global and general navigation of the site, prompting us to propose revised infrastructure and navigation. The audit also brought to light various consistency issues which we aimed to resolve through the implementation of global design patterns. Lastly, I compiled a list of bug reports, highlighting specific issues that needed to be addressed by the development team.
Example flows mapping the platform used to visually see the relationships of each feature and permissions for client administrators (above) and regulators (below). Similar flows for system administrators and notaries were also created to illuminate any pain points in the UX and UI that needed to be revisited.
Retrospective
Onboarding onto the Multilot project presented its fair share of challenges. With minimal handoff from the previous designer, comprehending the intricate infrastructure would have been much smoother with well-structured and centralized documentation. A common observation amongst the team was a lack of consensus in understanding the ins and outs of the platform and its users. Thankfully, a few team members possessed extensive experience with Multilot, and served as subject matter experts who could assist the rest of the team. Nevertheless, the disorganized documentation posed a risk of losing valuable knowledge if any of the senior members left the project.
Despite these obstacles, the process of creating flows, collaborating with my peers, and immersing myself in the UX of the Xtendgames platform paved the way for my growth as a Multilot subject matter expert. Overall, this project exposed me to the intricate realm of games of chance and compliance within a SaaS platform and gave me more confidence and skills to work on complex systems.