Case 01

Re-Engaging Players Through a Global In-Game Rewards Campaign

Gaming

Re-Engaging Players Through a Global In-Game Rewards Campaign

Re-Engaging Players Through a Global In-Game Rewards Campaign

Project overview

Epic Games partnered with Clock to launch Most Wanted, a two-week Fortnite campaign designed to re-engage millions of lapsed players worldwide. I led the UX design for the web-based companion experience, turning Epic's complex requirements into a seamless journey that supported nearly half a million players across 13 languages and regions.

Problem Statement

Epic Games needed a web companion for their Most Wanted Fortnite campaign that could handle massive global participation while making complex reward mechanics feel simple and motivating for both new and returning players across 13 international markets.

Industry

Gaming

My Role

UX UI Designer

Platforms

Desktop

Mobile

Timeline

2 Months

Industry

Gaming

My Role

UX UI Designer

Platforms

Desktop

Mobile

Timeline

6 Months

My Role

UX UI DesignerI led the UX design for the campaign, shaping Epic’s requirements into a seamless experience that scaled across 13 languages and regions. My focus was on making it simple for players to log in, track progress, and understand rewards at a glance. I worked closely with developers and project managers to ensure designs translated reliably into a global product, balancing clarity for players with the technical demands of a high-traffic, two-week campaign.

01 User Insights & Strategy

Based on Epic's player data and campaign requirements, we identified three distinct user types that the Most Wanted experience needed to serve: lapsed players seeking reasons to return, new players discovering Fortnite for the first time, and active players looking for fresh challenges.

02 Key User Behaviour
  • Lapsed players needed immediate clarity on campaign value and effort required.

  • New players needed simplified onboarding without assumed Fortnite knowledge.

  • Active players wanted competitive features and social comparison beyond basic rewards.

03 Design Implications

The challenge was creating a single interface that could serve these different motivations without overwhelming newcomers or boring experienced players. This understanding informed our design decisions around onboarding flow and information hierarchy.

04 Design Approach

Epic needed one experience for three player types: lapsed players needing motivation, newcomers discovering Fortnite, and active players seeking challenges. We designed a unified dashboard with tailored entry points, newcomers got explanations, returning users accessed progress directly, leading to the same engagement-focused experience.

Persona
Marcus Chen

Lapsed Fornite Player

"I want to feel like my time gaming actually accomplishes something meaningful, not just endless grinding."

Age: 22

Gender: Male

Location: Ottowa, Canada

Last played 6 weeks ago

Key Behaviours

Plays in 1-2 hour sessions, usually evenings

Checks social media for gaming updates but rarely opens games

Values exclusive items that show skill/participation over generic rewards

Goal

Unwind after work/study without feeling like it's "wasted time

Feel skilled/accomplished at something outside of work

Feel skilled/accomplished at something outside of work

Maintain social connections with gaming friends

Maintain social connections with gaming friends

Frustrations

My friends moved on to other games and I'm playing solo now

I feel guilty spending hours gaming when I have other things to do

Games keep changing and I don't know what's new anymore

Frictionless entry, rewarding first steps.
The Challenge

Early drop-offs were the biggest threat to this two-week campaign. Every player who left at the first hurdle meant lost engagement, fewer leaderboard entries, and diminished buzz. This would make success a far reach.

The Constraint

Epic required existing authorisation (Epic ID, PlayStation, Xbox, Google, nintento etc). While this was outside of our control, familiar logins reduced friction and built trust.

The Design Decision

We paired sign-up with an instant onboarding reward. This small but meaningful win respected players like Marcus Chen with limited time, and gave them an immediate reason to keep exploring.

Keeping Players Engaged
  • A clear dashboard showed progress at a glance.

  • Rewards milestones made even short sessions meaningful.

  • Simple “how rewards work” guidance built trust.

  • Layered leaderboards ensured competition felt fair and inclusive

The Outcome

By keeping sign-up simple, rewarding players instantly, and guiding them with clear steps, we turned onboarding from a potential weak spot into a strength. The instant reward built momentum, the dashboard and milestones gave direction, and the leaderboards kept things relevant. These UX choices meant players didn’t just join, they took part.

Keeping Players Engaged
  • A clear dashboard showed progress at a glance.

  • Rewards milestones made even short sessions meaningful.

  • Simple “how rewards work” guidance built trust.

  • Layered leaderboards ensured competition felt fair and inclusive

The Outcome

By keeping sign-up simple, rewarding players instantly, and guiding them with clear steps, we turned onboarding from a potential weak spot into a strength. The instant reward built momentum, the dashboard and milestones gave direction, and the leaderboards kept things relevant. These UX choices meant players didn’t just join, they took part.

Insights into artefacts

With user research insights and flow architecture established, I moved into wireframing to translate abstract user needs into concrete interface solutions. This phase focused on rapid iteration and stakeholder alignmen, creating mid-fidelity layouts that could be quickly tested and refined before committing to high-fidelity design. Working closely with Epic's product team and Clock's developers, I prioritised clarity and functionality over aesthetics at this stage, ensuring every interface decision directly supported the user behaviors we'd identified previosuly during the project.

01 Responsive Framework

Created mobile-first wireframes that scaled seamlessly across device types, ensuring consistent functionality whether users accessed the campaign via mobile, desktop, or gaming console browsers.

02 Reward System Clarity

Organised reward information and milestone tracking to make campaign mechanics immediately understandable rather than buried in complex interfaces.

03 Progressive Information Display

Structured content hierarchy to reveal campaign complexity gradually, essential features immediately visible, advanced options accessible without cluttering the primary interface.

04 Stakeholder Alignment

Used wireframes to get early feedback from Epic's team on core user journeys, catching potential usability issues before moving to visual design.

Results & Impact

The Most Wanted campaign successfully engaged 473,000 players across 13 international markets, validating our design decisions around simplified onboarding, real-time progress tracking, and cross-platform accessibility. Most importantly, Epic integrated our campaign framework into their standard toolkit for future re-engagement initiatives, demonstrating the long-term value of user-centered design at global scale.

Platform on macbook
Platform on macbook
Platform on macbook
473,000 registered users across Epic's campaign period
Streamlined sign-up flow, reducing onboarding abandonment significantly
Campaign design framework adopted by Epic for future initiatives
What I Discovered
Global Scale Changes Design Priorities

Working at Epic's scale taught me that design decisions I'd normally consider minor, like information hierarchy and visual feedback, become critical when multiplied across hundreds of thousands of users and multiple markets.

Global Scale Changes Design Priorities

Working at Epic's scale taught me that design decisions I'd normally consider minor, like information hierarchy and visual feedback, become critical when multiplied across hundreds of thousands of users and multiple markets.

Global Scale Changes Design Priorities

Working at Epic's scale taught me that design decisions I'd normally consider minor, like information hierarchy and visual feedback, become critical when multiplied across hundreds of thousands of users and multiple markets.

User Research Drives Technical Decisions

Understanding different player motivations directly influenced technical architecture choices, proving that user insights should shape system design, not just interface design.

User Research Drives Technical Decisions

Understanding different player motivations directly influenced technical architecture choices, proving that user insights should shape system design, not just interface design.

User Research Drives Technical Decisions

Understanding different player motivations directly influenced technical architecture choices, proving that user insights should shape system design, not just interface design.

Cross-Functional Collaboration Amplifies Impact

The campaign's success came from tight collaboration between design, development, and Epic's product team. Design thinking became most powerful when it informed engineering decisions from the start.

Cross-Functional Collaboration Amplifies Impact

The campaign's success came from tight collaboration between design, development, and Epic's product team. Design thinking became most powerful when it informed engineering decisions from the start.

Cross-Functional Collaboration Amplifies Impact

The campaign's success came from tight collaboration between design, development, and Epic's product team. Design thinking became most powerful when it informed engineering decisions from the start.

This project shifted my approach from designing interfaces to designing systems. At global scale, the connections between components matter as much as the components themselves.

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