One of the goals of discovery was to use diverse collections in the catalog to help users find something interesting for themselves.
To do this, we needed to gradually narrow down the user's choice to a limited set of interesting picks.
Work in this direction is still ongoing.
Problem 1
Users can only choose a game based on its cover, title, and a small gameplay video.
Solution
Instead of identical recommendation rows, we created a more diverse feed and added a game gallery with summarized user comments. This can simplify game selection for people who care about others' opinions.
Result
Playtime per user increased by 4%, and total playtime grew by 1.15%.
Problem 2
Users can only choose a game based on its cover, title, and a small gameplay video.
Solution
We created collections with large gameplay videos in different formats: vertical and horizontal. This lets users' eyes catch on games and explore them more closely.
Result
Horizontal gallery: +0.91% playtime.
Problem 3
Current covers are very small: 6 per row and 12 per row on large screens. It is hard to pick something interesting when the whole screen is filled with tiny images.
Solution
We increased the tile size to 4 and 8 items per row on standard and large screens, respectively.
Result
+1.4% playtime, +0.6% gaming days.
Problem 4
Categories are currently shown in the left-hand menu as a long, uniform list with names that are not always clear for new users.
Solution
We highlighted categories more prominently in the feed, showing them with example games and a short description of what these games are about.
Result
The experiment was not accepted. As expected, we strongly shifted traffic into categories: playtime from category pages grew by 40%. However, the category pages were not ready to convert users well, and the number of daily players decreased by 2%. Further experiments and improvements are needed.
Problem 5
The first row can take up six rows of games. We need to test collections in the 2nd-3rd positions, but because the first collection is so tall, users often do not scroll far enough to see the second one.
Solution
Split the collection into parts.
Result
+1% daily players, +4% daily players for top games.
