Case Study: Shop by Heroes

Making it easier to browse cosmetics by hero and use gamification to reward players for completing full sets

Making it easier to browse cosmetics by hero and use gamification to reward players for completing full sets

Making it easier to browse cosmetics by hero and use gamification to reward players for completing full sets

This was an Innovation Week project where I worked with a PM to create a new shopping flow for Overwatch’s MTX products.

Problem statement

Overwatch players typically have one or two favorite heroes and prefer cosmetic items for those heroes. However, the current shop doesn’t make it easy to browse MTX items by hero.

Goals

We have identified the following goals:

  • Make it easy to quickly find cosmetic items for my favorite heroes by displaying key details like ownership status and item category without cluttering the shopping experience.

  • Use gamification principles to create a sense of accomplishment when collecting a full set for a specific hero.

Role

Senior product designer

Date

2022

Deliverables
  • Strategy

  • Wireframes

  • Mid-fidelity design

User Flow

Since this user flow needs to fit into the current e-commerce experience, we’ve identified the following pages to design.

Section in family page

By adding a swimlane section featuring the most popular heroes on the family page, users are encouraged to browse by hero. This also introduces a new product card that shows how many items the user owns.

All Heroes Page

On the All Heroes page, users should be able to see all heroes and filter them by role. This is consistent with the Overwatch game page design.

Hero Page

On a specific hero’s page, we focused on three key functionalities:

  1. Show progress in MTX item collection to encourage completing a full set.

  2. Allow filtering by ownership, category, rarity, and more.

  3. Reveal additional information through interaction.

Progressive disclosure

We aimed to keep the design simple, but upon interaction, users can see more details about pricing, rarity, and whether the item is available for purchase.

Key Takeaways

Exploring an alternative user flow with different user intent was one of the most fun thought exercise to explore ways we can add an element of gamification to bring more delight in the purchase experience. We were well aware of the technical limitations on this project so did not push further to make the project a reality, but I really hope the team can make a case for this user flow for purchase.

  1. Unique challenges of organizing a large volume of content
    This project provided an excellent opportunity to view content consumption as a user experience challenge and to identify different ways to improve both reading and authoring workflows. Design is just as important as content, which is why it's important to make your blog as user-friendly as possible.

  2. Working better with engineers through rigorous documentation
    At the start of the project, the goal was to document the existing blog styling in preparation for the authoring tool migration. This provided me with a solid understanding of both the existing design and the new components we needed to create, down to the smallest details. By creating comprehensive design specifications, I was able to effectively communicate with the engineers and address any questions they had throughout the implementation process. This experience enabled me to create my own techniques for documenting design that improved communication with engineers.

  1. Unique challenges of organizing a large volume of content
    This project provided an excellent opportunity to view content consumption as a user experience challenge and to identify different ways to improve both reading and authoring workflows. Design is just as important as content, which is why it's important to make your blog as user-friendly as possible.

  2. Working better with engineers through rigorous documentation
    At the start of the project, the goal was to document the existing blog styling in preparation for the authoring tool migration. This provided me with a solid understanding of both the existing design and the new components we needed to create, down to the smallest details. By creating comprehensive design specifications, I was able to effectively communicate with the engineers and address any questions they had throughout the implementation process. This experience enabled me to create my own techniques for documenting design that improved communication with engineers.

©2025 by Belle Lee

©2025 by Belle Lee

©2025 by Belle Lee