ROG Gamer Study
Design Research for Asus Gaming Products and Brand Strategy
Project Detail
Type: Design Research
Year: 2015
Product: Republic of Gamers (ROG) is a sub-brand of Asus that offers high performance gadgets from PC components, laptops, to peripherals such as keyboards and mice. These products are targeted to gaming users.
Project Context
In 2015, we were tasked to plan a series of interviews to gather ROG product feedbacks. Similar projects were done in prior years and we have documented insights about our core users.
One thing caught our attention early on is that even though the products were highly praised by the PC building community, “gamers” did not see Asus ROG as their first gaming brand choice. The implication was that Asus did not tell the right story to the right audience.
Project Responsibility
I led the project with 6 other researchers to conduct studies in 7 cities. My responsibilities included:
Project planning and management.
Conducting research and capturing data.
Synthesizing personas and generating insights.
Creating brand strategy and communicating to stakeholders.
Redefine Research Objective
The ROG team—product managers, designers, and marketing executives wanted to know again what kind of hardware gamers would like. But it was more evidenced from previous research that the mismatch between brand story and its audience was the pressing problem.
Main competitor MSI was making gaming contents on YouTube while Asus ROG was making “hardware” contents.
Around the same time, esport was on the rise to enter prime time entertainment, and there are more people interested in gaming than ever. Our competitors have been making game-related contents on social media and YouTube. Therefore, we spent a month doing desktop research and collected data to support the new direction of study.
We presented our findings and convinced the stakeholders that we should focus on who are the gamers, what do they play, and what will make their gaming experience better.
A framework by the research team for discussion when we created the new research scope.
Thus, this research attempted to bring empathetic design thinking to rethink product and brand strategies and align with what gamers desire.
Research Methods
There were many research activities happened and we have talked to over 100 gamers in in-depth interviews, focus groups, and event observations.
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In-depth Interview
This helped to capture each user’s gaming behavior and hardware preference. We also listened to their journeys and rationales when they purchased the products.
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Expert Interview with Esport Clubs
This helped us to understand what professional gamers think of gaming hardware—how did they prioritize the functions that helped them succeed.
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Focus Group
We gathered gamers to understand what did they hear and see during their search of new gaming hardware and how did they perceived each brand.
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Concept Testing
We brought several concept mockups to the focus group to see people’s reaction to different unusual design. This was done to get early feedback in the design process.
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Event Observation
We attended several major esport events. The objective was to capture the passion and excitement gamers displayed in forms of videos and pictures.
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Game Story Sharing
During the event observation, we asked gamers to share their favorite games, characters, and the stories of their gaming enthusiasm.
Research Journey
We went to seven global cities, conducted 40 in-depth interviews, 8 focus groups, and 6 gaming events. This journey spanned from April to December in 2015.
Outcomes
To help project team better understand our target audience, I and the team layout outcomes starting from relatable gamer stories, community cultures, to synthetic personas and insights for gaming products.
Gamers’ Stories
These personal stories were created not only show gamers’ interests in gaming but also those outside of it that have similar pop culture references. For instance, one graphic designer I interviewed showed us his collection of retro Nintendo cartridges, his own visual experiment website, and the community he organized for cinema critique and social gaming events.
Key takeaway of these stories is that ROG has to reach its audience with a broader sense of culture that includes fictional novels, movies, TV-series, and arts.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
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It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Personas
Three personas were produced based on interviewees preferred genres of games and the motives of playing games. These personas were the cornerstones later used to product development plans.
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Avid Gamer
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
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Thrill Seeker
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
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Social Partaker
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Product Strategy
Placeholder
Learnings
Its is important to take initiatives to better define research questions even if it means to sidetrack the original objectives.
Always involve different stakeholders early to acquire consensus in the research process will increase the impact of research outcomes.
Bring storytelling in the report will help listeners connecting to the personas and the discoveries.