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Rock Band 3: The Surprising Achievement of an Inspiring Team
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Rock Band 3: The Surprising Achievement of an Inspiring Team

  • TECHNICAL LEVEL
Business Strategy Client experience & UX

img_3673Following my second day at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition in Los Angeles, I could tell you about the different games I had the chance to try first such as: Assassins Creeds Brotherhood, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Shaun White Skateboarding or Tron Evolution to name a few. Instead, I decided to share with you what I learned during the media-only demo I managed to slip into today. It was the one proposed by the Harmonix team, the creators of Rock Band 3.

 

LISTEN TO ITS USERS AND RESPOND TO THE DESIRES OF FANS

Despite what we may think, the Harmonix team tells us that developing a commercial success like Rock Band is not easy. And to see the result of all the work that lies behind the improvements and additions offered in the new version, it is easy to believe that the efforts made have been considerable. Guided upstream by user comments on forums, social platforms, other websites and by recurring questions received through other means of communication, the list of recommendations was already impressive. The challenge now lay in the willingness to meet the desires of the various followers. And listening to Harmonix's main spokesperson, Rock Band fans won't be disappointed. And, from the number of anecdotes and user experiences he shared with us on the scene, it's clear that he understands exactly what both casual gamers and die-hard enthusiasts want.

And you, on your side, are you aware of the irritations and desires of your customers for the products or services that you offer them?

 

Study the ergonomics of the interface and optimize it accordingly


The complete overhaul of the navigation inside the game is certainly one of the most conclusive changes in Rock Band 3. In addition to breathing simplicity, the different menus are clear and do not leave the player questioning. Fast and intuitive, the new interface serves the two most distinct player profiles very well: the player who wants to start playing as quickly as possible and the one who wants to personalize their entire gaming experience. Not to mention that the multiplayer mode now features a menu per player which are all navigable in parallel which allows each of them to customize their gaming experience as they wish. No more waiting for the first player to fix everything for you.

For your part, do you believe that your site could become faster to navigate, save time for your visitors and improve their visiting experience? Don't you think that structural changes of this order would encourage your visitors to come back to your website more often, given the simplicity and efficiency of the interface you offer there.


Integrate an effective internal search engine


With the various Rock Band titles and new songs that will be available through Rock Band 3, that's over 2000 different titles for players to perform on. In order to facilitate the search for songs, the addition of an advanced search engine is imposed on its own. This is how you can search through the song catalog and even filter the results according to the decade, the type of music, the artist and several other criteria allowing you to quickly find the desired song. In addition, Rock Band 3 will recommend to the player songs that are likely to interest him since these recommendations will be generated according to the most preformed songs to date with the game. An even more interesting aspect when we know that Harmonix already regularly encourages its players to buy new issue songs to expand its repertoire.

And you, are you sure that the internal search engine of your website allows you to increase the income recorded online to its full potential? Are you able to recommend certain products or services to your customers based on the different content they have viewed on your site?


Integrate social networks into the game as a free promotion platform



Finally, a simple and effective way that the Harmonix team implemented to ensure a presence of Rock Band in social networks without investing too much time or too large budgets was to offer players share the list of their favorite performances (or the ones they have just completed) to their respective friends. Thus, the Rock band brand benefits from a certain visibility in social networks without investing long-term resources in it.

On your side, before investing time and money to be active in social networks; have you given all the necessary tools to your followers (fans) so that they can talk about you to their network of friends, share your content and their experiences with your brand (organization)?