Calculating the Time Drain
Looking at anonymised session data and running user tests provided me with hard numbers. Sessions where people just scrolled through game categories manually required 40% longer to pick a game than sessions where they used the search function well. This delay might seem small for one visit. But distributed across thousands of UK users every day, it accumulates to a huge amount of lost gameplay. The problem gets worse on mobile phones, where the screen is small and scrolling through hundreds of titles is a chore. A well-placed, smart search bar is the fastest route to starting a game.