Maria Dotsenko Portfolio

Increasing D30 retention for Venue's 4M+ players - by designing a cozy group-based social system for creators

Increasing D30 retention for Venue’s 4M+ players - by designing a cozy group-based social system for creators

Increasing D30 retention for Venue’s 4M+ players -
by designing a cozy group-based social system for creators

CLIENT

Superbloom

B2C mobile gaming

TIMELINE

2 Week Sprint | Yummy Labs Accelerator

MAIN ROLE

Product Designer

Product Management

UX Strategy

UX Research

Product Design

AI workflows

USERS

Women aged 25+ who play to relax, express their creativity, and find inspiration through interior design.

PROBLEM

Venue players have no way to build relationships or collaborate, making the game easy to abandon after the first few sessions.

KPIS

D7-D30 retention, Daily session frequency, Designs submitted per day, Social Attachment

THE HIGH-LEVEL SOLUTION

"Design Studios" — a cozy group-based social system that turns solo players into connected creative collectives, driving daily engagement and long-term retention.

The Context

THE 2 WEEK SPRINT WITH YUMMY LABS

This was part of the 2-week Yummy Labs sprint where we got a behind the scenes of the company and collaborated with founders on the product.

OVERVIEW

Venue - is a creative interior design game where players

design dream spaces in breathtaking locations.

I was challenged to design a group-based social system that encourages collaboration, Increases daily engagement, and feels cozy and supportive.

Venue - is a creative interior design game where players

design dream spaces in breathtaking locations.

I was challenged to design a group-based social system that encourages collaboration, Increases daily engagement, and feels cozy and supportive.

THE 2 WEEK SPRINT WITH YUMMY LABS

This was part of the 2-week Yummy Labs sprint where we got a behind the scenes of the company and collaborated with founders on the product.

The Constraints

I had to design every social interaction under a zero-moderation constraint — no chat, no comments, nothing that needs a human to review — while staying inside Venue's existing navigation, components, and calm, non-competitive brand tone.

CONSTRAINT 1

No chat, no comments, nothing needing human moderation — every connection mechanic had to be wordless.

CONSTRAINT 2

Design Studios had to feel like a creative collective, not a guild — Venue's brand is calm and non-competitive, never a leaderboard.

CONSTRAINT 3

Had to be understandable within 10 seconds and integrate organically into Venue's existing screens, not bolt on as a separate app.

CONSTRAINT 4

Had to work within Venue's existing component library and brand tokens — reusing buttons, icons, and the established color palette.

The Product Strategy

Most games drive retention through competition.

But Venue's survey data pointed the other way — players asked for connection and fairness, not rankings — so I designed for belonging instead.

Most games drive retention through competition.

But Venue's survey data pointed the other way — players asked for connection and fairness, not rankings — so I designed for belonging instead.

JOBS TO BE DONE

"When Beth finishes designing a room, she wants to feel seen by people who share her taste — not judged by a stranger's silent vote."

KPIS

D7-D30 retention • Daily session frequency • Designs submitted per day • Studio-member retention vs. non-member retention (social attachment)

The Friction

After a deep audit of every social touchpoint, the current experience revealed a total connection vacuum.

Players were so starved for community they built their own Facebook groups to talk about their designs — entirely outside Venue's control.

After a deep audit of every social touchpoint, the current experience revealed a total connection vacuum.

Players were so starved for community they built their own Facebook groups to talk about their designs — entirely outside Venue's control.

MAPPING THE USERS CURRENT JOURNEY

The Resolution

I created a "North Star" flow where a player discovers Studios and joins a small group working toward one shared weekly goal, celebrating small wins together.

USER FLOW

Completion of the design now - not only your own win, it’s something that moves the team forward.

The Share button now - not only allows you to share your work outside the Venue, but also to share with your teammates inside the Studio.

Completion of the design now - not only your own win, it’s something that moves the team forward.

The Share button now - not only allows you to share your work outside the Venue, but also to share with your teammates inside the Studio.

AI IDEATION

I integrated Claude into my workflow through an MCP setup connected to Figma, working directly on real screens without switching between tools. Feedback was constant — every decision, from the activities for daily group engagement to the voting mechanic, went through rounds of pushback before I locked it in.

WHAT I KEPT

Shared creative space “Living Room” - this feature solves the “loneliness” problem and works with “no moderation” constraint.

WHAT I KEPT

Milestones progressive reveal - allows to motivate a group to move forward while keeping a “wow” moment for future rewards.

WHAT I DISCARDED

Changes in voting mechanics - because it requires significant changes in the game’s backend and could break voting fairness.

WHAT I DISCARDED

Shared design items and game currency - because it could break current game monetization system.

Testing the Solution

I put my V1 in front of 3 users. I tested 2 main scenarios - the first one was “I want to play with my friends” and the second one was “I don’t have friends to play with, but I want to join a collective”.

WHAT DIDN’T WORK

In testing, players only browsed the Studios list in one scenario:

"I don't have friends on Venue, but I want to join a collective."

But the card didn't help them to choose — every Studio looked the same. Members count, a room photo, a Join button - nothing to actually choose between.

The fix:

Style-tag badges on each card. Now there's a real reason to pick one Studio over another: shared taste in designs.

In testing, players only browsed the Studios list in one scenario:

"I don't have friends on Venue, but I want to join a collective."

But the card didn't help them to choose — every Studio looked the same. Members count, a room photo, a Join button - nothing to actually choose between.

The fix:

Style-tag badges on each card. Now there's a real reason to pick one Studio over another: shared taste in designs.

WHAT WORKED

Before, "Live" only meant Live Events — time-limited chapters with exclusive rewards, but otherwise identical to regular solo play. Despite the name, nothing on that screen actually connected players to each other.

Adding Studios there fixed that: "Live" now means something is actually happening between players.

In testing, all but one participant found the Studios entry point without help — which means it sits naturally inside the current game flow players already use.

Adding Studios there fixed that: "Live" now means something is actually happening between players.

In testing, all but one participant found the Studios entry point without help — which means it sits naturally inside the current game flow players already use.

Final Flow

I built the final prototype with Figma. I didn't create an AI-built prototype.

Why?

Because I believe a good designer should always choose the lowest-fidelity prototype that can answer the question. In this project, the task was to explore the "Studios" concept and integrate it into the current game flow. So the question was, "Can users understand and successfully complete this flow?"
The answer to this question does not require a coded prototype - that's why I didn't create one.

I built the final prototype with Figma. I didn't create an AI-built prototype.

Why?