Games
The subscriber who solves the crossword every morning has a different relationship to their subscription than one who dips in when a story catches their eye. WSJ already had proof of that in the “Muggles”, a devoted community of daily puzzle players who had built their routines around the existing experience. We wanted to build something new users would find delightful without disturbing what the core community already loved.
Title
• Director, Product Design
Actions
• Directed the design and launch of WSJ Games as a native iOS experience.
• Led the creation of a scalable visual identity work in conjunction with Brand Marketing.
• Developed a scalable product surface to accommodate future catalog expansions.
Results
• Re-platformed and launched natively on iOS after years of web-only availability on iPhone.
• Games is now positioned as active retention and monetization lever.
Illustration System Each game needed to feel like itself. The crossword and the sudoku are different experiences, played differently, attracting readers with different habits. The illustration work with Poppins built a system where each game has a distinct visual character without the hub feeling disjointed. Shared traits create a recognizable WSJ Games identity. Individual illustrations create the sense that each game is worth coming back to.
Platform Launch Before the redesign, Games did not exist as a native experience on iPhone. Subscribers on the web could play. iPhone users could not. Bringing Games into the main iOS app navigation required its own architectural work, its own tab, its own design language. The launch established Games as a first-class destination rather than a feature buried in a section.
