Site www.national-lottery.co.uk
lotto homepage
Camelot is the operator of the UK National Lottery. Camelot's
main objective is to maximise revenue for Good Causes and the
Government through lottery games in the most efficient and
socially responsible way. This involves creating, marketing and
promoting new games, running and developing the lottery
infrastructure, providing services for players and winners and
working in partnership with retailers.
At present, players can play the lottery via a retailer or by
subscription. Camelot plans to offer National Lottery games on the
Internet, mobile phones and Interactive TV.
Development overview
The following diagram illustrates the areas of activity of the
project.
Challenge
Camelot was very clear about its business goals and strategy
regarding its plans for on-line gaming. The Information Architect was appointed to
develop the on-line gaming experience, which was structured as
follows:
- Review of games section
- Registration process
- Account management
- Subscription process
- On-line gaming process
Solution
Review of games section
The current structure of the website already had a section called
'Games' and users understood this section as a pure information
source. The challenge was to promote the new services without
confusing the existing audience and so it was decided that merging
the two sections was the best option as having two sections called
'Games' and 'Games on-line' would be confusing for the audience. A
sitemap that showed the best way to merge the two sections was
developed and passed on to web designers for implementation.
Registration process
On-line gaming requires the user to register and open an account
with Camelot. Furthermore each user had to deposit a minimum
amount of £5 unless one or more lottery tickets worth that amount
were purchased in one session. It was therefore important, when
creating the wire frame, to concentrate on a user-friendly
registration process that explains the steps involved clearly and
guides the user on how to deposit money.
Account management
Camelot customers are able to manage their accounts online.
Customers can edit their account and profile, add combinations of
numbers to their favourites and either deposit or withdraw money
to or from their wallet. The Information Architect produces a set
of wireframes, which was used to define these processes and
identify the technical requirements.
Subscription process
Camelot plans to give customers the option of subscribing online.
The Information Architect's task was to develop the subscription
process online through in-depth consultation with the client,
which included workshops to fully understand the current
processing of subscriptions and the implications of the proposed
online subscription process. Wire frames were then produced to
investigate the best solution for selecting the numbers. These
wire frames were also used for user testing to ascertain that the
recommended solutions were indeed optimal.
On-line gaming process
Having specified the structure of the games section, wire
frames were used to define the processes of playing the lottery
online. The wire frames demonstrated how and when users need to
register and/or sign in to successfully purchase a lottery ticket
on-line.
Some user testing was conducted on the subscription pages,
which afforded the Information Architect and the Camelot team deep
insight on how users prefer to perform certain tasks online
including information on how users prefer to pick their numbers.
The gaming process was formulated from PowerPoint and converted
into HyperText Markup Language (html) pages. Actual HTML is best
for user testing as the pages are in a browser environment and
contain screen elements that are both realistic and semi
functional - which is half way along the road to prototypes.
Results
- The structure of the games section was reviewed and
recommendations were delivered regarding the integration of
new products.
- The processes for purchasing a lottery ticket on-line were
defined and wireframes were handed over to designers and
back-end developers.
- In addition, requirements for the registration process and
account management tasks were defined and documented.
- The on-line subscription process was developed with back-end
developers to ensure smooth transition from print to on-line
submission.
Return to
newsletter
|
