Pulse

Degree 53: The influence of streaming services for online casino design

By Lewis - 11 May 2021

Design and software development company Degree 53, which specialises in the iGaming sector, explains how online casinos are to follow the mold set by streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ in both layout and games presentation. According to Design Director, Jade Daniels, a “less is more approach” could be the right path to follow.

Jade also discusses the importance of applying a mobile-first approach, the role of interactivity and engagement even before the gameplay starts, getting the basics right and how small changes to mobile design have the ability to transform online casino environments for the better.

Could you tell us more about Degree 53?

Degree 53 is a UX, design and software development company, specialising in the online gambling industry. We work with sports betting, casino and lottery operators and suppliers all over the world. We help them offer enjoyable experiences for their customers by creating intuitive and interesting mobile apps and websites.

We were founded in 2013 as part of the Betfred mobile division, and soon after, we set out on our own to offer services to other businesses. We’re based in Manchester, UK with a team of 50 employees.

How do you create better user experiences for your online casino clients?

We are lucky to have a very talented team of designers that take a customer centric approach to everything we do when it comes to building and designing websites or apps for our online gaming clients.

We also have a very mature design process that allows us to be innovative but also strict in certain ways to ensure that we capture specific requirements and so we can add our creative flare to the solution. Online casinos are always fun projects to work on as they tend to be filled with colour and imagery.

Our team always gets excited about working on these products as it really gives us the chance to think outside the box. Anyone can design a standard online casino. At Degree 53, we take an extra step further to make the experience even better.

How are online gambling environments changing?

With the more recent trends driven by Apple’s requirements for native functionality and improved user experience, we see more online casino designs that follow these guidelines. Casumo is a great example of presenting lots of different games and being able to filter through them with ease.

The design is bright and fun, and it creates a great experience. Casumo uses cards to display games or promotions that customers can swipe through. They’re clear and easy to recognise. Their designs look great on both desktop and mobile.

I feel more and more operators are moving away from the web UI (User Interface design), but some still have a way to go to match leading products from other industries with their UX (user experience design).

I also see a more simplified approach to how game tiles are designed. For example, many game tiles you see today are really busy with background images and game logos which can be really hard to scan through when you want to find a specific game.

Sky Casino has made a great standalone brand for their product with its own distinct look and feel. The tiles have also been designed in a very simplistic way with dark background so that each game logo clearly stands out. So I think a less is more approach is definitely on the horizon.

Also, more movement and animation is something I’ve noticed more of across digital products. Disney+ have a great example of this when hovering over their main brand categories which adds engagement and interaction.

It really brings the site to life and it is still in keeping with the brand. So, hovering over game tiles to see either previews or game assets move is something that we look forward to seeing more of in the future.

What role do you as a company shape and develop online gambling environments and the way people play online?

We strive to create apps and websites that will delight our clients and their customers, so we pay a lot of attention to details and ways of making improvements to their existing products. It’s important to understand why customers use their products and what they want to get out of them.

It can be different between multi-product apps like sportsbooks and those focused on a single service like lotteries. So making sure the customer can easily find what they’re looking for is something we always want to tie into the overall design and customer journey.

From a design perspective, we apply a mobile- first approach to all our projects. Starting with the design for smaller screens enables us to focus on the most important features and other content can then be expanded further on the web. It helps us to stay focused on the most important functionality and simplify the user experience.

Do you see any major innovations that could change online gambling long term?

I think VR and AR are buzzwords and can be too gimmicky to be seen as a mainstream product currently.

This technology hasn’t reached average users yet, and the transition between a standard mobile or web device to a VR headset or switching to AR mode isn’t seamless, so it already adds effort to customers. However, we could expect more of these products in the future as this technology and user experience evolves.

I think we need to focus on getting the gameplay and browsing experience to become more immersive using the suggestions above, such as animations and simplified visuals. Getting the basics right first is key.

We could then look at introducing smart technology, like personalisation, which would create a unique browsing experience and perhaps this might entice customers to play something they wouldn’t have been interested in or noticed before.

Incorporating gamification, like points and rewards, for trying out new products would be interesting too. These smaller changes to the gaming experience could really transform online casinos, increasing the player lifetime value and subsequently their revenues.

What will an online casino look and feel like in the future? What points of differentiation do you predict?

We hope to see casinos of the future taking brand and interaction design to the next level in order to really bring online casinos to life. Game imagery will be of high quality, consistent and crisp. More animation will be used within lobby pages to add that extra level of interactivity and engagement even before the gameplay starts.

And we hope to see a more Netflix-esque approach to personalisation so that customers are always kept within the journey and being offered games that are suited to their personality and tastes.

Loyalty schemes are an interesting feature that we hope operators start introducing to their customers as it adds yet another level of gamification and incentive to the experience.

Do you think online casinos will seek to become more like land based casinos or are they moving in the opposite direction?

This is an interesting question. It’s important to understand that the digital world and physical world are different. However, striking the right balance between the two, there’s no reason why an online casino can’t reflect the look and feel of a casino lobby in Las Vegas.

As long as customers’ expectations are met and online casinos remain easy to use, then it would be quite exciting to see more realistic looking online casinos for sure!