SoloJuegos
Gaming platform concept created during Softonic's internal hackathon
At Softonic, employees had opportunities to develop new concepts through internal hackathons. During one such event, I initiated this project to revitalize dormant gaming domains the company owned: solojuegos.com and ongames.com.
My Role
Product Designer — Ideation, Prototyping, Design & Stakeholder Pitch. Created during Softonic's internal hackathon, involving concept development, high-fidelity prototypes, and company-wide presentation.
Problem Statement
Softonic.com receives approximately 2 million daily visitors, with 30% seeking games, many wanting free titles. Brand reputation issues caused loss of returning users. 90% of traffic is organic (program pages) while the homepage funnel remained underdeveloped. The game catalog was difficult to navigate, and the user experience was not optimized for gamer personas. The website contained mixed content — gaming, software, tech news, hardware, movies, and tutorials.
Market Research
The GAMES link in the website's navigation bar had the highest CTR over any other navigation element. Gamers search for new games to play very regularly with limited discovery features. We identified underutilized domains: solojuegos.com and ongames.com.
There was a clear market gap: no unified solution for free games. Users visited different stores without mobile game access — Epic Games, Steam, Origin.
Competitive advantages identified included an existing catalog with free titles, gaming editorial content capability, a large mobile games offering, and a Tier-C audience seeking free-to-play games. Infrastructure already supported white-label solutions (Filehippo, DigitalTrends).
Solution Proposal
An early iteration creating a gaming white label focusing on free-to-play desktop PC games with gamer-targeted design and expanded editorial content.
Homepage
Featured latest gaming news, free-to-play games, peripheral reviews, and videos.
Game Categories
Improved visual assets, clearer filters, proper categorization facilitating discovery.
Game Page
Emphasized gameplay videos and images, other people's opinions on the title, and if their systems have the right specs.
Articles
Separated content into meaningful categories with featured placements and imagery.
New Sections
Videos and Peripherals pages designed as new revenue streams through affiliation and sponsorships.
Conclusions
The project wasn't selected for the hackathon but was considered for development before budget constraints eliminated it. It serves as a showcase demonstrating the thought process and design capabilities behind a product concept.