Creating a Competitive Analysis

In a post on UX Planet Top things to know about UX Competitive Analysis the following consideration to make are highlighted:

• Assess where your product or design stands in the market
• Define any gaps in the market
• Know the strengths and weaknesses of your competition
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages of your products
• Have evidence to back up your design changes
• Helps you solve usability issues
• Enables you to develop your go-to-market strategy

The following steps to creating a competitive analysis are outlined:

1. Outline goals and define product
2. Compile a list of direct and indirect competitors
3. Create a comparison chart of competitors features
4. Identify the differences between products
5. Summarise and present findings

I felt the above information provided me with a solid foundation for creating an effective competitive analysis. I have tried to follow these steps in my own outcome.

My Competitive Analysis

The goal of my product is to provide children with an engaging task-focused game with a strong narrative that will teach them about what elements make up different substances and matter. The aim is to provide children with an educational game that they will enjoy playing but will also learn from.

When creating my list of direct and indirect competitors I decided to focus on popular games that children are playing and included Minecraft and Roblox as direct competitors as this is the type of product I want to be in direct competition with. I also looked at Toca Element, Kids experiments and activities and Science Quiz, these are educational apps however they incorporate fewer gameplay elements than I intend to include in my product.

In my competitive analysis, I have considered features such as UI, music and multiplayer options. I have also identified differences such as pro’s, con’s, pricing and devices it can be used on. I have included the final outcome below.

I have also included the spreadsheet containing my competitive analysis below.

competitive analysis

Summary of Findings

The types of games range from sandbox video games to free play learning experiences to quiz games. All games are available as tablet and phone apps. There is a mix of price ranges from £17.95 for initial download costs on PC’s to free with a mix of available in-game purchases available.

UI ranges in quality. The incorporation of 3D graphics can be found in both direct and indirect competitors. Areas that could be improved in some products are home screens that are too cluttered, better and clearer use of typography and use of uncomplimentary colour palettes. Areas that are strong in other products are the use of 3D graphics, vibrant colours and the inclusion of a variety of mediums including text, images, videos and illustrations.

Experiences vary with each game from allowing players to set their own goals to clearly defined question and answer formats. Rewards and responses to achievements are incredibly important in child-focused products and are present in all outcomes. Reinforcement of progress appears to be an important feature recognised by all products. Gameplay ranges from allowing the user to create their own games to heavily guided experiences taking the user through a series of experiments in a specific sequence. Some games include a variety of difficulty levels while others do not consider this at all. Not setting out a variety of levels of difficulties based on age range etc, or building up the level of difficulty throughout the game appears to be a problem for some users. This is particularly the case if the product is too difficult at the beginning.

Both gaming-focused products provide multiplayer options while all three of the educational game apps do not. Music is incorporated in the majority of the products as well as additional sound effects. There are learning aspects in each app however these are more clearly focused on in the educational apps. Problems with the products range from difficulties setting up multiplayer to lack of safety in multiplayer functions as well as an inaccurate representation of chemical interactions. Positives include the creative freedom provided in the products, nice interactions and effective sound effects.

Key Takeaways

• Good features include nice engagement, incorporating a feeling of progression and praising and rewarding progress.
• Bad features include making tasks too difficult leading to lack of engagement not keeping educational aspects accurate to real life and multiplayer being difficult to set up and leaving children unsafe on the game.