Players arrive at the STFC web store knowing exactly what they want, and then scroll, give up, and buy it in-game instead, costing the business its best-margin channel. I researched with 69 players, then designed search, filters and side-by-side comparison for mobile. A Scopely designer who worked on the real feature later saw the project and confirmed the direction.
A second store, with better rewards
Every purchase on the web skips the 30% platform fee. The business wants players there. The store makes it hard to stay.
Star Trek Fleet Command is a 4X MMO strategy game by Digit Game Studios, published with Scopely, with around 20 million downloads and roughly 175,000 players commanding fleets daily. Alongside the in-game shop it runs a web store, sweetening purchases made in the browser with bonus Multiphasic Credits.
This four-month project, completed as part of the UX Tree Mentorship program, focused on the store's weakest link: discoverability. Players struggle to locate specific bundles, which means frustration, missed purchases and lower engagement, on the channel the business most wants to grow.
Star Trek Fleet Command, in one paragraph
A 4X MMO strategy game where players explore, expand, exploit and exterminate across a vast, persistent online galaxy. Developed by Digit Game Studios, published by Scopely and CBS Interactive. Deep strategic gameplay, alliance politics, and a lot of ships.
Tools: Figma · Notion · Google Forms & Sheets · Discord · ChatGPT
Scroll, squint, give up
"I wish there was just a search bar. It's 2025!"
Players can't easily find or compare the bundles they want, especially on mobile. There's no search and no filters, so finding one pack means scrolling an overwhelming list. What each bundle contains hides behind a click. Two similar packs can't be lined up side by side, so players memorise contents or juggle tabs.
Desktop users invented a workaround: Ctrl+F. Mobile users, the majority, have nothing. Several told me they simply gave up mid-purchase and bought in-game instead, handing 30% straight back to the platform.
So the brief became: help players find and compare bundles effortlessly, mobile-first. Better for players, and directly tied to revenue for the business.
The store today
0 px scrolledYou came for the Deuterium Ultra Pack. There is no search. Scroll for it.
With search
0 keysSame store, same pack. Type its name.
Both panels hold the same 24 bundles. Only one of them respects your thumb.
Research, with actual Trekkies
I followed the Double Diamond (diverge to understand, converge to define) and mixed quantitative and qualitative methods so I wasn't designing off one loud opinion. Five research streams, one picture.
Online feedback audit
App Store, Google Play and r/startrekfleetcommand: what players say unprompted. "Web store is hard to navigate" kept surfacing.
Internal research brief
An official Scopely research deck gave me starting hypotheses. Lack of filtering was already a known top complaint.
Competitor analysis
Marvel Strike Force, Clash of Clans, Last War, Rise of Kingdoms, WWE: how other games' stores handle categories, exclusives and loyalty.
Survey · 60 players
Google Forms, recruited through player communities. Frequency of use, frustrations, and the features they wished existed.
Interviews · 9 players
Semi-structured, over Discord chat, from occasional buyers to dedicated spenders, most on mobile. Coded in Notion, affinity-mapped in Figma.
Synthesis
Affinity mapping surfaced three themes: search limitations, bundle overload, navigation friction.
“You get extra currency called multiphasic tokens that can be used to purchase great packs.”
Signal · the channel has fansField note +Players coach each other to buy on the web. The channel has advocates; the storefront has friction.“Scopely makes more money from us purchasing directly on the website. That’s why they buff it with extra rewards.”
Signal · players get the mathField note +The 30% platform fee is an open secret. The audience understands exactly why the business wants them on the web.“Wanted to get a feel if there are any really good value packs, if I am willing to buy 1 or 2 big packs a month.”
Signal · comparison needField note +Whole threads exist to do what the store itself cannot: compare bundles. The compare tool, validated before it was designed.“The only item that appears is ‘Option 2: 1 Extra Research Queue’. Everything else is just… gone.”
Signal · reliabilityField note +When bundles vanish, players file tickets and post threads. Trust in the storefront is already thin; findability failures compound it.“I’ve deleted and reinstalled the game, I signed into the web store to see what was going on and restarted my device. NOTHING.”
Signal · trust on the lineField note +The web store is where players go to double-check when rewards go missing. When it fails them, the frustration lands on the whole game.“Event rewards are too low, you can’t progress… customer support blames you for game glitches.”
Signal · the review baselineField note +Store and reward gripes surface even in general reviews. The audit started from noise like this and narrowed to one fixable theme: navigation.Web Store underwent updates aimed at reducing clutter by organising offers into relevant groups, making navigation more user-friendly.
Signal · acknowledgedField note +Scopely’s own release notes name the exact problem this project tackles: clutter and navigation.Specific bundles, such as “Holo-Field Amplifiers” and “65 Tetryons”, were not visible in the Web Store’s Gift Store section.
Signal · even Scopely lost bundlesField note +An official acknowledgment that bundles literally went missing. Findability was never just a player complaint.
Nobody was asked, and everybody said it anyway: the store is hard to navigate.
Same numbers as the Google Forms export, minus the Google Forms purple. 71% wanted better filtering; findability satisfaction averaged a resounding “meh”.
The community didn't just tolerate the research. They were rooting for it.
"Web store seriously needs a search bar. It's a pain scrolling through everything."
Interview · regular player, mobile"On my phone, I just give up scrolling sometimes."
Interview · moderate spenderPlayers know what they want. They arrive with a pack name in mind, from alliance chat, Discord or in-game news, and the store gives them no way to type it.
Bundle overload. Similar-looking packs with vague names, contents hidden behind clicks. Browsing feels like work.
No way to compare. Choosing between two similar packs means memorising contents or opening tabs: error-prone, and a purchase-killer.
Abandoned purchases are real. Several players wanted to buy, got frustrated searching, and stopped. Lost sales, not just lost patience.
Meet Alex, who just wants his pack
How might we help STFC players find and compare bundles more easily, so they feel confident and efficient when buying?
Everything converged on one statement: players cannot easily find or compare the bundles they want on the STFC web store, especially on mobile. Given the time available, I deliberately scoped the solution to the mobile web experience, where the pain was loudest and the workarounds were fewest.
To keep the human in the frame, I built Alex: a longtime player and moderate spender who checks both stores, buys big on the web for the bonus credits, and is one bad scroll away from not bothering. An empathy map and journey map traced where his patience ran out: navigate and compare.
“I know I get extra rewards on the web store, but finding what I want there is a nightmare. If I’m already on my phone in the game, it’s just so much easier to buy through the app. Unless I’m making a big purchase, the hassle isn’t worth it for me.”
Alex
A longtime STFC player who plays daily on his Android phone and occasionally opens the web store on his PC. Tech-savvy but loyal to the convenience of in-app purchases, he finds the web store less reliable on mobile and delays purchases until he’s at a desktop. He wants the ease of mobile with the benefits of the web. Juggling devices is exactly the friction this project removes.
Goals
- Progress competitively without wasting money: best value for every euro spent
- Obtain rare officers and ship upgrades to stay on par with his alliance
- Purchase with minimal hassle so he can focus on gameplay
Behaviors
- Checks both stores a few times a week, especially during new releases and events
- Buys small impulsive packs in-game; goes to the web for larger planned purchases and the bonus credits
- Discusses purchases with alliance friends before committing
Frustrations
- Web store is hard to navigate: no search, poor categorisation, lots of scrolling
- Same prices as in-app: no outright discounts, only Multiphasic Credits
- Switching to a browser and logging in feels clumsy next to one-tap in-app buying
Motivations
- Value: bonus credits make big purchases feel like a better deal
- Competition: staying competitive in events and useful to his alliance
- Efficiency: if the web store were easier, he’d gladly shift his spending there
Thinks
- “Is the web store really worth the hassle?”
- In-game is more convenient, but the web offers extra value
- Suspects he’s missing offers if he doesn’t check, so he keeps checking
Feels
- Impatient when he can’t quickly find the bundle he wants
- Annoyed when technical issues interrupt a purchase
- Happy when a good web deal lands and the bonus credits arrive
- A little guilty for defaulting to in-game convenience
Does
- Browses both stores almost daily and compares offers between them
- Quick buys in-app; big spends on the web for the credits
- Uses Ctrl+F on PC; scrolls and scrolls on mobile
- Runs unusual or large purchases past his alliance first
Says
- “Web store seriously needs a search bar. It’s a pain scrolling through everything.”
- “When I’m about to drop money, I’ll do it on the web to get that little kickback.”
- “Buying through the app is just easier. Sometimes I can’t be bothered logging in on the web.”
Discover
Leaving the game breaks his play session.
Navigate
No search or filters; endless scrolling; the occasional forced re-login.
Compare
No side-by-side view: error-prone mental math between packs.
Decide
“Will the purchase actually register in-game?” He worries until it’s done.
Purchase
Checkout friction, and the wait for delivery confirmation.
Excited at discovery, frustrated by navigation, uncertain at comparison. The two dips became the two design targets.
Three fixes, zero new habits to learn
From sketches to wireframes to a hi-fi Figma prototype, every decision answered one question: would this make it easier for Alex? I deliberately stayed close to the existing STFC visual language. The improvement should feel like the store waking up, not a redesign players have to relearn.
Smarter bundle cards. Contents visible upfront (resources, credits, ship parts), plus a social-proof icon showing how many alliance members bought the pack. No more click-to-find-out.
Search with real-time suggestions. Type a pack name, get matches as you type, with category and resource-type chips for when you don't know the exact name.
Filters + side-by-side comparison. Refine by resource type and quantity range, then line up two bundles with indicators marking which pack gives more. Decisions in seconds, not tabs.
Two directions explored for comparison: a quick pop-up view vs. a dedicated page. The dedicated view won: small screens need the space.
Players who arrive knowing the pack name (most of them) now type four letters and land on it.
Green arrows mark which pack gives more of each item: the decision players used to make with two tabs and a notes app.
Tested with players, seconded by Scopely
"I worked on that feature, hahaha. Nice work!" · a designer on the real thing, unprompted.
I ran usability sessions with two regular STFC players on the mid-fi mobile prototype, focused on the bundle view, comparison and search. Both found it smoother than the live store ("loved seeing all bundle items upfront", "comparing two bundles side by side helped me choose quickly"), and both trusted the alliance purchase count more than I expected.
The main ask: more flexible filters, by item type, price, bundle category. That went straight on the roadmap.
Then the unplanned validation: after I shared the project publicly, a UX designer reached out on LinkedIn. They had worked on the actual STFC search feature. My independent direction had landed where the real team did.
What four months of listening taught me
Small friction compounds. Nothing in this project is a novel interaction pattern: search, filters, compare are e-commerce basics. The insight was that their absence was quietly taxing every purchase, and that fixing basics well beats inventing something clever.
Density on a small screen
Showing full bundle contents on mobile without clutter took the most iteration. The comparison table went through several layouts before it felt effortless.
Recruiting real players
Cold-messaging a game community as a student researcher takes patience. Being transparent about the project's nature earned trust, and better data.
Staying inside the brand
Designing within STFC's existing dark, dense visual language, rather than around it, kept the concept credible and shippable.
Test wider, filter deeper
More usability sessions, plus the flexible filters players asked for: price, item type, popularity.
Compare more than two
Extend the comparison model beyond two bundles for players weighing a whole event's offers.
Lean into the alliance
Personalised recommendations and popular-with-your-alliance signals. The community is the store's most underused asset.
