Artle — enhancing the art game experience on mobile devices

A usability study and recommendation set for the National Gallery of Art’s daily art game, focused on helping new players understand the game, stay oriented, and learn more about the artworks after play.

Role

UX research, usability study, synthesis, recommendations

Focus

Onboarding, game comprehension, artist context

Output

Research findings, interface recommendations, next-step strategy

Overview

Making a daily art game easier to understand and more rewarding to finish.

The study looked at how players encountered Artle on mobile devices: how quickly they understood the rules, how confident they felt while guessing, and whether the experience helped them connect with the artworks and artists behind the game.

Research Signal

At least 4 of 11 users found it difficult to understand how the game works.

The strongest issue was early comprehension. Players needed clearer setup, more useful guidance during play, and better contextual information at the end so the game could shift from a guessing interaction into an art-discovery moment.

Recommendations

Clarify the first-run experience and keep artwork context inside the game.

The recommendations focused on a concise “how to play” moment, a redesigned modal for deeper explanation, and an end-game experience that surfaces artist and artwork information without forcing players to leave the flow.

Solution Detail

A more supportive game loop, from onboarding to post-game learning.

Instead of treating help and artist information as separate pages, the redesigned flow brings key information into the moments where players need it most: before play, while learning the mechanics, and after completing the game.

Reflection

The project reframed Artle as more than a daily puzzle. The strongest opportunity was to preserve the fun of guessing while making the learning layer easier to access, understand, and enjoy.