Back
TCGPlayer
UX Copy rewrite of TCGplayer marketplace sign in/up flow
Role
UX Writer
Platform
Desktop
Project Overview
TCGplayer is an eBay-owned marketplace for trading card games like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon. While the platform is robust, some of its user-facing copy could better reflect both certain UX writing principles and the company's own values.
This fictional project reimagines selected pieces of site copy in the account sign up flow with a focus on clarity and branding.
Tasks
Desk Research
Copy Audit
Voice & Tone analysis
UX Writing
Langauge
English
Target Audience
TCGplayer’s audience mainly consists of card game enthusiasts who play and/or collect a wide variety of trading card games such as Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-oh, etc. Based on this, the company focuses more so on the card game hobby ecosystem vs eBay’s more general approach to buying and selling.
Client Brand
TCGplayer’s brand centers around community, passion, and going beyond. Considering the company hosts a wide catalog of games the company delivers imagery that is adventurous and reminiscent of games their audience love.
Project Setup
This is a fictional project where I chose to rewrite the current UX Copy found in the sign up flow for TCGplayer’s website. As a result no team was involved and the primary goal of this project was to improve the copy found in each page shown.
My Role
In this project I conducted desk research, examined TCGplayer’s brand and current UX copy for it’s sign up flow. In addition, I setup a language-focused brand guideline and rewrote the UX copy based on these guidelines.
Research
TCGplayer’s about us pages center around engaging concepts such as ‘trust,’ ‘community,’ and ‘passion,’ which bring out a sense of confidence, adventure, and camaraderie.
Analysis of 3rd party sources showcase that TCGplayer is appreciated for it’s ability to reliably empower anyone to sell or buy on their platform whether it be an Local game store or a single trading card game hobbyist.
I also used Google trends to research keywords/terms a user would be likely to use, especially in the context of onboarding.
I debated using log in vs sign in, because I thought log in was more game-like, but google trends showed me that sign in had a higher SEO metric.
Guidelines
Alongside the 6 basic UX Writing quality criteria(necessary, clear, concise, useful, conversational, and branded) brand specific guidelines from TCGplayer’s about us & core value pages were evaluated.
The brand material indicates that the brand voice should focus on the concepts of community and passion. Taking these values into consideration, the choice of words should elicit an adventurous spirit while maintaining clear language that delivers comfort & inclusivity throughout the buyer’s or seller’s experience.
Copy Audit
Based on the voice & tone guidlines, I analyzed each individual screen for TCGplayer’s sign up flow.
The current UX copy violates UX writing criteria by failing to align with the passionate brand identity TCGplayer claims to value in their about us pages and instead delivers too transactional of a tone.
In addition, some CTAs are hard to see or unclear, which can give new users friction in their onboarding process.
Home Screen - Before
Not clear; no apparent sign-up option on first level of the sign-up flow
Home Screen - After
Altered sign-in to be Sign In / Join Us in order to reduce navigation confusion and friction
Signals brand values of community by using words like ‘Join Us’
Sign In - Before
Too bland; doesn’t align with brand voice
The sign-up option is small and hard to see
Sign In - After
Made the headline align with the passionate and community brand values of TCGplayer
Changed ‘Already have an account?’ to ‘No account? No fear!’ to act as a mental relaxer that also aligns with TCGplayer’s passionate brand value
Changed ‘Make one here’ to ‘let’s craft one here’ to create a more community- and game-style tone
Sign Up - Before
Headline similar to sign in page is too bland and transactional
Sign In footer CTA is very small and hard too spot
Sign Up - After
Had the headline strike a balance between concise functionality, and adventurous tone.
Used the term ‘open’ to draw parallel to treasure chest imagery
Increased footer CTA font size for better accessibility
Wrote ‘account already open?’ vs ‘already have an account?’ for term consistency between headline and footer
Confirmation CTA - Before
Language should be more adventurous while still informing user towards email confirmation
It isn’t fully clear that user has to go to email for confirmation
Confirmation CTA - After
Changed tone to be more quest-like and keeping to brand’s values
Made it more clear that user should check email for confirmation that was sent
Sign In To Confirm - Before
Copy while clear, still has too bland of a tone
Sign In To Confirm - After
Altered copy to keep consistent, collaborative feel with ‘let’s confirm’ vs the low energy ‘sign to confirm your email’
Reduced word count from 5 to 4, reducing mental load
Account Completion - Before
Email confirmation is anticlimactic
Account Completion - After
Changed tone to be rewarding, similar to how a gamer completes a quest
Gave a CTA to explore/browse catalog with a passionate ‘ time to explore!’
Key Takeaways
Conducting research such as keyword comparisons and analyzing TCGplayer’s brand voice proved useful for informing my decisions towards effective copy vs relying on my subjective interpretation of what would make ‘better copy.’
Being conscious of basic UX writing criteria also helped me not compromise clarity and conciseness for the sake of only brand voice and attempt to find that middle ground.
Having UX design experience also helped me consider the bigger picture outside of just copy, but also how font size and length fit into the visual hierarchy of the overall design.