Kinguin: From Friction to Flow, Redesigning a Global Digital Goods Marketplace
Client
Kinguin
Completed
Q2 2026
Role
Senior UX/UI Designer
About the Client
Kinguin is a worldwide digital goods marketplace with millions of users. It acts as an intermediary in the sale of many types of digital products, including games, gift cards, subscriptions, and in-game items.
About the Project
The main goals of the project were: improving the purchase flow to increase conversion rate, analyzing and improving user experiences, redesigning the UI, and building a Design System to unify the look of the marketplace and streamline development.
Problem Statement
“How might we improve user experience to increase Conversion Rate and lower the bounce rate?”
Process
Research and competitive analysis
Interviews with stakeholders — clients, team members, and Customer Success
Brainstorm sessions with the product and engineering team
Wireframes, sketches, and low-fidelity designs to prove the concept
Interactive prototypes for testing on users and team members
Final designs
Product Page — Buy Button Section
The existing product page layout lacked a proper information structure. The page contained too many competing pieces of information, making it unclear at first glance what product the user was buying. After analyzing data and competitors, I redesigned the main CTA section, added social proof and available payment methods to support purchase decisions, and simplified the multi-price problem (regular / promotional / subscriber price).
Problem
Users felt overwhelmed by the amount of information on the product page, especially in the CTA section.
Solution
The new design simplifies the section, establishes a clear information hierarchy, and eliminates the confusion caused by multiple competing price labels.
Product page — redesigned buy button section
Product Page — Product Configuration
Kinguin's catalog is very large, but many products differ only in minor details — for example, a game can appear as multiple listings because it's restricted to certain activation regions. This caused customers to frequently purchase products they couldn't use. After consulting with the backend team, I proposed a solution that clearly shows the product specification and lets users easily adjust offer parameters to match their needs. For technical reasons I couldn't use a standard dropdown, so I designed a modal with filters to help users find the right product version.
Problem
Users could have difficulty determining whether they selected the correct version of the product.
Solution
The proposed solution presents the product version in a readable way and lets users change selected parameters directly on the product page — without having to go back to the listing.
Product page — product configuration modal
Side Panels — Settings and Interactions
The large number of options and a system built over many years resulted in complicated, hierarchically inconsistent user account sections and system settings. The proposed solution was to use a side panel component that centralizes and systematizes most elements of user interaction with the marketplace.
Problem
Users had many scattered places to configure service settings, which were neither functionally nor visually consistent.
Solution
Universal side panels made it possible to properly organize settings and user interaction elements with the service, and introduced visual consistency across the marketplace.
Side panels — unified settings and interaction layer
Checkout — From One-Pager to Step-by-Step
Kinguin's cart was originally designed as a one-pager, but over the years many features and mutual dependencies were added, complicating the purchasing process. After analyzing competitors and major marketplaces, I proposed converting the checkout into a stepped flow — systematizing the process and more easily guiding users toward completing their purchase.
Problem
The large number of options and configuration possibilities in the one-page checkout overwhelmed users.
Solution
Introducing steps to the purchasing process reduced cognitive overload and distributed the stages clearly, so users always knew what to do next to proceed.
Checkout — step-by-step purchase flow
Listing — Advanced Filtering
Like many areas on Kinguin, the listing and filtering suffered from rapid feature growth that the layout and usability couldn't keep up with. I proposed a new filter layout that adapts to the type of search results — for example, games can surface a completely different set of filters than gift cards.
Problem
Poor filtering capabilities and small UX issues — like filters resetting when returning to the listing page — frustrated users and often caused them to abandon their purchases.
Solution
By implementing robust, customized filters and resolving fundamental functionality issues, users were able to explore products relevant to them with ease and efficiency.
Listing — adaptive, context-aware filtering
Search — Helping Users Find the Best Products
Analysis of user session recordings showed that over 80% of users use the search bar during a session. The search window was generic and limited. Together with the development team, we expanded the Search Wizard — adding search history, popular searches, and featured products.
Problem
Users were unable to search conveniently and effectively, while the business had no dedicated space to promote its offerings.
Solution
The new Search Wizard allows users to revisit past searches and presents results with upfront filtering by product type. Businesses now have a dedicated space to promote their products through the Trending section.
Search — expanded Search Wizard
Product Card — A Lot of Information, Little Space
Across the Kinguin marketplace there are several types of product cards. The nature of the products requires showing a lot of information in a small space. Vertical, horizontal, mobile, and in-game product card variants all required design — each needing to surface key data including activation country, platform, and product type.
Problem
Users were often unable to determine what the icons on the product card meant — icons that represented key specification data (platform / activation region). Additionally, custom thumbnails required manual preparation by a graphic designer for every new product.
Solution
Replacing icons with systematized textual information significantly improved the readability of the new product cards. Switching from custom thumbnails to official vertical cover art reduced the time required to introduce new products.
Product cards — vertical, horizontal, mobile, and in-game variants
Navigation — New Products Menu
Navigation on Kinguin was very ineffective — it showed only a handful of product categories at the first level, followed by a few selected products. This made it difficult to expose the full breadth of Kinguin's catalog to users. After analyzing the product structure and consulting with the offer and marketing team, I proposed a solution that systematizes the display structure and supports multiple levels of categories, subcategories, and product groups.
Problem
The sparse navigation prevented users from discovering Kinguin's full product catalog, and gave the business no way to present and promote product groups or individual products.
Solution
The new navigation was designed to present Kinguin's full catalog as effectively as possible, following a general-to-specific principle. For the business, I proposed dedicated promotional sections.
Navigation — multi-level products menu
Design System
After an in-depth analysis of data, competitive research, and conversations with users, it became clear that it would be far more effective to redesign the product alongside a backend infrastructure rewrite rather than changing only the frontend.
Following this decision, we introduced a Design System that I designed using the atomic design methodology. As part of successive iterations, a continuously evolving system emerged — systematizing the design process and improving development velocity.
Summary
After analyzing user needs and identifying pain points, I designed a new UI and redesigned the user journey across the marketplace.
The needs analysis also revealed the need to create a Design System — one that improved both the design process and the implementation process in the development team.
The new UX and UI of the marketplace is intended to reduce the bounce rate by at least 5% in the early stages of the funnel (Homepage, Listing page), and increase Conversion Rate by at least 1% within 3 months of launch.
The new design unified the visual language and improved the overall user experience across the marketplace.
Introducing the Design System significantly accelerated the design process and the delivery of new features.
Workshops, brainstorming sessions, interviews, and A/B tests helped develop and validate the best design solutions.
Working in an agile team with multiple Product Owners and Business Owners contributed to the effective and fast delivery of the project.