A Product on the Brink of Irrelevance
Aristocrat had been marketing the PlayerMax application since 2015 — but it hadn't been well received by casinos. With Joingo entering the US market, we were actively losing existing customers.
Senior leadership made the call to give the product a fresh start: enhance the user experience, close feature gaps with competitors, and make it the most sought-after mobile casino app in the market. The responsibility for this full redesign and revitalisation was entrusted to my team, with a hard deadline — G2E October 2023 in Las Vegas.
This wasn't a refinement project. It was a strategic pivot to rescue a product, differentiate from a fast-growing competitor, and generate new revenue for Aristocrat.
My strategic framing: PlayerMax is marketed as B2B, but it is fundamentally a B2C product — casino players are the end users. To win casino operators as clients, we had to delight their patrons first. Every design decision flowed from this insight.
What We Were Solving For
The redesign had to deliver on multiple simultaneous fronts: close feature gaps, incorporate a major platform consolidation, and hit a fixed conference deadline.
- Competitive Feature Parity
- Mobile App (iOS & Android)
- MAM Management Tool
- Jackpot Integration
- Drink on Demand
- Achievements & Tier Progress
- 3 Apps into 1 Platform
- Cage Modernisation
- WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility
A Structured Approach Under Pressure
Facing a hard deadline with limited baseline data, my team and I defined a rigorous, phased process to close knowledge gaps fast while maintaining design quality.
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User Research
Deep qualitative research and persona creation to understand the real end users — casino patrons — not just the B2B buyer.
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Journey Mapping
Mapped existing and desired journeys side-by-side to surface friction, drop-off points, and moments of delight to amplify.
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Competitive Analysis
Evaluated three competitor applications against 40+ criteria. Findings documented in a structured analysis to drive prioritisation.
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Task Flows
Defined end-to-end task flows for new and enhanced features — ensuring each path was intuitive before touching visual design.
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Wireframes
Low-fidelity wireframes visualised structure and interactions, separating layout decisions from visual design decisions.
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Wireframe Testing
Tested with stakeholders and the technical team for feasibility, compliance alignment, and early usability signal.
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Iterations
Rapid refinement cycles based on structured feedback. Design decisions documented with clear rationale for stakeholder alignment.
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Visual Design
Defined Anaxi-aligned branding with white-label flexibility. Presented multiple options to leadership and marketing to drive consensus.
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High-Fidelity Mockups
Delivered G2E-ready prototypes for senior leadership sign-off and live showcase to casino prospects in Las Vegas.
The Constraints I Had to Navigate
Every leadership case study is defined as much by what you overcame as what you created. Here are the structural constraints I solved for.
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Outdated Technology Platform
The existing app was built on legacy technology that blocked entire categories of desired features and modern UI patterns from being implemented — at all.
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No Direct User Access
Casino operators are a closed domain. NDA constraints prevented recruiting external players for research. We had to find casino-adjacent participants from within the organisation to proxy real users.
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No Established Branding System
All ATI apps are white-label products — casinos can brand them freely. Designing a default theme that could flex to any casino's identity presented a significant and novel design challenge.
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Limited Team Resources
No dedicated UX researcher on the team. I had to build a research capability within the existing team under a hard G2E deadline — lean execution without compromising rigour.
How I Led Through the Constraints
Each challenge became a strategic decision point. My role was to resolve ambiguity, align stakeholders, and keep the team moving toward a quality outcome.
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Championed a Technology Platform Migration
I initiated and led discussions with both leadership and the technology team, making the strategic case that upgrading the platform was the only way to deliver the product quality we needed — and the commercial return Aristocrat was seeking. Framing the tech upgrade as a revenue decision, not a technical one, secured buy-in.
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Designed a Research Workaround Under NDA Constraints
Unable to recruit external casino players, I identified casino-frequenting participants from HR, admin, and customer success teams, and complemented them with product stakeholders from multiple domains. This produced a richer, cross-functional perspective than a single-type panel would have given us.
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Resolved Branding Ambiguity Through Structured Decision-Making
With no established ATI branding guidelines, I recommended adopting Anaxi branding as a default — with modifications. I prepared and presented multiple options to both the leadership and marketing teams, facilitating a structured consensus rather than leaving the decision to drift.
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Created Planning Infrastructure from Zero
As soon as scope and timelines were clear, I built out user stories and tasks in Jira, assigned ownership, and constructed a sprint plan designed to keep the team motivated as well as on track — balancing delivery rigour with team morale across a high-pressure timeline.
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Grounded Every Design Decision in Research Data
I conducted daily and weekly design reviews, systematically ensuring all decisions traced back to workshop findings, usability testing, or competitive analysis. This prevented scope creep and kept the team focused on what evidence said users actually needed.
3-Day Stakeholder Workshop (May 2023)
I organised and facilitated a 3-day UX workshop in May 2023, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders — product managers, customer success, HR representatives, and in-house casino-frequenters — to generate real user insight under NDA constraints.
The workshop covered five structured focus areas across the three days:
- User Personas
- User Needs & Goals
- Journey Mapping
- User Pain Points
- Opportunities for Improvement
- Lightweight Usability Evaluations
- Business Impact Mapping
Key Insights That Shaped the Design
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KISS Principle for Task CompletionKeep it simple at every step. Remove unnecessary friction and cognitive load from every key task flow.
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Content Clarity Is Non-NegotiableClearly define what content is presented and why. Confusion about what is on screen drives abandonment.
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Match Modern Mobile ConventionsUsers have high expectations from consumer apps. The experience must feel familiar, not proprietary-clunky.
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Rethink Multi-EGM Funding FlowAdjust the task flow for funding multiple gaming machines: add one first, then layer from there. The existing all-at-once model caused errors and confusion.
From Outdated to Best-in-Class
Following research, workshop synthesis, competitive analysis, and iterative prototyping, the team delivered a significantly improved application — showcased live at G2E October 2023. Every screen was rebuilt from first principles around the KISS framework, modern mobile conventions, and Aristocrat's new Anaxi design language.
Before — Legacy PlayerMax
Outdated WinForms-era interface — cluttered, non-mobile-native, difficult to navigate for casino patrons
After — Redesigned PlayerMax
Modern, card-based mobile UI — clean navigation, task-focused flows, and visible tier/reward progress built on Anaxi design language
Design system choice: We recommended Anaxi branding as the default theme — adaptable per casino, but consistent in structure. This decision was reached through a structured presentation to leadership and marketing, not by default — ensuring organisation-wide ownership of the outcome.
Results That Moved the Business
The redesigned PlayerMax was showcased at G2E in October 2023. The reception validated every strategic decision made during the process — and produced results that directly expanded Aristocrat's revenue pipeline.
- 2 Patents
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Design Patents Awarded
Two design patents granted for novel UI and interaction patterns introduced in the redesign — the most direct validation that the work produced genuinely original thinking.
- 2 Clients
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New Casinos Confirmed
Two new casino clients confirmed purchasing intent at G2E mid-2024, directly attributable to the redesign demonstration. This represents new revenue that would not have existed without the transformation.
- 3 New
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Major Features Shipped
Three new features added — Jackpot Integration, Drink on Demand, and enhanced Achievements and Tier Progress. Two were among the most-demanded features by existing casino customers.
- ↑ Clear
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Tier & Rewards Visibility
Reviewing tier standing and points balances became significantly faster and clearer in the new app — a top patron pain point eliminated through focused information architecture decisions.
"All of our guests and visitors were really happy to see the outcome — and two new casinos confirmed their buying in mid-2024 when we have our official launch."
What This Project Demonstrates
PlayerMax was not a typical redesign. It required leading through strategic ambiguity, resource constraints, access limitations, and a fixed public deadline — while producing work that earned patents.
The decisions I made — championing a platform migration, engineering a research workaround under NDA, structuring branding consensus across leadership and marketing, and grounding every design review in data — are the decisions that define a UX leader, not just a UX designer.
The outcome — two patents, two new clients, a modernised platform, and a team that delivered under pressure — demonstrates that design leadership at this level drives business results, not just user satisfaction scores.