Wordiply
Play the game ↗
Read the feature on the Guardian’s Saturday magazine ↗
Product design web
The Guardian, UK
We wanted to invent the next Wordle. How hard could it be?
Every Christmas, the Guardian’s Saturday magazine issue is dedicated to puzzles. There are crosswords, riddles, spot-the-difference, quizzes, and features about puzzles. It’s a much loved issue by the Guardian’s readers.
In June 2022 the non-fiction books editor set out to write a feature about what it takes to create a new puzzle like Wordle. As a small team of three, we had 5 months to figure it out during our 10% time.
The premise of a puzzle is simple: grab the pieces and fit them together in the correct way. Creating a puzzle, on the other hand, is a bit more complicated.
TIMELINE
Design + development: June-December 2022
Shipped: December 2022CORE TEAM
Editorial: David Shariatmadari
Product design (end-to-end): Ana Pradas
Development: Freddie PreeceWith support from Colin King, Ilhan Mohammed, Calvin Dickson, Faye Constable-Dibble and the Editorial Tools team.
Different wireframes options for the main interface for user testing.The idea is simple enough, but there are some variations of the dynamic that can change how people may feel about it when playing. How many attempts do you get? Can you get suggestions if you’re stuck? Can you give up or do you need to go through all the attempts to see the result? How do you get scored?
Ultimately, it’s about finding the sweet spot between being fun and challenging enough.
The final UI for the main interface and the results modal.
● idea
Get a three letter hint and guess the longest word possible that includes it within five attempts.
● insight (1)
Puzzles need to be the perfect balance between challenging and achievable.
Too easy and you might get bored.
Too difficult and you may easily get frustrated and stop playing.
● insight (2)
People want to play Wordiply when they are in the “filling time” mindset.
They are in a queue at the GP, waiting for the bus or on their commute. They are mostly on their phone.
● design
The design is mobile-first, with a nod to classic word games.
A simple and uncluttered UX enables users to quickly jump into the game, even if they haven’t played before.
A clean but vibrant UI gives it personality whilst keeping it part of the Guardian’s brands ecosystem.
● delivery
The benefits of a team of three means an extremely lean approach where impeccable communication was essential.
Freddie and I collaborated very closely on the implementation of the designs.
Wordiply is developed as a web-based product and we used Collins dictionary as our word database.
● results
+500K average pageviews/fortnight as of August 2024*
As a consequence, Wordiply has become a staple in the Guardian’s product portfolio rather than a one-off puzzle for the Christmas special issue.
*source: Ophan