Case Study

StarCare Gaming Limits.

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Project
StarCare is a responsible gambling feature embedded within The Star app enabling users to set financial limits and manage play time in real time.
Role
UX Research
Product Design
Stakeholder Engagement
Platform
iOS & Android
Mobile App
Deliverables
UX Strategy
Wireframes & IA
User Journeys
High-Fidelity POC

01 — Where We Started

The Challenge
& Objectives

Translating regulatory requirements and player-initiated controls into a clear, usable, and behaviourally effective experience — one that intervenes at the right moments and genuinely influences behaviour.

The Challenge

Educate players on the introduction of mandatory limits and encourage them to set their own spending limits — framing responsible gambling not as a restriction, but as a personal tool for staying in control.

The Objectives

Give players clear, instant visibility into their spend and time in play, readable at a glance. Build meaningful moments of friction that discourage impulse decisions, and make the act of setting limits feel personally valuable.

02 — UX Discovery

UX Workshops
& Discovery

Workshops with compliance, product, and gaming operations teams defined the regulatory framework and shaped the design principles that would guide every subsequent decision.

Phase 01
Regulatory Mapping
Mapped the full set of regulatory requirements for responsible gambling features.
Phase 02
Behavioural Analysis
Identified the highest-risk moments in the gaming journey where behavioural friction would be most effective.
Phase 03
Feedback System Design
Designed the traffic-light feedback system as a glanceable, real-time limit indicator — Green, Orange, and Red thresholds surfacing limit status at a glance.
Phase 04
Intervention Modelling
Defined the 3-Hour Time Play Tracker and Delay on Limit Increases as two complementary intervention layers.

Journey Maps & Behavioural Flows

Journey maps bridged the app experience with real-world player behaviour — illustrating when and how the system would intervene during active play, and helping stakeholders visualise the experience.

Journey Maps & Behavioural Flows
Personas
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UX/UI Iterations & Testing

The limits interface went through multiple low-fidelity iterations — testing different approaches to editing and setting limits, opting in and out, and warning users as they approached their limit threshold.

Iterating with AI

Claude was used to iterate interaction patterns and validate complex business rules — rapidly stress-testing edge cases in the limit-setting logic and time-tracker flows before committing to high-fidelity design. A low-fidelity POC was also tested with users to collate responses, revealing a strong preference for Version 1 at 76% — favoured for its simplicity and clear differentiation between mandatory and user-set limits. View the survey here ↗

Low Fidelity Prototype 01

Low Fidelity Prototype 02

03 — High Fidelity Design

Clickable POC
StarCare

The high-fidelity prototype brought the limits experience to life — translating the low-fidelity POCs into high-fidelity screens, allowing stakeholders to navigate the key journeys and experience the proposed design firsthand.

High-Fidelity POC

Four clickable journeys covering the core StarCare interactions — setting a limit, increasing a limit, decreasing a limit, and the 3-hour play tracker.

Set Limit

Increase Limit

Decrease Limit

Play Tracker

High-Fidelity Screens

Final UI across the StarCare experience — limit setting, traffic-light status indicators, limit adjustment confirmation flows, and the 3-hour time tracker — all within an updated Star App visual design system.

High-Fidelity Screen 01
High-Fidelity Screen 02
High-Fidelity Screen 03
High-Fidelity Screen 04
High-Fidelity Screen 05
High-Fidelity Screen 06
High-Fidelity Screen 08
High-Fidelity Screen 07

04 — Where We Landed

Project
Outcomes

StarCare successfully incorporated regulatory requirements and user-initiated responsible gambling tools into the core gaming experience — delivering a product that players found clear, usable, and genuinely effective.

↑ Introduced
Behavioural Intervention Design
Two complementary friction layers — a mandatory delay on limit increases and a 3-hour session tracker — created deliberate pause points that discouraged impulsive, high-risk decisions.
↑ Introduced
Real-Time Limit Feedback
A colour-coded status indicator surfaced limit thresholds at a glance — keeping financial boundaries front of mind throughout play, rather than hidden away in settings.
↑ Embedded
Regulatory Compliance
Translated complex regulatory requirements into intuitive UX patterns — ensuring full compliance without sacrificing usability or creating friction for responsible players.
↑ Achieved
Member Adoption
Promotional on-property materials supported awareness of the new feature, with a steady uptake of 24% of members utilising one or more of the personal limit settings.
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