Preferences Selector: Create Your Own Nutaku Experience

Hello everyone, 

In this Design Insights article we will talk a bit more about our Preferences selector: a new feature introduced with the new website design, launched in November 2020, to allow users to customize the content of the website that best suits their preferences. We will give a bit more context about how this feature came to be and guide you on how you can access and use this feature.

Summary (TL;DR):

In this article, you will read about:

• LGBTQ Game Discoverability Problems:
  Our selection of LGBTQ games was quite hidden, making it difficult for users to find and play these games.
  
  
• Mixed Game Catalog and User Discomfort:
  Mixing games of different types of sexual content in the library was poorly received by users, who wanted to avoid content that didn’t match their preferences.
  
  
• Giving Users Control:
  Instead of hiding or promoting a particular content, we decided to give users the ability to customize their experience. Enter the Preferences Selector.
  
  
• What is the Preferences Selector?
  Users can hide/show games on the website based on the characters and sexual encounters featured in the games.
  
  
• How to Access the Preferences Selector?
  Available on both PC and mobile, on the top navigation or sidebar, respectively. Also accessible via the user profile.

Problems with Dedicated LGBTQ Section

As some of you may be aware, for the past few years we have continued to add many new and high quality LGBTQ games to our catalog. Prior to the launch of our recent website redesign we were struggling with the discoverability of these games, or in other words, with how users were able to find these games on the platform. 

LGBTQ related games were overall harder to find, as they were displayed mostly on their own dedicated section of the website, being separated from the main library of games. The experience of finding and playing these games wasn’t optimal: not only it required users taking additional steps by going through multiple pages before being able to access the game they wanted, but also made overall visibility of these games to be worse when compared with our regular catalog of games, making it much more difficult for users to be aware about new releases.

LGBTQ on Games Catalog and User Discomfort

We felt that rather than having these games available only in their own dedicated section, it would be best to include LGBTQ games in the regular Nutaku games catalog page, facilitating users to have a view of all games available on the platform. While this was received positively by those that were interested in both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ games, most of our audience reported feeling uncomfortable with the presence of games that didn’t match their personal preferences. 

Giving Control to Users 

As our different audiences have conflicting preferences regarding their content consumption, prioritizing any particular audience would result in a more detrimental experience to the non-prioritized audiences. With this in mind, we came to the conclusion that we could solve this issue by providing more control to users, so that they can be in control of what content they see or don’t see. 

The launch of the Nutaku website redesign introduced the Preferences Selector: a global filter that allows users to hide or display games based on the content that can be found in these games. This feature is displayed on the top navigation (PC) or sidebar (Mobile) of the website, being accessible for users at all times and immediately updating the content of all pages when users set their preferences. Registered users preferences are also preserved across different sessions, so that users don’t need to keep setting their preferences whenever they visit the website.

With this approach, users can customize their own experience to best fit their desires, deciding whether or not they want to see a particular type of content. At the same time, we at Nutaku can continue providing the best experience to our varied audience, without neglecting anyone in particular. This is a “win-win” in our book.

Nutaku Preferences Selector

The preferences selector is a simple feature presented in a menu that contains different options (toggles) that can be enabled/disabled by the user. By default, all options are enabled, meaning that the entire catalog of games will be displayed to the user without hiding any game. Currently, the preferences selector contains the following options: 

• Female Male
• Female Female
• Male Male
• Transgender 

If a user selects to disable any of these options, games featuring the disabled content are completely hidden from the usual pages of the website, such as the games library and home page. Note that hidden games can still be accessed if the user attempts to directly visit their store or play pages (such as via a bookmark or direct URL).

Users are also able to freely update their preferences at any time, and to enable/disable as many options they want, without any limitations. Note that if someone disables ALL toggles, they’ll be served the entire unfiltered catalog, similar to how it is displayed when all options are enabled.

How to Access and Set Your Preferences:

On PC, you can quickly change your preferences using the drop down near your Nutaku Gold balance, in the top navigation bar. You can also access the feature by going to the Edit Preferences page, found on your profile drop-down and settings. 

On mobile (Android, iOS, etc.) it is also possible to access the Preferences selector, with the feature being instead displayed on the sidebar in the Menu tab.

Users can also manage their preferences on any devices via the profile dropdown, by pressing on the profile picture and selecting the Edit Preferences option on the menu.

In Closing

As previously discussed, we feel that the preferences selector is a great solution to improve the experience of our users, as it gives users the control to tailor their own experience, while also making it easier for us to properly support our varied audience without having to sideline any group. We’re also glad to have developed a rather unique feature. Other game platforms and adult content sites continue to rely on complete separate sections to serve content to the LGBTQ community, all of which end up creating issues. Our real-time filtering system avoids such issues and offers a more inclusive experience. 

We at Nutaku recognize and respect the diversity of sexual orientations, genders, and sexual expressions, and for a good while we’ve been wanting to give more support to our growing LGBTQ community. Also, while this feature was originally designed to improve the experience of our LGBTQ users, we believe it ultimately provides a better and more accessible experience to everyone. 

We believe that everyone deserves to have an experience that makes them want to come back and enjoy our games, and we will continue striving for that. 

As always, if you have any feedback regarding your experience with Nutaku, feel free to hit us up on any of our social media. We are actively looking at ways we can improve the user experience with the preferences selector even further, so please don’t be shy to share any improvements you think we could make!