Words with friends 2: Tile Styles
Tile Styles are collectible, cosmetic tile sets that let players personalize their game experience without affecting gameplay. Available in multiple rarities such as Basic, Premium, and Deluxe, these styles can be earned through play, unlocked through challenges, rewarded in Mystery Boxes, or purchased through the Rewards Pass. The feature provides players with a long-term progression loop and a sense of ownership over their in-game identity.
The Role
I was the sole designer on the Tile Style feature, with guidance from my UX Director. I defined the feature from end to end, including writing the spec, exploring initial concepts, wireframing, prototyping, creating final visual designs, and delivering detailed specs and slices to engineering.
The CHALLENGE
Retention Opportunity
Players had no long-term progression system in Words With Friends 2, resulting in a session-to-session experience without ongoing goals or rewards to keep them engaged.
The Approach
Exploring the Player Experience
I began with rapid sketches to explore how players could browse and switch tile styles without disrupting the core gameplay loop. Maintaining visibility of the board was a key UX requirement, as players rely on spatial context and momentum during turns. These early explorations helped me evaluate interaction patterns that minimized friction and supported quick, intuitive changes.
From there, I translated the concepts into wireframes and lightweight prototypes to test navigation clarity, discoverability, and the overall ergonomics of switching styles mid-session. In parallel, I conducted a competitive review of cosmetic inventory systems to understand mental models around rarity, collection management, and progression loops. This informed early decisions about hierarchy, grouping, and where the feature should live within the broader product.
The iterative process allowed me to validate the core interaction model before refining the visual design and delivering production-ready specs to engineering.
The VISION
Tile styles
Create a collectible, expressive system that motivates players to return, progress, and personalize their experience, without disrupting the core gameplay loop that makes Words With Friends 2 compelling.
The Solution
Tile Styles introduced a cosmetic progression layer to Words With Friends 2. Players collect “paint” through gameplay and challenges, use it to complete unique tilesets, and equip their favorite styles directly on the gameboard. The system provides clear collection goals, rarity-based rewards, and quick in-game switching—all without interrupting the core loop. Tile Styles delivered a new layer of expression and long-term engagement for players who wanted more than session-by-session play.
The Framework
Principles
Clarity over complexity.
Ensure players can preview and switch tile styles without confusion or disruption, keeping interactions simple, visible, and intuitive.
Flow over Decoration.
Prioritize preserving the core gameplay rhythm over adding visual embellishments, ensuring cosmetic features never slow players down.
Expression over Uniformity.
Support personalization by making each tileset feel distinct and meaningful, encouraging players to express themselves through the styles they earn.
Tile switching
Once I had a clear sense of the interaction flow, I moved into Sketch to explore higher-fidelity wireframes. Because the feature is inherently visual, I emphasized showcasing tiles in context so players could immediately see how each style feels on the board. Each tileset needed to feel distinct and rewarding to encourage player expression.
Progression
A key design question was determining what players should collect before completing a tileset. I introduced the idea of “paint” as a thematic resource used to finish a style. This narrative approach tested well—it gave players a clear story behind progression and made the collection loop more intuitive and rewarding.
Reflection
Because players can be sensitive to features that alter the core experience, I designed a global on/off control for Tile Styles. This ensured players could engage on their own terms and reduced the risk of feature rejection by preserving the familiar gameplay feel.
ONBOARDING
To help players discover the inventory organically, I surfaced it through a profile badge. This approach avoided disrupting play, but in hindsight, it may have been too passive. A more guided onboarding could have improved discovery while still respecting the core loop.
Prototyping
Prototyping revealed timing issues and edge cases in the rewards flow that forced players through several consecutive screens. To reduce friction, I introduced a “tap anywhere to skip” interaction, allowing players to control pacing and stay in flow.
The EXecution
Gallery of Tile Styles
The Impact
Tile Styles added a meaningful cosmetic progression system to Words With Friends 2 and strengthened long-term engagement without disrupting the core gameplay loop.
3% increase in Daily Active Moves
Each 1% lift represents roughly $1M in monthly ad revenue, making this a meaningful driver of revenue and engagement.
I only play against a few people, and some of them rarely change their tile, so I'm always trying to find a good tile to match it. Also, I want a plush pink pony! Why can't I get one??? ::pout::
-Ericameria
These are so cute!! Nice job. I'm too lazy to match to every board probably, but now I kinda wanna try at least once. I will change usually if they have the same tiles I'm using.