N E O P E T S S H O P W I Z A R D — UX/UI Designer
Modern ease, classic feel.
This redesign of the Neopets Shop Wizard focuses on improving usability and efficiency while preserving the nostalgic look and feel that long-time players know and love.
T H E P R O B L E M
Players find the Neopets Shop Wizard outdated and inefficient, making it harder to search, compare, and buy items smoothly.
T H E S O L U T I O N
Streamlined Search
A straightforward search, no need to input anything else but the item name, and you’re on your way!
Filters, Finally!
A standard for any sort of search bar, filters are now present after searching! Paired with item information and cleaner search results.
Price Transparency
Users now have the ability to view price charts of each item, so they’re confident they’re getting a fair price every time.
Search Smarter
Reduce frequent re-searching of items with “recent searches” and “saved searches” columns.
T H E B A C K G R O U N D & R E S E A R C H
A dated tool limits how players buy, sell, and compare items.
The Neopets Shop Wizard has been a staple tool for players since the early 2000s, helping them search for items across user shops. While beloved, its design has hardly changed in decades, leaving it clunky, outdated, and inefficient compared to modern search experiences.
Players often face slow searches, difficulty comparing prices, and unnecessary friction when trying to buy or sell items. This discourages trading and interrupts the fun of gameplay.
This redesign reimagines the Shop Wizard with a modern interface that preserves its nostalgic charm while making searching, comparing, and purchasing items smooth, intuitive, and enjoyable.
Centering users at every step
To better understand player needs and the state of the marketplace, I conducted both competitor research and community discussions.
The competitive analysis highlighted how other online marketplaces streamline search, filtering, and price comparison, exposing the Shop Wizard’s outdated design and missed opportunities. Conversations with Neopets’ players revealed common frustrations around slow searches, clunky navigation, and difficulty finding the best deals.
Together, these insights provided a foundation for rethinking the Shop Wizard’s interface, ensuring it balanced modern usability with the nostalgic feel that keeps the community engaged.
Competitive Analysis
The three competitors I researched and key insights I discovered:
Strengths:
Large, engaged user bases drive consistent activity, whether through real-world resale or in-game economies.
Built-in trust signals like user profiles, identity verification, or structured currencies support credibility.
Strong infrastructure for peer-to-peer transactions, with messaging, filters, and basic safety features.
Unique niches (community-driven marketplaces or fantasy economies) encourage long-term engagement and loyalty.
Opportunities:
Rising consumer demand for trustworthy, easy-to-use marketplaces both in real life and in games.
Gamified and community-driven economies are trending, with players valuing customization, cosmetics, and exclusives.
Strong interest in sustainable secondhand shopping and hybrid models of online/local transactions.
Potential for innovation through improved search, AI-assisted fraud detection, better price comparison tools, and mobile-first redesigns.
Room to expand accessibility, onboarding clarity, and mobile UX for broader audiences.
Weaknesses:
Outdated or clunky user interfaces reduce ease of use, especially on mobile.
Limited customer support and weak buyer/seller protections lead to trust issues.
Fraud, scams, and fake listings are common across platforms with inconsistent moderation.
Minimal tools for bulk actions, automation, or professional/high-volume sellers.
Over-reliance on a single revenue stream or outdated systems limits scalability.
Threats:
Aggressive competition from established platforms like Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and Mercari.
In gaming, cozy and pet simulation titles (Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Wolvden, etc.) compete for attention.
Negative economic conditions can reduce spending on non-essential or premium digital items.
Increasing regulatory pressure around fraud protection, digital transactions, and child safety.
Small development teams and aging infrastructure make it difficult to keep up with user expectations and competitors’ pace.
User Interviews
Through 5 virtual interviews with dedicated NSW users, the following insights were discovered:
User Roles:
Profit-Oriented Shopkeepers: focused on pricing, analytics, and market data
Customization Buyers: casual users purchasing affordable items for pets/appearance
Restockers/Resellers: seek underpriced items to flip for profit, heavily reliant on SSW/Jellyneo
Economic Enthusiasts: care about overall market health, fair pricing, and preventing manipulation
Across roles, the Shop Wizard is used almost every time players log in
Requests:
Integrated price history and market trend data (Jellyneo-like features)
Inflation/deflation alerts to guide pricing decisions
Browse by category (e.g., healing potions, clothing)
Recent searches log for efficiency
Direct purchase option from results for convenience
Typo correction/“Did you mean” suggestions
Broader access to Super Shop Wizard or balanced advanced search tools
Pain Points:
Randomized search results cause repeated refreshes and inefficiency
Temporary bans from overuse disrupt heavy users
999,999 NP price cap limits high-value item searches
Super Shop Wizard paywall creates unfairness between Premium and non-Premium users
Lack of integrated item data (price history, sales trends) forces reliance on Jellyneo
UI frustrations: search reset behavior and poor resubmit placement
Key Insights:
Integration: Jellyneo currently fills critical gaps that the Shop Wizard could bring in natively.
Transparency: Reliable pricing data and market visibility are top priorities for users.
Efficiency: Randomized search results cause frustration and need to be streamlined.
Fairness: Any improvements must avoid giving Premium users an overwhelming advantage.
Flexibility: Optional advanced functionality can serve both casual and advanced players without sacrificing simplicity.
T H E P E R S O N A S
Capturing diverse motivations
Taking what I learned from the competitor analysis and user interviews, I created three unique user personas to make sure all ranges of users were covered.
Meet Amelia!
Amelia is a detail-oriented player who treats her shop like a business, carefully tracking trends to maximize sales and fairness.
Meet Leo!
Leo is a convenience-focused player who values speed and simplicity when purchasing items for customization or quests.
Meet Carmen!
Carmen is a budget-conscious player who relies on persistence and external tools to stay competitive without paying for premium.
H O W M I G H T W E
How might we help Neopet users understand pricing trends and value fluctuations over time to support informed decisions and rebuild their trust in the marketplace?
How might we improve search filters to help users narrow results more effectively?
T H E I D E A T I O N
Making experiences tangible
With our personas made and an idea of what users want, I created a user flow based on the key insights from the research phase. Due to the project being limited to a single feature, there was only one user flow to test out.
Search & buy an item
Walks through searching for an item, applying filters, and reviewing price trends before selecting a shop. Users can either visit the owner’s page or use a streamlined quick-buy option, with built-in confirmation for clarity. This flow highlights the redesign’s focus on efficiency, transparency, and reducing unnecessary steps while preserving user choice.
With our user flows in hand, I began to start designing the key screens. Making sure to follow the original screens as a guide, I focused on providing solutions to the main feature requests given by our interviewees while respecting what users enjoy about the original layout.
The restrictions of this project include not changing anything about the UI elements, so I opted to skip the mid-fidelity stage since the majority of it will look similar in layout to the original.
T H E D E S I G N
Shaping insights into solutions
Low fidelity Prototypes
T E S T I N G & I T E R A T I O N S
Refinement with every test
After some user testing, the low-fidelity frames were brought up to high-fidelity and then tested again through virtual moderated usability tests with five interviewees to test the key flow.
Participants were asked to complete the following tasks while providing comments and feedback along the way:
Search for a “Blue Draik Egg”
Apply filters and View price chart
Use the quickbuy feature
Based on the participant feedback I received during the usability tests, a handful of iterations were implemented into the final design. Including, but not limited to, the following:
Strengths
Cleaner layout an improved visual hierarchy.
Price chart adds value and transparency
Quickbuy supports faster shopping with less friction.
Critiques
Personalization and trust-building features
Improved visual feedback and customization for confirmations.
Additional filters to support more advanced users.
This project was about modernizing a nostalgic tool while respecting player expectations. I focused on balancing usability with fairness, streamlining the shopping experience, and designing a solution that feels both efficient and true to the community.
T H E R E S U L T S
The result is a redesign that improves efficiency while still respecting the nostalgic look and feel that players are deeply attached to. By adding features like filters and integrated price charts inspired by Jellyneo, the Shop Wizard feels more modern without losing its identity.
This project pushed me to work within tighter design restrictions, which challenged my creativity and problem-solving. I learned how deeply players value familiarity, even if it means tolerating inefficiency, and how important it is to balance usability improvements with community trust.
Conducting interviews reminded me that even small visual changes can spark resistance if they feel disruptive to established habits.
Looking back, I would expand testing with a broader range of users, especially those who do not rely on third-party tools, to see how the redesign impacts different play styles. With more time, I would also explore alternative ways to open up advanced features while maintaining fairness between Premium and non-Premium users.
I am most proud of how well the final design blends efficiency with respect for nostalgia. It shows my ability to empathize with users, iterate thoughtfully, and create solutions that honor community values while addressing long-standing frustrations. This project highlights my skills across research, synthesis, design, prototyping, and testing, and demonstrates my ability to modernize legacy systems without alienating their loyal users.
