Easy Deck
Stay Focused, Stay Organized: Simplify Poker Tracking with Easy Deck
B2C Poker Tool: Streamlining Hand Histories, Optimizing Tracking and Organization
Product Designer | 6 Months | Figma, Adobe Suite & Procreate
As a UX/UI designer, I’m passionate about addressing real-world problems with user-centered design. When I learned of the challenges live poker players face with recording hand histories, I saw an opportunity to create a solution tailored to their needs. Existing tools were either too complicated or lacked essential features, disrupting players’ focus and organization.
Easy Deck was designed to streamline hand history recording, bankroll management, and overall session organization, offering a tool that’s both intuitive and powerful. By engaging directly with players, I crafted an app that supports their success in a high-stakes environment. This case study highlights my design journey—from uncovering pain points to delivering a tool that empowers poker players to perform at their best.
CHALLENGE
In high-stakes poker, every decision matters. Capturing hand histories in real-time is essential, but without a specialized tool, players face disorganized records, missed learning opportunities, and added mental strain. Existing solutions are fragmented and inefficient, offering basic note-taking at best, and failing to support effective analysis or collaborative learning.
A streamlined solution is needed—one that simplifies hand history recording, bankroll management, and organization—empowering players to stay focused, enhance their skills, and thrive within the poker community.
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BronzeHand History Recording Tool
A streamlined tool for live poker players to capture and organize gameplay details quickly, featuring an intuitive interface for seamless input and easy access to review or export histories.
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Online Poker Community
Seamlessly connect with your poker community to share hand histories, discuss strategies, and receive feedback—all within the app, fostering continuous learning and sharper gameplay.
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Efficient Bankroll Management
A streamlined bankroll system that converts essential data into clear graphs and key metrics, offering a concise snapshot of financial performance for quick, informed decisions.
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Personalized Planner
A customizable planner for live poker players to set goals, track progress, and maintain balance, easily adapting to your unique routine and priorities.
RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
Secondary Research
Poker is a skill-based game where success depends on strategy, mathematical analysis, and psychology. However, live poker players lack dedicated tools to efficiently record hand histories, which are essential for post-game analysis and community discussions. This project aims to create a discreet and quick tool for
Primary Research
In-depth interviews with five professional poker players revealed key insights into their needs and challenges. Analyzing over 90 statements highlighted two main pain points: the absence of specialized tools for hand history recording
‘For live poker … it's kind of crazy to me that no one has built anything to help easily document HH's though.’
Jason P.
CORE PRIORITIES
recording hand histories, helping players improve without disrupting poker room etiquette. The need for such a tool is supported by ethnographic research and informal interviews, emphasizing the value of community engagement, theory study, and mental discipline in poker.
and the inefficiency and lack of customization in existing tools. These findings underscored the need for a tailored solution to support strategic improvement and community engagement.
‘Once the hand is completed I would generally go into my notes and just type down how the hand has played out so I can review it at a later time.’
Alexander B.
‘I'd advise anyone considering taking poker seriously to have an outlet for the negative emotions they will inevitably experience.’
Richard Hamm
‘You are inevitably going to face setbacks and adversity riding the swings of poker. If you don't have good systems in place to combat them, you will fail.’
— Nicholas Katz, Professional Poker Player & International Chess Academy Coach
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Pain Points
Lack of Hand History Recording Tools
Distractions During Poker Sessions
Challenges in Balancing Poker and Personal Life
Struggles with Financial Stability
Difficulties in Maintaining Work-Life Balance -
Needs
Hand History Recording Tool
Bankroll Management Tool
Time Management & Goal-Setting Tool
Poker Network for Community Support
Data Analysis for Performance Evaluation -
Goals
Improvement in Poker Skills
Establishing a Strong Poker Network
Achieving Financial Stability
Maintaining a Healthy Work-Life Balance
Maximizing Efficiency in Data Analysis
KEY INSIGHTS
DESIGN PROCESS
After identifying the MVP, outlining the sitemap and red routes, I sketched key screens to iterate on design concepts and refine the user flow. These sketches informed low-fidelity screens, establishing the foundational UX and interaction flow.
Red Routes
Low Fidelity Screens
Design Rationale
The Easy Deck poker app blends the elegance of Art Deco with the simplicity of Minimalism to create a user-friendly, efficient experience. Art Deco’s bold geometric patterns and clean lines evoke the sophistication of high-stakes poker, while Minimalism ensures intuitive navigation and clarity.
The dark theme, inspired by the low-light ambiance of casinos, enhances immersion and reduces eye strain, allowing players to focus on their game. Paired with the fonts Avenir and Poller One, this design approach balances modern functionality with a touch of classic flair, ensuring a seamless and engaging user experience.
USABILITY ANALYSIS AND INSIGHTS FROM PROFESSIONAL LIVE POKER PLAYERS
Given the app's specific focus, I engaged the same poker players from the initial interviews to participate in usability tests. During these tests, no
Custom Poker Keyboard
Although I am not a poker player, I approached this project with a commitment to thoroughly studying the subject and asking the right questions. The final keyboard layout was developed in collaboration with professional poker players, ensuring its design aligns intuitively with their
critical issues were identified, and all five participants successfully completed the assigned tasks. However, several areas were highlighted for potential improvement.
Bankroll Management Form
Bankroll management tools are widely available, yet many lack the customization required by professional poker players and often include an excessive number of features. Interviews revealed that players typically use only about 30% of these features. To address this, a streamlined and highly customizable bankroll management form was developed, prioritizing essential fields to generate clear, actionable
hand history recording process. Usability testing highlighted the need for additional features, such as the comma and slash keys. To incorporate these, some keys were combined, and button sizes were increased to enhance overall usability and accessibility.
performance graphs on a monthly, biannual, and annual basis. Usability testing further refined the design, with two out of five participants recommending the inclusion of an "Expenses" input field. This addition enhances graph accuracy and eliminates the need for manual calculations, improving overall functionality.
Optimization of Hand History Recording and Tagging System
Before designing the hand history recording section, I identified the need for live poker players to quickly document and share hand histories with their online communities on platforms like Discord, Telegram, and WhatsApp. To address this, I developed a custom poker keyboard. However, I initially underestimated the specific methods players use
to save and retrieve their recorded histories. By collaborating with professional poker players and consulting an experienced UX designer, we introduced a tagging system. Combined with a search feature, this system enables players to efficiently filter notes by tags, location, or date, streamlining the retrieval process.
