My role
UX Designer partnering closely with Product and Engineering.
- End-to-end mobile experience
- Worked alongside a UX designer for web to ensure cross-surface consistency.
- Owned every mobile flow from account creation through to deposit
- Adapted Lottoland's existing design patterns into a hybrid system tailored specifically to KenoGO.
Context
KenoGO was a greenfield product built to challenge Tabcorp's monopoly on Keno licences in Victoria and establish Lottoland's presence on the App Store and Play Store in Australia. No Keno product existed at Lottoland prior to this — the mobile app and web experience were designed simultaneously, from scratch.
The Challenge
Designing a regulated Keno app for a new market meant solving for several things at once: adapting game mechanics to a small screen without losing clarity, meeting responsible gambling and KYC requirements without killing conversion, and shipping a high-performance iOS app alongside an Android wrapper within tight timescales — all while maintaining consistency with a web experience being designed in parallel.
Key Constraints
- No existing Keno product or design precedent to build from
- Regulated environment — requiring responsible gambling and KYC compliance throughout
- Keno game mechanics — draws, number picking, ticket selection — not naturally suited to a small screen
- UX quality— Cross-surface consistency with a web experience being designed in parallel
Approach
- Start with the game mechanic — Before any other flow, the core Keno interaction (number picking, ticket selection, draw results) had to work intuitively on mobile. Getting this right set the foundation for everything else.
- Adapt, don't rebuild — Rather than designing a new system from scratch, adapted Lottoland's existing patterns into a hybrid tailored to KenoGO, balancing product distinctiveness with platform coherence.
- Regulation as a design constraint, not an afterthought — Responsible gambling and KYC requirements were designed into the core flows from the start, not bolted on at the end.
- iOS first — Given timescales and the higher revenue potential of the iOS audience, prioritised iOS UX quality while shipping Android as a wrapper to meet the launch window.
Key Product Decisions
- Prioritised the ticket selection and number picking experience above all other flows — the core mechanic had to feel native to mobile before anything else was built around it.
- Designed responsible gambling and KYC flows to meet regulatory requirements without creating friction that would damage conversion
- Shipped Android as a wrapper to hit the launch window, with iOS carrying the full native UX quality
- Maintained visual and interaction consistency with the web experience throughout, despite designing the two surfaces independently
Outcomes
Both apps were approved by Apple and Google and launched within weeks of each other. The shift to mobile exceeded expectations — 71% of total Keno revenue came through the apps almost immediately, a result that validated the decision to invest in a dedicated native experience over a web-only approach. The iOS app in particular drove disproportionate value, with conversion and stakes far above web benchmarks.
- 9.6K installs shortly after launch
- 71% of total Keno revenue generated through apps
- iOS generated ~66% of app revenue
- Install → FTD conversion on iOS: 40% (vs usual <20%)
- Stakes per player: 2.5x higher on iOS app vs web
Reflection
Apps are critical in this market. Mobile-native UX significantly increased player value and conversion.
