I worked across the full lifecycle of the New Lotto project, from early concept exploration, moderated testing, UI decisions.
My role
UX
UI
User Testing
Design systems
Sector
Gambling
Betting
The National Lottery introduced New Lotto, a significant structural change to how Lotto works. Each played ticket now automatically enters two consecutive rounds on the same draw night, effectively doubling the chances of winning without any additional cost or player input.
This project focused on communicating that change across the digital product, from gameplay screens and results journeys to splash banners and intro screens, while maintaining trust with both new and long-standing players.
The National Lottery is the UK's state-franchised lottery, established in 1994 and regulated by the Gambling Commission. It's currently operated by Allwyn Entertainment, which took over from the Camelot Group on 1 February 2024.
New Lotto had two overarching goals that guided every design decision, from design choices to copy direction and promotional strategy.
Win Belief
making prizes feel more achievable by clearly communicating the improved odds and the increased number of winners and millionaires.
Make it Fun
making Lotto more exciting by improving the gameplay and check-results journeys, and exploring new concepts to inject energy into the experience.
I was responsible for the end to end design output across six sprints. This included early hi-fidelity concept exploration, iterating on designs in response to four rounds of user research, and delivering 16 scenarios across Desktop, Tablet, Mobile and App. From successful journeys through to error states, ensuring New Lotto was consistent and coherent across every touchpoint.
Throughout the process I worked closely with the Project Owner in regular QA sessions to align New Lotto with all Draw Based Games, sense checking decisions and making sure the experience held up across every platform before moving forward.
I also supported each user research session alongside the Lead User Researcher, taking detailed notes and categorising findings in real time so insights could feed directly into the next design iteration.
Before scope constraints narrowed focus, I explored a wide range of hi-fidelity concepts to understand which directions had the most potential to increase excitement and communicate the New Lotto change.
Live Draws I explored a widget surfacing live, unverified draw results across the Homepage and Results journeys, ensuring users wouldn't miss the latest draw and had clarity on any draws currently in progress.
Rounds Signposting To reinforce the two-rounds concept, I introduced a pill component carrying an "x2 Rounds" label into both the line card and draw day preferences, providing a consistent and lightweight visual cue throughout the journey.
Splash screens I explored illustration-led approaches to explain the core New Lotto concept, that the same line of numbers enters two rounds, giving players two chances to win, using existing components and assets from the design system.
Across all three areas I also incorporated micro-animations to reduce ambiguity, increase win belief and bring a greater sense of energy and excitement to the overall experience.
The first round of research tested comprehension across several concept directions spanning key parts of the play journey: Winners Map, Splash Screen, Gameplay Signposting, and Live Draws.
Working closely with the Lead User Researcher, I supported each session by taking detailed notes and categorising findings in real time, ensuring insights were structured and ready to inform the next design iteration.
Winners Map generated limited enthusiasm, participants found it reminiscent of content they'd seen before, with little appetite to engage further. This told me early on that recycled formats wouldn't cut through, and that New Lotto needed to feel genuinely different rather than dressed up.
Splash Screen revealed a key issue, the design too closely resembled the standard gameplay journey, causing users to focus on playing rather than absorbing the new concept. This pointed to a need to rethink the format, whether through a more distinct tutorial design or an alternative approach such as a video walkthrough. In response I moved away from play slip patterns entirely, pushing toward illustration-led formats that felt distinct from the gameplay journey.
Gameplay Signposting surfaced significant confusion around game logic. The subtle red striped banner went largely unnoticed, with the New Lotto concept only landing at the ticket confirmation screen where an illustration explained how the new game works. This made it clear that passive signposting wasn't enough and that the round concept needed to be embedded visually into the gameplay itself.
Live Draws evoked a nostalgic response from participants who remembered watching draws previously, though there was no strong conviction that the feature would be regularly used. The recommendation was to continue iterating on the concept before committing to a direction.
Due to time and resource constraints, I was unable to proceed with the more ambitious concepts I explored in the early sprints. My focus shifted to the core gameplay and check results journeys, with the main goals being to communicate the game changes effectively and signpost the two rounds as clearly as possible.
Dropped from Scope
Retained Focus
Final Design solution
Over six sprints I was responsible for the full design output across the project, delivering 16 scenarios across Desktop, Tablet, Mobile and App. Each scenario was designed to cover the complete range of states, from successful journeys through to error states, and was QA'd with the Project Owner throughout to ensure alignment with all Draw Based Games across the National Lottery platform.
The Challenge The central challenge was one of balance. Long-standing Lotto players are habituated and action-oriented, quick to dismiss anything that gets in the way of gameplay journey. New players on the other hand needed enough context to genuinely understand a structural change to a game they were just getting to know. Every decision had to work for both.
What I Landed On The final solution pulled together the key learnings from all four rounds of research. Stacked rounds were carried through both the gameplay and check results screens, giving the two-rounds concept a consistent visual presence that didn't rely on players stopping to read. The New Lotto banner was positioned so it didn't push the play slip out of view, protecting the new player journey while keeping the signposting impossible to miss. While research had validated "More winners", "More millionaires" and "Buy one get one free" as the strongest copy directions, the business ultimately moved forward with "One ticket. Two chances to win" as the overarching value proposition across the experience.
What Was Left Unresolved Not everything was fully resolved. The check results screen threw up a critical finding late on, with users struggling to tell the difference between draw numbers and their own, flagged as a priority fix going forward. A number of earlier concepts including Live Draws, and the Winners Map were also dropped due to time and resource constraints, though several remain strong candidates for future development.
Measuring Success The impact of New Lotto would be best measured through a combination of comprehension rate among new players post-launch, return play rate before and after the update, ticket sales volume, and a reduction in support queries related to confusion around how the new game works. Engagement with the intro and splash screens would also indicate whether the signposting was landing with the right audience.
What I Took Away What this project really reinforced for me was how much the quality of a design solution depends on how well research gets translated into action. Being part of that process rather than just receiving findings at the end gave me a much sharper sense of where users were genuinely confused versus where they just needed clearer signposting, and that distinction informed pretty much every decision I made. That distinction, and the discipline of QA-ing every state across every platform, informed pretty much every decision I made