Designing a live poker platform required solving two interconnected challenges: helping players quickly find the right table, and enabling hosts to create and manage games seamlessly. I designed the lobby and hosting experience to create a clear, scalable system that supports both discovery and real-time table management.
Overview
The platform was being built from the ground up to support live poker games with real dealers. Unlike traditional poker products, it needed to accommodate two distinct user roles within the same experience: players joining existing tables and hosts creating and managing their own games.
This introduced a structural challenge — designing a system that could support both quick, low-friction entry into a game and a more complex flow for setting up and controlling a table, without making the experience feel fragmented or overwhelming.
Details
Company:
Raize (2025)
Role:
Product Designer
Tools:
Figma
Challenge
The main challenge was designing for two fundamentally different user mindsets within the same interface. Players expect speed and simplicity — they want to find a table and start playing immediately. Hosts, on the other hand, need more control: setting up game parameters, managing the table, and making decisions before the game even begins.
Balancing these needs meant avoiding a one-size-fits-all solution. The experience had to feel lightweight and intuitive for players, while still providing enough depth and flexibility for hosts — without introducing unnecessary friction or cognitive overload.
These goals highlighted a key tension: players prioritise speed and simplicity, while hosts require control and flexibility — shaping the need for two distinct but connected experiences.
Design Process
To address the different needs of players and hosts, I approached the product as two interconnected experiences: discovering games (Lobby) and creating/managing them (Host). Each flow was designed independently, while ensuring consistency across the overall system.
Lobby - Game Discovery Experience
Using client-provided references and documentation, I analysed key functionalities and content priorities to define the page structure and information hierarchy. After alignment with stakeholders, I developed a high-fidelity design system from scratch, creating reusable components to ensure consistency across the platform.
I focused on enabling users to quickly scan available tables, compare options, and join a game with minimal friction. To support fast decision-making, I explored different ways of structuring table data, prioritising clarity and scannability. This resulted in a layout where essential details — such as stakes, availability, and table status — are easy to compare at a glance, while secondary information remains accessible without overwhelming the interface.
Host Dashboard — Table Creation & Control
For hosts, the challenge shifted from speed to control. Creating and managing a table involves multiple decisions, edge cases, and system constraints, so the goal was to structure this complexity in a way that feels guided rather than overwhelming.
Working with detailed product documentation, I mapped out all possible user actions and states — including scenarios like insufficient funds, unavailable dealers, or booking restrictions — and translated this operational logic into clear, intuitive interface patterns.
To make the flow manageable, I structured it into step-based stages, allowing users to focus on one decision at a time. Complexity is introduced progressively, ensuring that essential actions remain clear while more advanced options are available when needed.
The result is a system that simplifies a highly complex process, enabling hosts to confidently set up and manage tables without friction, while maintaining consistency with the broader platform experience.
Outcome
The final solution brings together two distinct experiences — fast-paced game discovery and structured table management — into a unified, cohesive system. Players can quickly scan, compare, and join tables with minimal friction, while hosts are guided through a more complex setup and management flow without feeling overwhelmed.
By balancing simplicity and control, the platform supports different user needs within a single experience, reducing cognitive load while maintaining flexibility. The system was designed to scale, allowing new features and states to be introduced without breaking the overall structure.