Background
Crosswordr by Crossplay Digital is an online platform for uploading, sharing, and solving crosswords. As their user base grew, the team was preparing to launch a new puzzle embedding feature that would allow crosswords to be shared more widely across the web. To support this, they needed to improve the platform experience. I joined as a Product Designer during my final year at university, focused on enhancing the product to align with the embed feature rollout.
Role
Product designer
Team
Solo designer
Timeline
3 months
My contribution
As the sole designer, I led market research, proposed new features, designed user flows and interfaces, and collaborated with the project manager to align design with product goals.
The problem
Currently, once a puzzle is uploaded to Crosswordr, users have no ability to edit, customize, or manage it. The uploaded puzzle is locked in its original state and inherits Crosswordr’s default branding and design—both on the platform and when embedded on other websites.
This creates a disconnect for users who want their puzzles to visually align with their own websites when embedding. While full puzzle-editing features are planned for the future, there was an immediate need to give users more control over their uploaded puzzles to better support the upcoming embed feature.
Process
Understanding where we stood in the market
Over 90% of the market share for puzzle-enabling platforms was dominated by a single competitor (AmuseLabs). Understanding where Crosswordr stood in comparison was essential to identify gaps, highlight opportunities for differentiation, and find ways to grow our presence in a highly concentrated market. Our competitive analysis helped shape key design decisions moving forward.
Crosswordr
Unfamiliar product within the online crossword community
Lack of puzzle customizability for embedding
Has a community of users sharing and solving within the platform
Does not cost money
AmuseLabs
Is the industry standard
Puzzles can be customized extensively to match any sites design
Has a wider variety of features like analytics, clue editing etc
Users can't share puzzles within AmuseLabs
More Expensive
Designing with users instead of for users
User interviews with four experienced users—familiar with both AmuseLabs and Crosswordr—helped uncover the most critical feature gaps. These conversations shaped the direction of Crosswordr’s puzzle management system and informed key additions to support embedding, such as grouping puzzles and enabling group embeds. A recurring theme was the need for a clean, modern, and intuitive user experience—something noticeably lacking in this space, which hadn’t seen meaningful innovation in some time.
Determining important features with users
Creating the frameworks for crosswordrs puzzle management system
With all the collected research I began by creating a sitemap for the puzzle management system. While features like design and clue customization were planned for a later phase, the immediate goal was to design a scalable puzzle management system that could support those capabilities in the future. This meant prioritizing a flexible structure that could evolve with the product without requiring a full redesign down the line.
Puzzle Management Sitemap
Fine tuning designs with users
Throughout the process, I continuously shared early designs with the client and conducted iterative user testing with the same participants. The focus was placed on refining user flows and overall UX rather than visuals, ensuring the core experience was intuitive and aligned with user needs before moving into detailed UI design.
Early wireframing
Making notes of user feedback
Solutions
SOLUTION 1
Enhancing the information architecture of the 'My Puzzles' Page
The 'My Puzzles' page was designed to serve as the central hub for the puzzle management system. Based on user feedback, I refined the information architecture to reduce visual clutter and prioritize the details users cared about most. The result was a cleaner, more focused interface that made managing puzzles feel intuitive and efficient.
SOLUTION 2
Puzzle grouping and categorization
To improve organization and flexibility, users can now tag and group their uploaded puzzles. This addresses a key limitation of the previous system, which only allowed embedding either a single puzzle or all puzzles from a profile. With the new grouping feature, users can embed specific collections—so all your Star Wars-themed puzzles can live separately from your football-themed ones, making puzzle curation and sharing more intentional and customizable.
SOLUTION 3
Group management
The Group Management feature simplifies editing and embedding for puzzle groups by allowing users to customize all puzzles in a group at once, ensuring consistent design, colors, messaging, and other elements in embedded puzzles.
SOLUTION 3
New puzzle upload and editing format
I designed a new puzzle editing and management format from the ground up as part of Crosswordr’s puzzle management system. Built on insights from user testing and competitive analysis, the new format streamlines key flows—including uploading, editing, organizing into groups, and embedding puzzles. It replaces the previous fragmented experience with a unified system that gives users more control and streamlines the journey from upload to embedding.
SOLUTION 4
Designing for scaleability
The modular puzzle upload/ edit design ensures scalability, allowing features to be added or removed without disrupting the user experience. While Crosswordr is in its early stages, this framework supports seamless future updates as the product grows without affecting the overall experience.
Reflection
I started this part of crosswordrs development at a very early stage meaning that there were bound to be many changes and growth along the road. Hence a key consideration during this entire process was ensuring that my designs were scaleable and fit crosswordrs goals for long term expansion. Additionally documenting and handing over my designs in an understandable format for the next designer taking over the project was also an invaluable skill I learnt over the 3 months.