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Unannounced FPS Game
While at Gearbox, I collaborated closely with the UI/UX Director, Leads, and a talented team of UI Artists to help craft the Player experience for an unannounced AAA game, deploying user-centric methodologies as the project’s sole UX Architect / Designer.
Our goal was to create a fun, memorable, satisfyingly intuitive experience that successfully integrated the desires and objectives of the organization and devs, all while maintaining the core game loop and desired pillars.
(Gasping for air) While simultaneously understanding players and their wants and attempting to create as little friction as possible for both hardcore and casual Players.
TLDR: At Gearbox, I started the UX work for a game in hopes of creating the most intuitive, frictionless Player experience of any game in its genre.
RESPONSIBILITIES
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Research, UX Audit, & Heuristic Evals:
I performed UX audits for multiple titles with detailed documentation to inform design work moving forward.
I conducted a thorough analysis and a heuristic evaluation of existing systems and features for this unannounced title.
Player-Driven Design & Player Surveys:
I used several methods to involve Devs/Players in the design process to reach an optimal foundation for various features/systems.
I created internal surveys to understand Player archetypes and document play styles and expectations with new and existing designs.
The collected data/insights significantly improved the current features and helped shape the creation of new features.
Collaborated with the User Research department on the surveys we sent to external Players.
Experience Architecture & Flowcharts:
I designed and maintained a living, interactive architecture map of the game, from launching to actively playing the various modes.
I also created several interactive flowcharts in Miro to verify and test designs.
Usability Exercises & Sorting Tasks:
I successfully utilized Miro to design and conduct various methodologies remotely to inform improvements to existing and new systems and features, leading to a smoother design of these systems and components.
The results of these tasks influenced information architecture, flow, button mappings, flat and diegetic interactions, component placement/states, and more.
Player-Driven Scenarios, Stories, and Flow:
Ideated and iterated on various menus, designs, and features. Maintaining simple, elegant wireframes with a splash of detail to communicate appropriate feedback and messaging.
Player-Driven Scenarios, Stories, and Flow:
Gathered Game, Dev, and Player-driven scenarios to develop interactive stories to inform flow, help sell designs, and get buy-in from the team.
UI Design & Prototypes:
Ideated and iterated on various menus, designs, and features. Maintaining simple, elegant wireframes with a splash of detail to communicate appropriate feedback and messaging.
Designed and created interactive prototypes in Adobe XD and Miro and collaborated with our Lead UI Artist and external partners to bring more detailed prototypes in Flash/Unity to life.
UX Design Direction & Departmental Tasks:
I provided UX Design direction on many features to UI/UX Designers on our team and with our external partners.
Reviewed and interviewed several UX candidates and contributed detailed documentation on UI/UX design methodologies, processes, and artifact creation for team review.
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Mocks & Theme Exploration:
I created a few different style mocks to help shape the visual direction and development of the UI.
I also applied atomic design principles to start fleshing out component libraries using our hifi wires.
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I started at Gearbox, working on a different unannounced FPS title with a small team.
While the team was interviewing Art Director candidates, our game director asked me to create an Art/Game Direction deck/pitch for this project in pre-pro.
I made a deck focused on AER (Attention, Engagement, Retention) and how to shape the art, core Player experience, and universe around these principles.
Senior UX Designer
Artifacts
Surveys, Slide Decks, Usability Tasks, Sorting Tasks, Wireframes, Interactive Flow Charts, Interactive Prototypes, Style Mocks, Interactive Architecture Maps, UX Departmental Documentation.
Tools
Miro, XD (🪦), Power Point, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects