On your marks. Get set…GO!
UI / UX starting steps |
All of my projects start with gathering information and building data. There are TONS of questions that help build a sort-of mood board for what the user experience will feel like when someone uses it. This helps us mesh out or framework, detailed visual targets, prototyped feature executions and begin identifying patterns within our design system to keep one-off’s at a minimum.
Collect & Analyze Data
-
Who is this for? How does it appeal to them? What quality of life features do competitors leave unfulfilled? How will our game attract them visually? What will set us apart? What’s our feature set?
-
Competitive analysis helps to identify paths to success in regards to trends within a specific target. Keeping up with software innovations and trends will optimize the time spent on scalable, cross platform content.
-
Are there current trends on the platform or industry that could benefit us? How much polish can be achieved with the people we have and the timeframe?
Doing preliminary outlines for full scope helps prioritize features. Identifying the engine, API, and anticipated platforms to be delivered based on time, talent and scope helps keep the project on target.
Outlining feature needs at this stage will help the next phase be as dynamic as possible. -
Whether internal or external, every project will need a style guide of ‘do’ and ‘do not’ on execution. Especially when partnered with existing intellectual properties.
Dynamic scalability within web, and app trends are becoming easier to integrate into game design UI now that cross-platform live play is trending in the industry. It’s a fantastic opportunity for designers like myself who have had years of experience building scalable content, it makes design systems more versatile and font kits easy to switch between min-max cases.
Outline informed AB options within scope
Not all artists do this. I didn’t realize that until I made the move from independent contractor to “please give me health benefits and a guaranteed income” how specialized I’d been. I’d been spent nearly a decade in a silo thinking this is what all UI artists did; it came up often while contracting. I wanted to make “ready to use” content, not “it’s in the PSD'“ deliverables, I wanted return clients and satisfied customers. This set me on a path to becoming a UI / UX unicorn; it literally is too much to maintain but we gotta hustle. 6 year old me would be stoked at the unofficial title. After that role I’ve kicked the specialization into high gear. Turns out when you’re a champion for the end user, you also become a champion to your team. I have undertook defacto art director in indi / lean teams multiple times and absolutely crushed it!
-> Present to team -> Identify any issues with options, revise as needed -> Collect “must have” info and visual features -> Begin wireframe & prototyping -> Identify visual patterns for design system
Very early in my career, way back in the 00’s, I had created a game and logo that the client liked so much they wanted to market it on a 9 foot banner to showcase at a convention, absolutely flattering but that logo was meant to be 72 DPI, sRGB format, and full scope was centered on a 800x600 screen’s idle loop…I learned to work dynamically and focus on fast-iterative workflows in order to preempt these requests going forward. That’s when I committed to learning Illustrator. Never again. This also led me to own and eventually lead a team that would break down all the studios content per client’s proprietary engine needs. Working like this from step one SO helpful to your future self when porting your game to new players.
Core loop, Progression, UX accommodations
screen flows, identify potholes early, clarify ui priorities and visual heirarchies
Once we have that data I begin mapping out user flows to figure out what wont work, weigh if they’re worth fixing or fail fast, and find the best path to achieve an intuitive user experience within the theme and platform, divided by time and you’ve got yourself a stew! This develops a path to success with the tools available within the timeframe. This methodology works for any design-based project!