Project Summary: Design exploration and practice of design principles used within the gaming industry.
My Role: UX Design / Visual UI Design / UX Strategy / Branding / UI Art Assets Design / Prototyping / UR / Usability Testing / Product Vision
Ivy Sang, UX Director Jacob Lee, Visual Designer
Players - Casual / Experienced
Players - Hard-core
Multiplatform
Figma, FigJam, PSD
7 Weeks
Challenge
Learn to apply UX / UI design and Game UI Art Design principles to Video Games
Business Goals
Find ways to improve the player experience of Elden Ring
Re-brand to showcase how visual design can change Player's perception of a game's genre
Stakeholders
Ivy Sang - UX Director at Blizzard Entertainment, Jacob Lee - Visual Designer at Riot Games
100%
Rebrand of Elden Ring
100%
Improved Usability
5
Play Tests with Players
Process
Defining the Player Journey: Understanding the magnitude of the Player Journey in Elden Ring was insightful. It helped me learned how UX supports Game Design.
Information Architecture: Defined and refined the new player experience through the use of paper prototypes and flow charts in FigJam.
Wireframing: Picked three main key screens from the player journey and built low fidelity wireframes. Iterated these wireframes based on feedback received from players after usability testing.
Usability Testing Insights:
Players did not see how to access the character's stats screen within the inventory screen. A character tab was added to the UI to address this.
Without clear icons, players did not know which areas within the inventory screen were meant for equipping weapons vs equipment armor.
Updated UI has both text cues and icons for each weapon and armor slot.
Visual Design Mood Board, Style Guide & UI Kit: Once UI was finalized, a mood board was created to set the direction for the game's new look and feel. From here, UI Art assets were generated and implemented.
Lessons Learned
Applying a completely new UI Art style to Elden Ring’s UI taught me about Creative Design Direction and about how the look and feel of UI Art can clearly communicate what a game would be like to players.
Learned how to create and set the design direction for a video game with a Mood Board, UI Style Guide and UI Kit.
“It has been a pleasure working with Merilly, and her performance, commitment, and attitude have left a positive, lasting impression. I’m confident that Merilly will be able to put the skills and knowledge that she has extracted from this class towards the advancement of her career, and I look forward to seeing the fruits of her labor.”
Ivy Sang
UX / UI Director | Blizzard Entertainment