Character creation feature
UX/UI Game Design feature for destiny 2
After evaluating player experience goals, I was able to reconstruct Destiny’s Character Creation flow. My target was to increase New Player and Returning Player retention rates by helping them create characters that would better suite their play styles. Starting the game with some basic knowledge may help ease their onboarding process, and heighten game enjoyment.
The solution
Aligning solutions to existing Destiny 2 components and assets
Determining best displayed assets that adheres to Destiny’s minimalistic design while also informing players of their choices
Challenges
UX/UI Game Designer
User Experience Researcher
Usability Tester
Data Analyst
Tools: Figma, Figjam, Canva
My Role
These are the final mockups I’ve designed. Please continue below to read about my process to figure out how I arrived at these designs!
Final Designs
Process
Research
Competitive Analysis
Research ways to maximize player engagement
Define Goals
Determine feature goals
Determine success metrics
Risk identification
Player profiles
develop
Flow chart
Sketches & Lo-fi mockups
UI art mockups
deliver
Player feedback
A/B Testing
Mitigation plans
Market Research
How Might We…
Allow players to understand game rules?
Allow players to play characters that match their play style?
Differentiate character types?
Visually show players characters in-game?
We could…
Display full-body 2D/3D character avatars
Provide character stats/powers
Provide character backstories or short blurbs
Allow players to easily discover and read different characters
Define Experience Goals & sketches
High Usability
Strive to heighten player understanding of game components and elements
Allow players to easily navigate the page
Use clear wording and strong visuals so that players can interpret character classes and information with confidence
High Desirability
Use strong, compelling graphics and animations so that players can enjoy character aesthetics and skills
Create a drive for players to obtain and play all the character classes
low/medium scalability
Creating large, full screen pages will increase usability and desirability of each character class
However, this may decrease discoverability
We must make sure that players can easily navigate and find all character classes
medium feasibility
Using high quality animations or graphics could introduce lag
Using familiar components and making sure not to house components within each other may decrease lag
Mitigation Plans
How might we mitigate issues with usability?
Impact & mitigation
Without high usability, players can easily become frustrated, annoyed, and other negative emotions that can turn them away from playing the game
Character creation must be easy, fun, and desirable to commit players early to return and continue playing
In most cases, these risks would require either:
Mitigation via usability testing and redesigning
Transferring components to our art director and game design teams to realign
Usability issues
We want to make sure that players are able to
Understand game screen navigation, character classes, game UI & controls, and any other game rules that helps them progress
Navigate easily from starting the game to gameplay to post-gameplay screens
Understand which game controls and game inputs will move them forward or do what actions they assume
How might we mitigate issues with desirability?
Impact & mitigation
Without a high level of emotional and empathic bonding, players may not have a desire to continue playing
They may feel no desire to progress through the story, or level their character up
In these scenarios, the best mitigation plan may be to transfer the issue to our art directors and game designers
They may have a better plan on creating high quality images or animations that may be better suited to the characters
Or they may have ideas on how to display class abilities differently
Desirability issues
We want to make sure that players are able to
Truly enjoy their character aesthetics and avatars
Bond emotionally and empathically with their characters
How might we mitigate issues with scalability?
Impact & mitigation
If players are unable to discover the existence of other class characters, this could prove to be a source of frustration for players who want to play a different character or dislike the shown character
To relieve this issue, it would be best to mitigate the issue by conducting usability tests and other heuristic analyses to figure out where the confusion is occuring
Scalability issues
We want to make sure that players are able to
Discover and explore each character class with ease
How might we mitigate issues with feasibility?
Impact & mitigation
If players encountering a lot of lag, this may create frustration
However, this issue may have low to medium impact, as players should have some understanding of their own internet and PC/Console limitations
To mitigate these issues, we could redirect the screens to our art directors to introduce less demanding visuals/graphics and components
Feasibility issues
We want to make sure that players are able to
Play with liminal lag and lack of loading issues
Creating player profiles helped me envision potential engagement factors, as well as areas of potential risks. By understanding our potential players, we can anticipate our risks, and plan ahead to mitigate them.
Player Profiles
Flow chart & Sketches
Studying destiny 2 assets
Destiny 2 has been an ever-evolving, ever-growing game. As a game that listens to their player’s feedback and adapts to each expansion, there were a lot of decisions to be made about which assets, aesthetics, character styles, and information displays to design.
To be able to study Destiny’s game assets and UI, I utilized multiple different sources.
Destiny 2 Gameplay
Of course, the best source is the game itself!
During gameplay, I took screenshots of the game, trying to gather information about the styles and assets that Bungie preferred
I tried to find a variety of different scenarios, and then analyzed them for similar patterns and trends
UI/asset compilations
On Behance and ArtStation, there are many appreciative art designers that have studied and analyzed Destiny’s UI
In particular, there was a designer, R. Klaverweide, who listed assets from when he used to work as a Visual Design Lead
UI Databases
Websites like Game UI Database and Interface in Game were amazing resources to grabbing screenshots uploaded from other players and users
This was important to see the different iterations and changes in UI that Destiny has undergone
ICON databases
Websites like IconDuck and SVGRepo were also amazing resources for free, downloadable game icons and assets
These were extremely useful and time-saving for my UI mockups and design iterations
Many designers and players also compiled screenshots, created downloadable icons, and bundled existing Bungie resources to provide free access to ready-to-use assets
Iterations and feedback
I had many rounds of iterations. After each design, I tested the iteration with rounds of A/B testing, and both player and team feedback. While I was the only designer on this project, I wanted to receive feedback from my stakeholders, art designers, other UX/UI designers, and players.
improvements
There is a higher level of difficulty in navigation, forcing players to constantly go back-and-forth between screens to see all characters
Art style and usability process is dramatically different than existing Destiny flow
There are too many choices without accompanying explanations
The choices players may make here aren’t as important later on (or they may be, but it’s not important to make the decision now)
Achievements
High-quality visuals and animations provide players with desirable characters
Clear distinctions between classes and high discoverability
Higher customization levels, allowing players to choose abilities, origin, and class items
Round #1
improvements
While slightly improved, components are still unfamiliar
The “three section” screen split isn’t commonly used in Destiny (at least not evenly split like this)
Unrelatable statistics
Suddenly a lack of understandable abilities and play styles
Slightly “cramped” look
Achievements
Increased readability
Clear, high-quality images and graphics
Condensed navigation, as every character class is available to be chosen
Use of a commonly-used “three section” screen style
Round #2
Achievements
Good distribution of components
Getting closer to familiar components and art style
A larger distribution of screen space to character model and play styles/blurb
Use of “mini” icons and Destiny font assets
Round #3
improvements
Still has unrelatable statistics
Visually unappealing or special in any way
Character class and abilities not properly displayed
Unable to see gameplay experience
improvements
Dynamic components may increase navigation difficulty
Housing movable components within other components may create lagging or loading issues
Requires players to click many times throughout the screen
Leans away from Destiny’s common tooltip resource
Achievements
A new half-half split of screen space to use a larger 3D model
Visual representation of direct class abilities
High-quality images and animations
Extremely familiar components and assets
Round #4
Final Mockups
Next Steps
Now that I’ve developed some high-fidelity mockups, I would like to continue testing different iterations and to get more feedback from developer teams and C-suite business goals. I’d like to explore further what sorts of assets are important for brands identities while others are more dependent on user play experience.