I turn fuzzy ideas into intuitive user experiences.
A seasoned UX/UI Designer from London with over 10+ years of experience crafting websites, apps and player experiences across console, PC and mobile.
Industries: Video games, Financial services, Telecoms, Sports & Travel
Shipped titles: Call of Duty MW3 and Star Wars Hunters.
Key projects under NDA. Contact for more information.
Video games and social media can be great escapes from our daily lives but can also be an outlet for the dark sides of our personalities. This is why designers need to find ways of dealing with toxic behaviour by creating features and mechanics that discourage it, such as reporting systems and mute buttons.
Read MoreProgressive disclosure is a design strategy that allows users to gradually learn about important features in a step-by-step process. It is an effective way to reduce cognitive load and reduce the learning curve so users feel comfortable with the level of information they are viewing, without feeling overwhelmed or frustrated.
Read MoreAt its core, UX design is about solving problems. And yet, when it comes to designing user interfaces, we often face a dilemma: too many choices can paralyze us, but too few can leave us feeling unfulfilled. How do we find the right balance?
Read MoreIt is necessary to guide users through new experiences to prevent them from becoming frustrated or lost. However, this can lead to excessive hand-holding that ruins the gaming experience by removing the sense of agency and can lead to players becoming passive viewers in an interactive experience.
Read MoreSome games have great tutorials and some are innovative whiles some are so bad they become memes. Teaching users how to play your game can make or break player experience. In this post, I will explore some of the best ways of understanding players learning styles and some tutorials and teaching mechanics found in games.
Read MoreI recently revisited Cyberpunk 2077 on PC and I can say that it’s in a much better place than when it launched. However, during my play, there were a number of UX and UI inconsistencies that I noticed. And this goes to show how complex it is to make AAA games even with all CDPR’s past experience of making ground-breaking open-world RPGs. A great user experience should be like a butler, only there when you need it. But unfortunately, when it goes wrong, it really stands out.
Read MoreWe have seen some impressive leaps in innovation such as the Nemesis System and the release of UE5 which are all important for us to understand in order to craft strategies for this fast-changing industry. We have also seen disruption within the movie industry and now many analysts are predicting that the streaming wars will eventually push companies to look into subscription-based gaming models to find growth. But when does a movie become a game and a game become a movie?
Read MoreThe MDA framework is an important framework for thinking about games from both a designer’s and the players’ point of view and was developed by Marc LeBlanc and Robert Zubek. It’s a helpful framework to understand when developing and designing games or even introducing gamification elements to your product.
Read MoreLook, we all have stories we tell ourselves. Some are useful, most aren’t. And let’s be honest: a lot of the stories we carry around are total crap. They’re excuses dressed up as truth. They’re the reason you stay small, keep quiet, and avoid the big stuff.
Read MoreIn Ahmed Salama the Game UX Summit 2019 talk, he laid out his ideas for play-based personas and how they can be applied during the design process for AAA games. A useful insight that can be a good tool for all designers throughout the industry to be aware of and to add to their repertoire when it comes to catering for the user’s Cognitive abilities during different Phases of play.
Read MoreGiving users feedback is an important part of any digital interaction. Behavioural learning is a theory that suggests that the use of reinforcement leads to its continued occurrence. This theory is often used in video games to reinforce certain behaviours or weaken them through the use of feedback loops.
Read MoreGame reward systems can also be used to facilitate goal setting and achievement. By providing rewards for achieving specific goals, players are motivated to focus on these goals and work toward accomplishing them. This approach not only promotes skill development but also helps to promote a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with the game.
Read MoreDestiny launched in September 2014 with a sleek, modern UI with a minimalist visual style. Early in the development, the designers opted for a floating free cursor as the main user input. By choosing to utilize a free cursor, Destiny's menus are allowed to feature freely placed elements of different sizes.
Read MoreIn the world of Star Trek, The Kobayashi Maru was a test designed to test how individuals handle an impossible situation. Kirk's reprogramming of the scenario showed that he could think outside the box and find a way to succeed where others had failed. Additionally, in real-world scenarios, the ability to find loopholes and innovative solutions to problems is often a highly valued skill.
Read MoreDead Space is a sci-fi horror game, where you play as Isaac Clark an engineer stuck on The Ishimuram, a ship infested with space zombies. Your job is to fix that vessel and find your girlfriend. To maximize the playing horror experience the designers crafted a fully diegetic UI that has become very influential in the gaming industry.
Read MoreWith millions of gamers facing difficulties and barriers, whether temporary or long term. Developers are seeking better ways to provide ways remove these barriers. Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II has been praised for its industry-defining accessibility features. So what can we learn from it?
Read MoreThe more difficult something is to achieve, the more people like it. This may be counterintuitive from a UX designer’s perspective as we often strive for the easiest most friction-free experience possible. But people play games for the challenge. In fact, games often introduce harsh limitations on players and put them through difficult situations. Non more so the Souls series of games by FromSoftware.
Read MoreSmartphones have become indispensable in our daily lives. But they are not just smart companion devices, they are also tactile playthings that we use as extensions of ourselves. Although now a mature platform there are still billions of people who are still to experience life with a smartphone. So it is important for mobile designers to understand the intricacies and ergonomics of designing for that many thumbs.
Read MorePicasso once said, “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” The essence of his statement is that the purity and uninhibited creativity of childhood are incredibly difficult to reclaim in adulthood. Professional pressures often stifle our innate sense of wonder and imagination. We tend to prioritize logic, efficiency, and predictability, losing the ability to think freely and embrace the irrational or absurd.
Read MoreIn a lot of team-based games, there are three main roles you will see, tanks, support and damage dealers which are also known as the Holy Trinity. Popularised in MMOs but can now be found in strategy games, shooters and even sports games. When you have more than one character chances are it will involve these three roles as they are designed to provide synergy between players so they can work together to achieve team targets.
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