I turn complex mechanics into intuitive player experiences.
Studios lose millions in player churn because of cluttered UX and heavy onboarding. I solve that with over 10+ years shipping titles like Call of Duty: MW3 & Star Wars: Hunters.
The UX of play is not about designing screens, it’s about Iunderstand human behaviour.
Say hello ABDIJNOOR@GMAIL.COM I’d love to hear what you’re working on.
Designing for persuasion is not the same as designing for digital nudging. Though both may use some similar tactics, they are two distinct approaches with different goals.
In this blog post, we'll explore the difference between persuasive design and digital nudging. We'll look at the different goals and objectives of each approach, as well as some of the common tactics used.
Read MoreIt's estimated that the average adult makes about 35,000 decisions a day and over 200 are related to food. So decision fatigue is a real problem for users. This is why the food industry has options such as a set menu, buffet and la carte to help us decide what to eat. UX design also has similar strategies.
Read MoreWhat happens when users don't behave the way you expect them to? What if your users are exhibiting toxic behaviour, bullying or simply not engaging with your product? In this post, i'll explore some ways to change user behaviours in UX design both in video games and apps.
Read MoreAn Affordance in simple terms is a clue as to what actions are possible in order to use something. For example, wheels on a bike or the handle on the door give you an affordance as to how to use it. These are simple examples but games can be complicated to understand with their changing states and different play styles and controls.
Read MoreVideo 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 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.
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