Minecraft Dungeons

ELVTR - UI / UX in Gaming Coursework

UX/UI redesign of minecraft dungeons with UI style of Valorant

OVERVIEW

This case study is part of a UX/UI gaming course focused on designing and implementing UX/UI principles in the gaming industry.

Minecraft Dungeons is a cooperative action-adventure game where players must defeat mobs and save villagers to stop the evil Arch-Illager

The focus of this course is to analyze the player journey in Minecraft Dungeons and identify potential improvements. In addition, to applying our UI skills to recreate the UI layout, I choose Riot's FPS shooter Valorant.

ROLE

Research, UX/UI, Prototyping, Graphics

TEAM

Singleplayer

TOOLS

PLATFORM

Gaming

TIMELINE

(8 Weeks) August 2022

SNEAK PEEK- MINECRAFT DUNGEONS

SNEAK PEEK - VALORANT UI STYLE

CHALLENGE

Art and UI style: Apply the art and UI style of another game

Player journey: Understanding the player journey and identifying ways to improve the UX process

Accessibility: Ensuring my redesign of the game was accessible to players with visual disabilities

PLAYER JOURNEY

As a newcomer to Dungeons. To understand the player's journey I watched gameplay videos to help me identify opportunities to improve the player journey

Link to Video

Noting the player's thoughts in regards to both the menu and gameplay I created the Player Journey flow. This allowed me to better track any pain points or frustration the player experiences.

PAPER PROTOTYPE & FLOW CHART

The Player Journey was packed with a lot of data and information, to help sort and cut down to what was needed I created a paper prototype to outline the steps and choices players can make.

Using my paper prototype as a base I took the steps in the game and created a flowchart. Using this flowchart I looked into what parts of the experience could be streamlined or improved.

LOW FIDELITY WIREFRAMES

Character selection

My first change was to the character selection. Replacing skin selection with a hero feature narrows options to be more impactful and selective to player choices to more than just cosmetics.

Location / Difficulty

I added a recommended button that will preselect locations and adjust difficulty based on the player's current power level.

This will be helpful for players who have taken a break from the game or are feeling lost.

This allows players to have a challenging experience based on their current power level.

Gameplay Layout

Players often referenced back to the map for directions. Including a mini map players know where they are.
Mission Objectives were moved to the left side, and objectives and requirements were expanded.
Bottom HUD has been altered slightly removing currencies and focusing on skills and items

USABILITY TESTING

Throughout the creation of my wireframes, I also conducted usability testing with 3 other classmates to see whether my designs improved the overall player experience.

Results

Skins were just cosmetics and players were not as engaged in the customization outside of looks.
Location and difficulty settings were more cumbersome due to the amount of customization.
instructor feedback was that low-fidelity wireframes should showcase the design rather than visuals as this can distract user testing.

MINECRAFT DUNGEONS STYLE GUIDE & ICONS

Referencing Minecraft's pixel inspired designs I recreated the game's icons and designs replicating the pixelated style, typography and colours.

MINECRAFT DUNGEONS UI MOCKUPS

Home Screen 1 & 2

Screens - Home screen

Screens - Home screen - 2nd Screen

Screens - Home screen

1/2

Hero Selection Screen

Location / Difficulty Screen

Item / Equipment Screen

Gameplay Screen

As part of ELVTR's course, we were tasked to apply a different UI art style to our designs. During this time I choose Riot’s FPS, Valorant.

REFLECTIONS

This case study was a valuable learning experience that taught me the foundational skills of UX/UI design in gaming and has increased my appreciation for game designers. Overall, the project was a great level up!

LESSONS LEARNED: