Pax Dei is a Social Sandbox MMO by Mainframe Industries. I was hired to rebuild the UI-UX, to create a cohesive UX architecture, to build their design system, and to create a new, competitive UI Art Direction. In addition to my primary responsibilities I contributed to feature development during my first year. However, during my second and final year with Mainframe, the development of all game related features were added to my responsibilities, as financial circumstances sadly forced the studio to reduce the number of UI-UX Designers from three to one.
• This portfolio item only shows a small selection of the created UI-UX.
• Any unimplemented UI-UX outlined here might be subject to change.
I joined this project deep into development with the ask to revamp their UI & UX as various features were built in isolation of each other and it was affecting their product and development. Various features part of the same menus suffered from a wide variety in UX architecture, components, and principles.
Identified core issues: • Various features were blocking the player’s view to the game-world. • Numerous keybinds blocked the player from unbridled interaction. • Many of the features did not allow customization of views. • Various features caused overlaps or lowered exposure. • The UI-UX Design was riddled with inconsistencies.
First off, I interviewed key-stakeholders and identified the main targets: • An unhindered focus onto the game-world. • Gameplay & UI to become symbiotic. • Give authority to motivate player choice. • Features need to be scalable. • UI-UX familiarity and ease of navigation.
Following was to create a UX Architecture that solved these main targets: • Let the world breath by moving the UI to the side, claiming minimal space. • Design a item interaction menu to vastly decrease the need for keybinds. • Redesign keybinds so gameplay and UI could function simultaneously. • Provide adjustable settings, keybinds, and prio customization. • Make content scrollable and design separate menus to ensure scalability. • Use atomic design to improve player and developer experience.
Based on the revised UX Architecture, I created a new UI Art Direction that reflected the studio’s goals to build a competitive product.
A brighter Experience As competitors had been gradually moving towards brighter UI’s and the ambition of Pax Dei was to offer an approachable experience for players, a light or bright UI was deemed most suitable for Pax Dei than the previous darker style..
Strengthening the Theme
Similarly, skeuomorphism was gaining traction in similar genres. As player feedback also reflected a preference for skeuomorphic rather than flat UI, the UI was updated to correspond with both competitor benchmarks and user expectations. As Pax Dei is set in a near realistic medieval-style universe, referencing early printing press styles over handwriting felt more appropriate to keep readability intact. With more colorful fabrics that would allow for flowy animations for interactive components.
