Analyzed Minecraft Dungeons’ current user experience and iterated upon its UI based on player input and testing.
While observing a playthrough of Minecraft Dungeons, I took notes and mapped out the player's feelings and thoughts. I considered the game developers' intentions and came up with ideas to better translate their intentions to the player.
With my ideas for improvement in mind, I wrote down the player's options on each screen (sticky note). I kept the game developers' intentions handy and made sure all were translated well so that player's understood what the developers intended and weren't confused on what to do.
This flowchart shows the player's choices they have on each screen like my paper prototype, but it also shows how they are all connected.
Using my flowchart, I was able to sketch out some rough screen layouts.
Now that I had made the big decisions in my sketching phase, I was able to quickly make wireframes. I kept the screens close to the original Minecraft Dungeons here because I wanted to see exactly where players were having difficulty. However, I did change the Inventory screen's layout because I wanted to see if it would perform better vertically.
I conducted a usability test with three participants. I found out that the original layout of the inventory screen was preferable amongst player's because it was more controller friendly and the item stats area had more breathable negative space. Players also had trouble identifying the icons Minecraft Dungeons uses to represent power, souls, and lives. Another big frustration was the "switch hero" screen. Players couldn't navigate very well.
I really enjoy making style guides, it's so satisfying to see it all come together. I color tested every design to see if they passed color blind accessibility standards and made slight alterations to any low contrast areas.
Thank you for reading!