Minecraft Dungeons – UX/UI Case Study
An analysis of Minecraft Dungeons to better understand UX/UI principals within gaming
Project Overview
An analysis of Minecraft Dungeons to better understand UX/UI principals within gaming. This project was completed as coursework for UX/UI for Gaming with Ivy Sang, an ELVTR course.
The Goal
Improve the game’s existing UX/UI
Bridge the Game Designer’s intentions and the player’s experience
Efficient communication to help players learn the game and make decisions
Challenges
Short project timeline
Pixel art style is time-consuming
Learning something new - cognitive science behind video games
My Role
Identified opportunities to improve the existing UX/UI
Map the player’s journey per Game Designer’s intentions
Wireframes and prototypes
User research and usability testing
UI mockups
Project Details
Duration: 7 weeks
Tools: Figma, Photoshop
Design Process
1
Discovery & Research
Define gameplay
Players only do two things during a game– #1 learn and #2 make decisions
Players can learn a game in multiple then make decisions as a result
Attention, perception, and memory impact the player experience
Map the player’s journey
Understand the game developer’s intentions and put yourself in the player’s shoes
2
Interaction Design
Paper prototype
Mapped the game dev’s intentions to player’s interactive and non-interactive gameplay information
Flowchart
Analyzed the screen to screen UX and conditions
3
Validation
Wireframes and usability testing
Enhanced existing UI and conducted usability tests with players to expose any UX pitfalls
Information design of player options on each screen
Planned wireframe research objectives, logistics, and script
Iterated wireframes based on research insights
Iterated homescreen wireframes
Homescreen
Usability test results
Player quotes
Not sure if the map is linear?
Player 1
Usability test results
Gameplay
It’s unclear how power and difficulty are related
Player 2
4
Visual Design
Initial mockups & colorblindness checks
Color blindness evaluation
Color blindness evaluation
Homescreen
Gameplay
Iterated gameplay mockup
5
Final Mockups
Retrospect
This project was helpful for me to understand the role of UX/UI within gaming. My experience with software UI has made my design style very minimal. Gaming UI has the luxury of more creative freedom. I would love to revisit this project in the future once I’ve had more practice with gaming UI.