Minecraft Dungeons

The main project for the UX/UI in Gaming course through ELVTR was to analyze the gaming experience for Minecraft Dungeons and propose improvements & updates. I focused on integrating more of the online play features and how content is organized & displayed. Going through the process from the player journey to UI mockups was a fun and enlightening experience.

‍

Challenges
• Learning the established features of a Minecraft game

• Becoming familiar with the differences between UX/UI in tech vs. gaming

• Identify areas within a successful game that could be improved upon

• Ensure Usability testing captures clean, valid data

• Improve gameplay through updated UI placement & organization

‍

Outcomes & Results
This was an excellent exercise in learning about intention in Gaming. I have a deeper understanding of the importance of player attention and how to think through visual gameplay systems. This was also an excellent opportunity to improve my understanding of usability testing and the data it provides.

Design Thinking retrospective

• Adding a Twitch login button as well as a Friends/Groups modal to the home screen aims to give prominence to the social aspect of the game; streaming it and playing with others, respectively
• Modifying and relocating the bottom HUD also lends to a multiplayer push, as this acclimates players to the experience by displaying a HUD in single-player more closely similar to the one they will see in multiplayer mode
• The inventory screen changes aim to provide further comfort to the item-sifting and modifying portion of the dungeon-crawling experience