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Elden Rings UI Menu Redesign

Elden Rings UI Menu Redesign

Elden Rings UI Menu Redesign

A case study of the Elden Ring's in-game equipment menu system for elden rings. I was the sole UX/UI Designer of this project, focusing on accessible UI game design, play-testing and user research, and updating the inventory menu system to align with player's needs and to create a fun and immersive experience.

A case study of the Elden Ring's in-game equipment menu system for elden rings. I was the sole UX/UI Designer of this project, focusing on accessible UI game design, play-testing and user research, and updating the inventory menu system to align with player's needs and to create a fun and immersive experience.

A case study of the Elden Ring's in-game equipment menu system for elden rings. I was the sole UX/UI Designer of this project, focusing on accessible UI game design, play-testing and user research, and updating the inventory menu system to align with player's needs and to create a fun and immersive experience.

A case study of the Elden Ring's in-game equipment menu system for elden rings. I was the sole UX/UI Designer of this project, focusing on accessible UI game design, play-testing and user research, and updating the inventory menu system to align with player's needs and to create a fun and immersive experience.

Team

Solo Project

My Role

UX researcher, user testing, UI designer

Date

April 2022 - September 2022

About

Elden Rings, is an open world, adventure, role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and made in collaboration with fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin. Adored by millions of fans across the globe, players create their own characters to set forth the adventures that awaits them!

Elden Rings, is an open world, adventure, role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game was directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki and made in collaboration with fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin. Adored by millions of fans across the globe, players create their own characters to set forth the adventures that awaits them!

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with FromSoftware's or Bandai Namco Entertainment in any capacity, nor do I own/claim any rights to this game. This is a passion project and only considers my own design decisions and research into account. It does not reflect any intentions or constraints experienced by the talented team at FromSoftware.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with FromSoftware's or Bandai Namco Entertainment in any capacity, nor do I own/claim any rights to this game. This is a passion project and only considers my own design decisions and research into account. It does not reflect any intentions or constraints experienced by the talented team at FromSoftware.

The Challenge

Early 2022, Elden Rings found itself at the center of the gaming community. New and veteran players quickly roamed the amazing open-world that FromSoft has crafted. Although praised with amazing a rich story and classic "Dark Souls" style gameplay that fans came to love, the lack of UI elements within the game was quickly memed by many fans and online communities.

The Approach

I wanted to understand how I might be able to address some of these concerns. I conducted user research from players with various degrees of gameplay experience with Elden Rings, from no experience to players with hundreds of hours on the game. I conducted user interviews, created wireframes, and conducted iterative design UI testing.

Final Designs

The final UI designs showcases all the implemented features that were the main pain points stated by the users within the user research and user insights phase. I designed and updated the game's equipment menu UI, item filtering system, and additional "Quality-of-life" (QOL) designs. I used Figma to design all UI designs.

In Summary,

I had a lot of fun working on this game UI project.

I am a new player in the world of FromSoftware's amazing line of games, and they are known to be EXTREMELY difficult games (Dark Souls series). After spending about 100 hours playing and beating the game, I found myself reflecting on all the positive and negative aspects of the game.

My two world collided, UX and gaming, and I decided to focus on researching and designing aspects that might improve the overall game!

Edge Cases

Something that I wish I would've considered more heavily are edge cases.

Considering such things as: if the player selects the "NEW" filter and they exit the menu and later returns to the same menu, would they still see everything under the same "NEW" filter? Edge cases are an important consideration the UX gaming world, as it allows transparency in what potential possibilities the players might encounter and how might we, as designers, accommodate and react to those actions to provide the smoothest and best gaming experiences possible.

Empathy Matters

Coming into this case study project, my goal was to sit down and find ways to make this amazing game even better. As a new player to the genre, I found it rather difficult to use the menu system. Watching youtube guides and reading online articles has informed me that player's attitudes towards the designs were rather laxed, most have stated the following, “that’s just classic Dark Souls” and "It's always been like that".

However, I believe that it's important to understand the developer's the creator's vision when designing Elden Rings. It was an utmost importance to me that I approached this case study project with an empathetic and understanding approach of all player bases as well as the intentions of the game's design.

Let's make amazing projects together!

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Let's make amazing projects together!

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Don't be shy

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Let's make amazing projects together!

連絡を取る

Don't be shy

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Let's make amazing projects together!

連絡を取る

Don't be shy

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