Photography
Client: EA NHL
When: August 2024
Team: Individual
Mia Campbell-Foulkes - Designer
Situation
NHL EA is looking for a new experience designer. To prepare myself for the role I created a mock project to immerse myself in the product and look for opportunities that normally may be overlooked.
Task
Looking for Opportunities
Becoming familiarized with the product, I found the option to play as a newbie didn’t provide the guidance and hold-handing that I needed. I had to question if there were really any differences between a seasoned player and a rookie.
The carousel of new features were laden with confusing terminology which also contributed to feelings of overwhelm. I felt that the perhaps the only main differences between a rookie and an experienced player were just slightly easier CPU opponents. Could the onboarding process not be most customized to the level of player you were? Because of the initial degree of difficulty, there was more of a chance of me abandoning the game altogether.
Action
Users
With limited time and resources, I looked at myself as the user. A 30 year old female who’d never played any of the NHL games prior to now. A complete rookie. Perhaps I’m not the target audience but let's pretend we want to entice 1. More females and 2. Total newbies.
STRESSED
The gameplay is so fast!
CONFUSED
Which buttons do I press again?
DUBIOUS
Will this become fun? Am I wasting my time?
PAINPOINTS
Problem
How can we simplify the experience for new and inexperienced players?
What can we change in the onboarding or gameplay to make it easier and more enjoyable?
Comparative Research
From my previous gaming experience I recalled a few times where I was guided through actions in more bite-sized chunks. One walkthrough I distinctly remembered was that of Unreal - a strange little adventure type game from the perspective of a yarn character.
As you travel along, small prompts appear to try an action. The more you progress, the more the obstacles become trickier and the more moves/ actions you can learn along the way. In the app/ website UX world - we would refer to these as tool tips.
I did attempt to look at more relevant walk through examples - with other Esport games but there weren't many that had this step-by-step skill building method.
Insights and Initial Solutions
SOLUTION 1
Firstly, the option to play in the Stanley cup should either be a locked option or not exist for new players at all. The substitute would be a training mode called the ‘learning arena’ or ‘practice rink’. Placing the emphasis on this option and funneling the player down this path would emphasize the learning curve.
When you enter the practice rink, there would be a banner highlighting what is being learnt. When they maneuver around, additional tips would appear on the screen, motivating the user to try out these new functions.
The progress bar on the bottom of the screen would show how much of the lesson they’ve completed before they are able to proceed to the next lesson e.g. passing and shooting.
SOLUTION 2
Outside of this training walkthrough, I think during gameplay the diagram for controls should be very prominent, to allow for quick reference. A certain button would trigger the diagram to pop up and gameplay would be paused. It reduces the need for the user to recall every possible maneuver. This is also another important usability heuristic by Nielsen - recognition rather than recall.
Iterating and Mockups
Result
Conclusion
As this is a fun mock up project with time restrictions (these EA LinkedIn listings do not stay up for long) the walkthrough and Ui changes weren’t something that could be shared with a greater audience. “Research” was also kept to a bare minimum and if this was not the case - it could expose more of what the players want to see. In saying all this - it was a fun activity to think about what I would want to see for once.