3 Ways To Boost Your Mobile Game UX

The User Experience (UX) of a mobile app game is a critical component to its’ overall success or failure. Many of the more experienced mobile application companies have realized this which has lead to a stronger focus on UX design from the early stages of development which ensures that the user has the most enjoyable experience possible. Today we wanted to share 3 Ways to Boost your Mobile Game UX to help with your next project.

Why is UX Important?

The user experience has become critical to the success of a variety of projects from website designs to operating systems for mobile devices and especially for apps of all types. The better UX design that is implemented means the more easily a user can pick up and understand the device/system/program.

Ideally you want any user to be able to start using an app and intuitively understand how it operates. Commands, features and mechanics should be easy to understand and use so people can engage quickly and effortlessly.

While in theory this might sound fairly basic, in the design world there can be a disconnect between engineers and coders versus the end user. That is where the UX designer comes into play, making adjustments that smooth out features, remove excess, or even provide suggestions for modifications that will provide a better UX for a mobile game, app, website, etc.

3 Ways to Boost Mobile Game UX

• Understand the Core Users – If you understand who the core users are then it is much easier to design the user experience around that. You have a baseline understanding of the capabilities and expectations of your user. While your game can easily move beyond the intended core audience, your initial goal should focus on designing for the core users with their skills, playing habits and preferences at the forefront.
• Focus on Continuity – The two parts to continuity when designing are consistency and preventing discontinuity. Consistency results from using the same design conventions to establish the rules and boundaries of interaction. This allows users to feel in control after they figure out the basic rules. Preventing discontinuity is where you look for anything that disrupts the player’s experience within the game and then correcting it to keep a smooth flow. Everything should be as seamless as possible.
• Active User Interface – Using an active user interface is one of the best ways to increase the user experience. By that we mean tying sounds, animation, colors, contrasts, etc into each action. For example, using a unique sound on each button press and using a contrasted color after the button has been pressed are both cues that a user’s action has been accepted. Buttons can wiggle for attention when they are options for the next step. The goal should be to draw attention to buttons and also acknowledge actions so the user is working with an interactive interface.

The bottom line is that designing any mobile app is a challenge. With such a crowded marketplace, especially in the games genre, you need to be firing on all cylinders if you want to be successful. These 3 ways to boost your mobile game UX should be considered for a current or new project because the user experience is an important aspect of the overall experience and thus plays a critical role to the success of your project.

Be sure to check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for great new Lounge Lizard blog articles.