Stranded Deep

Redesigning Stranded Deep's crafting and inventory system under UX is Fine! mentorship.

Have a bit of time? View the story.

Overview

This is a project completed under a mentorship program with UX is Fine! where I spent the past few months learning about User Experience design within games under some super awesome mentors.

Goal: Select one of my favorite games that I felt needed some improvement to their UX. I then had to analyze and break down the game and by the end of the program, have a prototype of the solved problems.

Check out the video walkthrough of this case study below or continue scrolling to read more about it!

Problems

Crafting and Inventory System (Click to enlarge)

Skill System (Click to enlarge)

Problems:

Cumbersome navigation: Currently there are too many categories and subcategories that the player has to navigate through to get to an item.
Inconsistent icons: Current icons are used multiple times, which can come confusing to players.
Tedious crafting: There is no way to craft multiple items at a time, making crafting a lot of commonly used items a tedious process.
Lack of information: Players currently have to take an extra step to view their exact craftsmanship level and the amount of materials in inventory when crafting. With the current skill menu, players are unable to see how skills affect in-game as well as what icon represents what skill after they earn some of the skill.

Solutions:

Adding a new search, sort, and filter feature.
Adding the ability to craft multiple items at once.
Reducing the amount of categories players currently have to cycle through.
Providing more information on what all the skills do and how they affect players in game.

Old Flows and Wireframes

Flows and Wires

After determining player desires and the current game loops in Stranded Deep, I flowed out the crafting system and menu as it is in game. Afterwards I created wireframes representing the current look of the systems in game as well.

Revised Crafting / Inventory System (Left) and Menu (Right) Flow (Click to Enlarge)

Wireframes of Current Systems (Click to enlarge)

Competitive Analysis

Here, I took a look back at the initial analysis I made, did some of my own desk research, and re-examined the player desires for the game. From there, I felt using “how might we” statements in conjunction with the competitive analysis would offer great insight on how competitors tackled some of the problems within Stranded Deep.

Revised Competitive Analysis (Click to Enlarge)

Revisions

Revised Flows and Wireframes

At this point I went back into Figma to improve the existing flow, tackling the pain points I addressed initially. Here I came up with 2 sets of wireframes, one sticking with Stranded Deep’s current design, and the other a completely different one:

Current vs. New Crafting Menu

Current vs. New Inventory

Current vs. New Skill Menu

The complete redesign allowed for more room to add the new features, but the same style redesign may have been easier for players to grasp since it’s closest to what they’re used to. I wasn’t sure on the best practice for the sake of maintaining a great player experience, so I waited to receive feedback from mentors before sticking with one.

I received great feedback that the focus here is ultimately to solve for the problem, and that sometimes includes straying away from how the system currently looks. They also expressed that in hindsight, sometimes straying away can bring in new pain points that didn’t exist prior. All in all we felt sticking with the complete redesign would provide the best learning and (if executed correctly) player experience, and I stuck with that.

While I was able to solve for some problems, I now had some new problems on my hand:

The scaling was off to be a console game,
I forgot to include the craftsmanship level in the crafting menu as intended, and
The skill menu contained too much information for more casual players.

Revised Wireframes (Click to Enlarge)

I then created some revised flowcharts, which reflect the changes I made to the crafting system:

Final Revised Crafting System (Left) and Menu (Right) Flow (Click to Enlarge)

Prototype

For this prototype I focused on building out these features:

Opening/ closing the menu,
Crafting multiple stone tools,
Viewing the favorites menu,
Accessing the Skill menu,
Expanding/ collapsing skill attributes.

I was able to prototype these features in Figma with my PS5 controller, which I think helped accurately convey the experience of navigating through the new crafting and skill menu. If you have your controller handy, check it out here. If not no worries, I have a quick video 😎!

Prototype of New Systems (Click to Play)

I will say, it wasn’t perfect, I did have to iterate on the final prototype a few times based on feedback. Also, if time allowed, further player testing would be most beneficial! I would then be able to make/revise changes to further enhance the crafting experience based on those results.

Takeaways

Over the past few months I’ve learned a lot that I feel has made me a better UX designer and problem solver but here’s a few takeaways that especially stuck with me this time around:

I had to learn how to consider how one change (even the smallest appearing one) could potentially change an entire system (or even related system). Even further, that change can cause friction that didn’t exist previously. This taught me to be more intentional with the changes I sought to make.
One that I continue to learn the importance of, the whims of the design process. Throughout the project, I had to take multiple “steps back” that allowed me to better solve for player’s needs. In fact, while it seemed like a step back, in the long run I probably saved time rather than designing a full system that doesn’t solve any real problems!

Overall, I’m looking forward to my next steps and can’t wait to show everything I continue to learn😁. Until next time 👋🏾!