UI Design For Mobile Gaming: Secret of Success For Designers.

CreateBytes
4 min readOct 20, 2020

--

https://createbytes.com/insights/

Mobile gaming has grown into a strong and profitable industry. Extensive access to mobile platforms has helped to transform the shape of the gaming community from mainly console-based to a range of personal devices. This means that there are more options available to developers, and better opportunities to get a wider range of audiences.

However, the sheer existence of opportunity is no guarantee of achievement. It is not sufficient to have an idea for how an app can be gamified or to compose a killer plot for a game. In order to help our concepts reach their full potential, mobile game user experience (UX) must be understood.

The importance of UI in mobile game UX

When designing a new mobile game or app, we should be putting substantial importance on the user interface (UI). Yes, it’s important to acknowledge that UX and UI often serve different purposes, but without effective UI, the user isn’t going to stick around to fully engage with the UX. This is particularly pertinent in mobile games and apps which rarely have the luxury of an external control system.

Our favorite mobile apps and games, those we stick with over a long period of time, tend to offer easy, comfortable techniques of control and navigation. One of the popular aspects amongst many of the highest-grossing apps on the market, from Clash of Clans to Candy Crush Saga, is an instinctive UI system.

So how can we make UI intuitive? To put it simply, combine actions that users are familiar with. Utilize effortless swiping and gesture features that are already very much a part of our digital interactions.

Personalizing mobile games for the user

In our current digital environment, a quality is placed upon individualized experiences. Users today are not just more likely to connect with services that are customized to their likings, it’s a simple expectation. Therefore, great UX in mobile gaming must take a nuanced approach to specific user’s personal experience.

What does good, non-invasive personalized mobile game UX design look like?

1. Geotargeting in games to offer AR experiences that are specific to their location, as with Pokemon Go, can promote a deeper level of commitment and a better addition into the user’s life.

2. The capability to modifying characters and earn rewards specifically based around the user’s individual in-game activities drives engagement by providing a sense of personalization.

It can also be helpful when designing mobile game UX to understand that users may have specific, individual needs.

Monetizing your mobile game design

It could seem like an ugly word, but monetization is a key source of revenue when it comes to mobile game and app development. Even if your aim is to make a great game, discovering ways to monetize, it is essential to ensure that development continues.

So, what’s that mean for your design?

Your mobile game design should always urge users to interact with monetized elements. They cannot simply be passive aspects of the game. They will either need to be engaged with going to the next level or buying useful gaming resources.

Conclusion

When so much of our lives revolve around interaction with devices, it becomes easy to see just how essential UX can be. In the growth of mobile games, your focus must be set on designing UX elements built to boost the ease of the user, allow them to connect on a more personal level, and serve up the monetization targets of the company.

The more time we take to realize how users like to engage with their devices, the more effectively we can integrate this into our mobile game design.

--

--

CreateBytes
CreateBytes

Written by CreateBytes

CreateBytes is a design and development studio that creates intelligent Web and App Design fusioned with Art and Simplicity.. https://createbytes.com/

Responses (1)