Ubisoft Connect
Situation: As a Product Designer at Ubisoft, I worked on the Game Library to improve how users browse and manage their games. Feedback revealed key pain points: users struggled to find games, personalize their libraries, and quickly launch titles. Collaborating with Jean-François Renaud, the Product Manager, we set two goals:
- Address user feedback.
- Align with the "Play Faster" initiative to help users find and play their games faster.
Task: Our research highlighted three critical issues:
- Users wanted customization options like favouriting and grouping games.
- They wanted a Quick Launch feature.
- They needed a way to declutter their libraries by hiding unwanted games.
My goal was to design and implement solutions addressing these needs.
Action: I began by brainstorming and creating drafts of solutions for each of the three critical issues. These were informed by user feedback and industry benchmarks. I worked closely with design leadership and coworkers to refine early concepts, aiming to balance functionality and simplicity.
For customization I designed favourites and custom collections that users could rename and reorder, allowing them to organize their libraries in a way that made sense to them.
For faster access, I introduced a Quick Launch section in the sidebar, which lets users instantly access their most recently played games.
To reduce clutter, I added a feature to hide games, giving users the ability to focus only on titles they cared about.
The biggest challenge arose when I presented the Quick Launch feature during a monthly sprint demo with other teams. I had originally designed the Quick Launch to include different states when a game was downloading. However, another team revealed they were working on a mini download manager that would also be visible in the left sidebar. This conflict required me to quickly adjust my design to account for the new functionality and refine how the Quick Launch looks when a game is downloading. I collaborated with the other team to ensure our features coexisted seamlessly, aligning visuals and interactions.
After refining these elements, I conducted further rounds of testing. The updated designs performed much better, with users quickly understanding how to use the Quick Launch and expressing satisfaction with the customization and hiding features. Feedback became increasingly positive, signalling that the solutions were ready for implementation.
Result: The features were well-received post-launch. Unfortunately, I’m not able to share exact metrics due to an NDA, but I can say that the Quick Launch feature was highly utilized, significantly reducing the time it took users to play games. The customization and hiding features also had strong engagement, with users appreciating the added control over their libraries. In the future, I would ensure earlier collaboration with cross-functional teams to identify design dependencies and avoid last-minute adjustments, allowing for smoother implementation.
