The Sims 4
Senior Experience Designer
UI/UX feature ownership from start to finish
Creation of wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes for new UI features
Ownership of user testing sessions and competitive analysis research
Creation of icons in Adobe Illustrator
Design, implementation, and testing menus in-game
Streamlining of processes and owner of detailed documentation to reduce manual labor for the team
Partnership directly with design and engineering disciplines
While working on the Sims 4, I had the opportunity to work on a number of different packs. I want to highlight a couple key features and piece of content I’m most proud of.
Quality of life changes for all players
As part of development for any paid content, we strive to improve the overall feel of the game to give players the best experience we can.
Phone menu refresh
Before
After
Problem:
The previous phone menu looked dated and didn’t share much with modern phone interfaces. During development of “High School years” we realized how central phones are to the current high school experience and decided it would be worth redesigning.
Goal:
Revamp the phone menu to be more authentic and recognizable while being careful to not take away existing functionality or flows our players are used to. Add animation flair to make the phone more fun and interactive. Ensure scalability for future additions to the phone by making the app interface expandable.
Wireframing and prototyping
Opening “apps” with familiar interactions
Pagination and expandability
Refinement and visualization
Implementation in-game
Social interaction organization
Before
After
Problem:
The social interaction pie menu is the main way players have their sim interact with other sims. While the most relevant choices get sorted to the top of the menu, every other interaction was buried in an endless cycle of “more choices…” until the player could find what they were looking for.
Goal:
Reorganize the social options into easy to understand categories that relate to the sim’s personality, likes, and dislikes that were chosen during character creation. Improve the players ability to find the options they want faster, and support enjoyment of more complex social compatibility between sims that was introduced in “Growing Together”
The result of our redesign. Social options are categorized into broader moods, and then parsed down into more specific topics. This removed the need to endlessly click through the “More Choices…” button.
This was launched alongside a feature in which sims could choose specific conversation preferences for what they like and dislike talking about. The icons seen on the left here correspond to the ones from the social interaction menu.
Visual + Feature design
This are a collection of of pieces of UI we added in various DLC packs. My contribution to these ranged between wireframing, prototyping, user testing, visual mockups, and technical and final implementation. These features were all a team effort, and my role in bringing them to life varied per feature.
High School Years: Social Bunny
✔ Design
✔ Wireframing
✔ Prototyping
✔ User Testing
✔ Visual Design
✖ Implementation
