ReadyCheck News - Branding &
App Concepts
ROLES -
Creative Director
UX/UI Designer
UX Researcher
Motion Designer
Video Editor
YEAR -
2019 - 2020
SUMMARY -
Create the branding and app concepts for a new, curatable video gaming news app.
GOALS -
Establish the brand's look and feel to ensure relatability and to say "designed by a gamer, for gamers".
Design an app that's user-friendly enough for all app/technology skill levels, and ensure that users can utilize the curation feature to its fullest extent.
CHALLENGES -
To create a video game news app that sets itself apart from other larger news apps, and puts the user at the center of the experience; rather than follow suit with other news apps that become frustrating to navigate due to their lack of UX care or effort.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS & FINDINGS -
I took a look at several competitors, such as IGN, Game Informer, GameSpot, and Kotaku, to name a few.
Throughout my research, I discovered that all of these apps and/or websites were missing one crucial piece - the ability to curate the news you see on your personal feed by genre, developer(s), game, or even region.
This can cause pain points across all corners of their apps, due to the unnecessary scrolling, scanning, navigation interactions, etc. that is a result of seeing irrelevant information or news on your feed.
Branding
COLORS -
I wanted the brand and app's color palette to convey a sense of excitement, energy, and importance; so orange was a natural fit.
Being a secondary color in typical color theory, orange works well with both white and black and has several supplementary colors to cohesively aid designs, regardless of format.
TYPOGRAPHY -
I wanted something easily readable at small screen sizes, but also had several weight variations to use as headers, all caps, and cta's. Outside of the app, I wanted to make sure the font was easily scalable to other applications and mediums, such as advertising, print, email, etc.
ICONOGRAPHY -
Simple and concise lines made the most sense when choosing iconography. I wanted to convey themes for each genre of video game, and simple, easy-to-understand icons for the rest of the app's UI.
APP CONCEPT
USER PERSONAS -
Researching and designing two distinct user personas for this project was one of my first tasks. I knew this would be paramount for the UI and UX direction of the app, and I conducted user research via Discord community groups by using surveys and polls.
The first persona was loosely based on myself and some close friends that I regularly game with. We are all competitive players and we generally know what type of news or information we're looking for when we set out to find it.
The second persona was where my assumptions and research came to fruition. After collecting answers from 45-55~ anonymous fellow gamers across a couple of different surveys or polls, I had a good sense that the majority of video game players search and read gaming news in a casual manner.
USER FLOW -
In creating the user flow, I based it on my competitive analysis findings and their app structures, with modifications to fit my ideas. I knew that I wanted users to spend as little time as possible wading through the app and it was vital to eliminate as many potential pain points as I could.
After a simple, first-time onboarding process, the user will have quick access to news and relevant information and can update their onboarding selections at any time in the future (interests change, right?).
WIREFRAMES -
I knew that I wanted to go with a very simple, minimalist approach to the design, with large buttons and large vertical scrolling; along with minimalist links, navigation, and transitions between pages.
VISUAL DESIGNS -
Here's where all the research and planning paid off - with a sleek and user-friendly UI, satisfying interactions, and no-frills news.
LOG IN LANDING
ONBOARDING
FOLLOWING UI
STORY UI
Prototype coming soon! 🤘