Playnite is an open-source video game library manager that provides a unified interface and user experience for gamers.
When I first heard of Playnite, I immediately fell in love with the concept. Having a unified launcher for all our PC platforms just sounds excellent. When I first launched the app, I realized that the UI and UX of the project were not ideal.
I offered to overhaul the UI completely to improve the UX and Visual Design.
Playnite is a solution to a fragmented platform problem. Playnite’s goal is to unify all launchers and maintain your gaming library in one easy-to-use location.
Our goal is to add extra functionality that allows Playnite to stand out from any other game launcher by providing extensive customization options and a well-designed interface for ease of use. The main challenge was figuring out the unification method and system for all the different unrelated platforms and bringing them together into one cohesive service.
Original Playnite full-screen experience.
I worked closely with the main engineer and project owner to establish the requirements for our projects and decide what is the most crucial area where Playnite needs improvement.
Due to my background, I was uniquely qualified to handle the full-screen mode, and the new version of Playnite was struggling to establish itself with a full-screen mode, so that was an obvious starting point.
The Problem
One of the most visible issues with Playnite was the inconsistency of the Game Cards in full-screen and desktop mode. This led to a false positive complaint from users. Many users demanded a feature where they had complete control over the number of cards displayed on the screen at any time.
Research
With Reddit and Discord polls and questionnaires and a limited user interview with 6 participants we narrowed down the real issue. As suspected, due to the inconsistent sizing of the cards, a lot of space was wasted. This led the users into a false impression of not having enough space to display their game libraries.
Results
By handling the card layout issue, the full customization option of card layouts was a function that was not needed anymore; hence, we could impose some limitations and introduce predefined layouts, further reducing the engineering cost and debt for future layout improvements.
Insights gained
Users asking for full customization about the game card layout was new to me. I have designed Playstation and Xbox UI and read internal guides and documentation, and never once did this kind of ask come up.
To determine the underlying issue, we conducted small-scale controlled User Research with 5-10 people in interviews and 100+ results from questions on Discord and Reddit polls.
General steps to figure out the issue:
The Problem
One of the core functionalities of Playnite is a full-screen mode that resembles a console-like experience focused on users who wish to play in a living room setting.
The tasks
Research
The main engineer was concerned with adding new functionality and features that resulted in incoherent design patterns, dead-end navigations, and a bunch of general usability issues that greatly diminished the user’s perception of the app’s value. With Reddit and Discord polls and questionnaire results, we revised the functionality roadmap to include design-driven decision-making and draw a clearer picture of the app’s core flaws.
Results
A new full-screen mode and new functionalities are enabled by careful planning and design-driven delivery.
The community has an overwhelmingly positive reaction towards the new UX and Visual Design.
Even in Beta mode, the adjustment had positively impacted the perception of the app’s overall quality.
The community quickly adopted the new UI patterns, which have been considered a huge improvement overall.
Insights gained
With limited engineering circumventing technical limitations had proven to be difficult and time-consuming. One of the most important lessons for me to learn was that In many cases, it is better to compromise the vision to deliver adequate functions, than spending 100x longer on delivering a perfect solution, that may or may not even be worth it in the end, meanwhile bringing the delivery to a full-stop.
Wireframes
Final Visual composition
What went well
Obstacles
As a startup and later full corporate employee, engineering time and effort was measured in days. With a very limited team and no full-time dedication effort was measured in weeks.
Actionable Insight
