Week 10: Contacting Industry Professionals

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This week, I contacted four creative practitioners via email and LinkedIn, and three of them—Dan Pratt, Daniel Rhodes, and Kat Craig - agreed to an interview. 


Dan Pratt

Dan Pratt is a user interface designer with over 15 years of experience working on well-known game franchises such as The Sims, Tetris, and Need for Speed. On his website, he describes game design as a "balance of budget, ambition, scope, & time" and thoroughly discusses the logic behind his design process. I believe his knowledge and practical mindset will offer me invaluable insight into how a design process typically functions within a game design studio environment.



Questions:

Q1. What is your typical design process when approaching a project?
Q2. What is the most important step within your design process? 
Q3. How do you prioritise the players' experience in your creative decisions? 
Q4. In your opinion, what makes a UI design good? What qualities should it have?
Q5. What methods do you use to organise information in your designs to ensure clarity? 



Daniel Rhodes

Daniel Rhodes is an Experience Designer at Electronic Arts with experience working on well-known sports game franchises such as F1 and Dirt. Rhodes thoroughly explains his creative decisions on his website, consistently showcasing his methodical design process behind both his professional work and his personal work (GDD - Operation Blackout). From an interview with Rhodes, I aim to gain further understanding of the techniques and philosophies behind UX design and understand how he prioritizes usability and player immersion within his design process. 




Questions:

Q1. What is day-to-day life like working as a UI/UX designer? What are the most challenging and rewarding parts of the job?
Q2. What is your typical design process when approaching a project?
Q3. How do you consider usability and the player's sense of immersion in your creative decisions?
Q4. In your opinion, what makes a UI design good? What qualities should it have?



Kat Craig

Kat Craig is a UI/UX designer with over 16 years of experience working with iconic game studios such as Nintendo, Blizzard Entertainment, and Larian Studios. Craig documents her methodical design process on her website and explains how each of her creative decisions aims to enhance player experience. In an interview with Craig, I aim to discuss the techniques she uses to understand the player and get advice about how to enter the game design industry, as I have seen this is something she is knowledgeable and passionate about on LinkedIn. 




Questions:

Q1. How has the industry changed during your career and what advice would you give to someone entering the industry?
Q2. In your opinion, what makes a UI design good? What qualities should it have?
Q3. In your opinion, how influential is UI/UX design to the overall experience of a game?
Q4. How do you prioritize the players’ experience in your creative decisions?



Alongside working on my DE4402 essay, this week I also created a first draft of my poster presentation, discussing the main focus of my Master's and the context, research, and process behind my current project, which involves me creating 3 UI design prototypes using Unreal Engine 5.





I also used Miro to create lists of game genres and themes to use as a reference when brainstorming ideas for my 3 UI design prototypes, as I aim to use a different game genre for each prototype to explore various design styles.  






Week 11 Plan: 

Location: Preston, UK

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