Xbox Shadowrun

Shadowrun is a combination of science fiction and medieval fantasy with magic which is set in the late 21st century. This version of Shadowrun is just one iteration of a game that spans over 25 years and has quite a cult-following. This iteration breaks barriers in that it's the first of it's kind first-person shooter, and included the first-ever game released on both PC and Xbox 360 where both platforms can play each other. Another method by which this game broke the norms was the fact that it was shipped without a single player mode. The game was multi-player only and required broadband connectivity to the Internet.

My role was as a UI Artist, UI Designer, and UX Researcher in charge of researching UX principals, designing UI elements, and implementing the in-game and game-setup interface elements, such as the overall screens, transitions from screen to screen, dialogs, buttons, sliders, and other vector elements.

Basic UX Research included the following tasks:

• Met with Project Mangers to discuss the expected direction of UI elements.
• Created flow charts to define the element process using MS Visio.
• Created wireframes using MS Visio.
• Created simple personas to emulate user interaction with in game settings.
• Created high-fidelity prototypes, which in some cases included motion studies.
• Performed user testing in Microsoft's usability labs.
• Implemented final UI elements using Photoshop, Xbox User Interface Tool (XUI), and Visual Studio.

Because the story takes place in a dark time, the UI was to be dark and mysterious. While in the game setup screens, there are looping animations and marquis-style text constantly scrolling. Switching from screen to screen utilized smooth, animated transitions. All of which I created and implemented.