PLAYERS
Players needed a smooth path they could understand instantly: jump in, battle, upgrade, and replay without getting lost. The goal was to remove friction, eliminate dead ends, and make upgrades accessible directly inside the event.
BUSINESS
For the business, the objective was just as clear: increase tier completion, improve replay rates, and support the upgrade–purchase loop by surfacing value at the right moments without interrupting flow.
UX
At the UX level, I built a clear loop and a scalable framework for battling, progressing, and upgrading.
The goal was to fix clarity and rebuild the Marquee flow so it could support seasonal content. I grounded the redesign in how players actually interacted with the event, focusing on the moments that confused them, slowed them down, and pushed them out of the loop.
I gathered real behavior signals from player comments, a full UX teardown, competitive analysis, and pre-production alignment with PMs, designers, and the economy team. From there, I reframed the experience and partnered with the the art team to build a character implementation workflow the team could scale for future events.
Research:
My research combined player feedback, UX teardown, and competitive analysis to pinpoint where the event was breaking down. Four issues shaped the redesign. Rewards and requirements were buried on another screen, and tier states were difficult to understand, which made progress unclear. The event UI also offered no representation of the required character and made upgrading or promoting cumbersome. Finally, players could not access the store from the event UI, which interrupted the loop at the moment they were most motivated to act.
Audience:
Casual players needed more direction, core players wanted predictable value, and lapsed players needed a simple way back into the loop. The redesign put clarity first, surfacing value early and giving every player a clear, reliable next step.
Define:
In pre-production, I mapped the core actions players take during a Marquee event using the same systematic process I apply to all feature work. For this redesign, two actions emerged as the anchors. Character investment drives long-term engagement, and progress tracking helps players understand where they are and what unlocks next. These became the foundation for the Marquee UI.
Player Actions
The sticky diagrams show examples of how I break actions into clear, interactive states. They visualize player intent, state changes, and the feedback needed at each step. This framework defines the logic before any screens are built, ensuring the UI reflects how players actually think and move through the experience.
Ideate:
Player Paths
To validate the core actions, I mapped the full end-to-end player journey across the Marquee Event. This included discovering the unit, checking requirements, upgrading, investing, and battling through each milestone. The path exposed where momentum broke down and how players moved between inspection, upgrade, and replay loops. It helped the team see the experience as one connected system and guided the pacing, clarity, and upgrade moments that shaped the final redesign.
Information Architecture
I mapped the full Marquee flow from entry to battle completion and the upgrade loop to reveal every state change and return path. This exposed redundant routes and unclear transitions that slowed players down.
The updated IA clarified how players enter the feature, branch into battle or upgrade loops, move through locked and unlocked tiers, and return to the main event view. It created a simple, readable structure that became the backbone for the new player paths and wireframes.
Design:
Wireframes
I created a complete set of high-fidelity wireframes that mapped the entire Marquee loop from entry to reward collection. These screens became the primary source of truth for developer handoff and kept design, art, and engineering aligned throughout implementation.
Prototype
I created a working Figma prototype that demonstrated the Marquee experience end to end. It aligned the team around the new flow, served as the primary reference for engineering, and I gave the studio a clear, playable preview of the feature during weekly review meetings.
I rebuilt Marquee as a single, cohesive flow where players never lose context. Character representation sits directly in the event UI, supported by clearly labeled, high-contrast UI elements that make progress and requirements obvious at a glance. Unlocking, upgrading, and promoting all happen in one place with immediate feedback. Rewards surface early, tier states are unmistakable, and store access is integrated into the loop so players can buy packs and bundles at the moment they are most motivated.
The result is a streamlined system that replaces confusion with momentum and guides players through the event with confidence.
Characters tied to the new Marquee experience became the top unlocks within the first week. Players invested quickly, pushing these units to higher star levels faster than expected. The redesigned flow made progression feel purposeful, and players responded by staying in the loop, upgrading early, and following the momentum all the way through.
Top Characters by 5 Stars + Unlock Share (First 7 Days)
After launch, we continued refining the experience based on player behavior and real usage. We improved legibility by increasing contrast and clarifying tier states, making it easier to understand progress and requirements at a glance.
Initial Experience
Refined Experience
We also addressed momentum breaks when players returned to the event. The experience now auto-centers on the next actionable tier, keeping players in flow instead of forcing them to scroll to reorient. These updates reinforced the clarity-first design and helped the Marquee framework remain readable, efficient, and scalable as new events rolled out.
Initial Experience
Refined Experience
This project reinforced that clarity is a growth lever. When players can see their progress, understand their options, and act without friction, momentum follows. By unifying character investment, progression, and rewards into a single, readable loop, the Marquee Event shifted from a confusing system into a predictable, scalable experience that players trusted and engaged with.
For me, the lesson was clear. Start with player intent, design the system before the screens, and treat clarity as a first-class feature. When the experience is easy to read, both players and the business move faster.