What are some best practices for designing and testing cross-platform game UI and UX?

1 Define your target platforms

Before you start designing your game UI and UX, you need to define your target platforms and their requirements. For example, you need to consider the screen size, aspect ratio, orientation, input methods, performance, and features of each platform. You also need to research the best practices and guidelines for each platform, such as the iOS Human Interface Guidelines or the Google Material Design Principles. This will help you create a consistent and intuitive UI and UX that follows the platform's conventions and expectations.

2 Use a responsive design approach

A responsive design approach means that your game UI and UX can adapt to different screen sizes, resolutions, and orientations without compromising the quality or functionality. You can use a responsive design approach by using flexible layouts, scalable graphics, adaptive fonts, and relative units. You can also use tools and frameworks that support responsive design, such as Unity's UI system, which automatically adjusts the UI elements based on the screen resolution and device type.

4 Collect and analyze user feedback

User feedback is a valuable source of information and insight for improving your game UI and UX. You can collect user feedback through various methods, such as surveys, interviews, focus groups, usability tests, analytics, reviews, and ratings. You should analyze user feedback to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your game UI and UX, as well as the user's needs, preferences, and expectations. You should also use user feedback to prioritize and implement changes and enhancements to your game UI and UX.

5 Optimize your game UI and UX for performance

Performance is a key factor that affects your game UI and UX, as well as your user retention and satisfaction. You should optimize your game UI and UX for performance by using efficient and optimized assets, such as textures, sprites, fonts, and animations. You should also minimize the number of UI elements, effects, and transitions that consume memory and CPU resources. You should also use tools and techniques that improve the performance of your game UI and UX, such as caching, batching, compression, and occlusion culling.

6 Follow the principles of good game UI and UX design

Finally, you should follow the principles of good game UI and UX design that apply to any platform or genre. These principles include clarity, consistency, feedback, affordance, visibility, simplicity, and fun. You should design your game UI and UX to communicate clearly and effectively with the user, to provide consistent and coherent interactions and navigation, to give feedback and guidance to the user, to indicate the possible actions and outcomes of the user's input, to show the relevant and important information and elements to the user, to reduce the complexity and cognitive load of the user, and to create an engaging and enjoyable experience for the user.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?