Halo Infinite Operations
Role:
UX Designer, Technical UI Artist, Scripter
Tools:
Faber/Slipspace Engine, Figma
Languages:
Lua
Implemented widgets, designed screens, flows and wrote up design documentation for the live-service FPS game Halo Infinite.
Battle Pass Revamp • Problem Statement • User Flow • Wireframes • Boost Menu • Wireframes • In-Game
Related Projects: Component Library • Settings Menu Redesign
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The Operations Level Skip System was a revision of the existing level up system for Battle Passes. This redesign allows players to purchase experience to increase their level to a designated level within an Operation through the reward track and boost menu.
How were levels purchased before?
The old flow allowed for players to level up their equipped battle pass through the boosts menu. There, they could spend 200 Halo Credits to purchase one level at a time. If they would like to increase the tier again, they would have to go through the relatively long process of confirming this purchase, watching /skipping the rank up animation and then returning to the boost menu to purchase another level over and over again.
Old Reward Track Design
PROBLEM STATEMENT & GOALS:
We wanted players to be able to purchase multiple level skips with minimal effort and/or number of clicks in a single transaction.
Player Experience Challenges
Buying more than one level at a time is tedious.
The rewards available after purchasing level skips are not immediately obvious from the boost menu.
Players must keep track of the number level skips they need to purchase to achieve/obtain their target level/rewards.
Players must keep track of the total credits they need to purchase to achieve/obtain their target level/rewards.
Purchasing level skips with XP Grants must be easy-to-do and cost-effective.
Business & Development Challenges
The repetitiveness of purchasing multiple level skips might deter players from completing large transactions. For every purchase, players must click through four screens to complete their transaction and have two chances to back out of their purchase.
UX Challenges
If a player wishes to purchase N level skips, they must repeat the process for purchasing a level skip N times and click through 4N screens.
While purchasing level skips, players cannot see the reward track and the items they will collect.
Business Goals
Encourage players to purchase level skips.
Make purchasing level skips more enticing to players by putting rewards at the forefront of the flow.
Increase the operation tier skip purchase rate.
Player Experience Goals
Efficiency: Allow players to purchase greater amounts of level skips with fewer clicks.
Reward-focused: Enable players to purchase several levels based on the reward(s) they desire while reducing the focus on the credits they will spend to acquire said reward(s).
Reduced cognitive load: Show players the total cost of their transaction.
Acceptance Criteria Checklist
Use the helpbar to inform players about the buttons that work in the Operations reward screen.
Enable players to purchase a chosen number of level skips with one button.
Present players with the number of skips they plan on purchasing and the total cost on a pop up screen.
Enable players to cancel their transaction and return to the reward screen with one button “B”.
Indicate that premium rewards can only be acquired through level skips for Operations that have been upgraded to premium. Level skips can only unlock free rewards for Operations on a free track.
Inform players with the total number and cost of levels they’re purchasing.
Allow players to purchase more Halo credits if their balance is too low to complete their purchase.
Allow players to return to the confirm purchase pop up after reloading their wallet.
Limit the number of level skips a player can purchase to impede them from surpassing the Operation’s max level.
Present players the option to upgrade their Operation during/after a level skip transaction.
USER FLOW:
WIREFRAMES:
How Players Level Up Using the Reward Track
When a player selects an item on the reward track, they can add some multiple of 1000 experience points to their operation so that the rewards at the selected level are unlocked. Upon selecting an unowned item, the "Level Up" option is made visible on the helpbar and on a second click, pressing the A button or hitting Enter will trigger the Level Up pop up to appear.
For premium Battle Passes, the following pop up is shown:
For players who have not yet purchased their operation, only the free rewards up through the level of the selected item will be unlocked for them even if they leveled up with a premium item selected. If a free operation is later upgraded, all of the premium rewards that weren't previously collected are unlocked. Players are provided the option to upgrade their free operation when they confirm their level up purchase.
Owned Rewards
When a user selects a reward they’ve already collected, the option to level up is not available to them and is not visible on the helpbar.
Purchase Bonuses on Live Operations
The level up option is also hidden and disabled when a purchase bonus is selected whether or not the operation is owned.
Other changes:
Added the Halo Credit balance to the reward screen.
Moved Double XP Boosts timer closer to XP amount.
Removed the Boost option from the reward screen when the operation is not equipped.
Here are four of the possible pop ups that might appear when a player is purchasing some level skips.
Level Up Pop Up Revision
Because it was not feasible to append the cost of the level up transaction on the pop up list items, I came up with alternative designs. The chosen design was of course having larger text below the paragraph as shown above. But, these were the other designs:
Inline Cost: The cost of the transaction could be placed inline with the pop up's paragraph at the very beginning.
Boost Menu Styling: Another design involves the cost of the transaction being styled like the level up cost on the boost menu (shown below the second pop up).
BOOST MENU:
Similar to the problems listed for the reward track, the old boost menu proved tedious for purchasing multiple levels, confusing to use and understand and provided little information for players as to the status of the battle pass their trying to manipulate. Players also complained that this design led to slips where they spent 200 credits they did not mean to.
WIREFRAMES:
Using the level up slider, the player can also choose the exact number of levels they want to increase their operation by. The slider ranges from +1 to the difference between the highest operation level and the current level of the operation. It defaults to +1. When the operation has been completed, the level up slider/button is disabled. And, on the penultimate level, the slider is hidden.
Edge Case:
Each single level up transaction adds 1000 XP to their operation. The only exception is when the player is leveling up to the max level of the operation. In that situation, a pop up with a string warning the player about the lost XP will appear.
