Sims Online is an extension of the beloved best simulation game, where Simmers can play online with their friends and people across the globe!
Sims Online is an extension of the beloved best simulation game, where Simmers can play online with their friends and people across the globe for the first time ever!
80 hours
Sole UX/UI Designer
Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop
Gaming Industry
As a loyal Simmer, I've felt there's been a missing puzzle piece to an almost perfect game for over a decade...
I've always loved creating my world, families, and adventures for my Sims households. But I would love to experience doing all of that with my friends too.
Then it hit me. I now have the skill and love for UX/UI design. Why not just make it myself?
So I closed the EA app. said my loudest Sul Sul, and opened up Google Chrome to start my journey on how to make this possible.
With over 70 million players worldwide. The Sims 4 is the most widely played game in the 23-year history of the franchise.
The gaming industry is at the top of its game right now, and in turn, an online capability is probably the most sought-after feature for video games since the upgrade from only LAN, to being able to connect your game directly to your private Wi-Fi.
The Sims introduced online in 2002 and unfortunately, it shut down due to a lack of sales. But that was before the gaming industry was what it is now. Of 3.03 billion global gamers, 2.82 billion game online. Since making the game free in October 2022, there have been 16 million new players a 53% increase.
With multiplayer/online for the Sims being in high demand, the modding community has created a successful online cross-platform mod garnering millions of views on YouTube.
The opportunity to extend a product that serves a community I'm proudly a part of presented itself and I took it on. With my over 500+ hours of playtime knowledge of what is needed and my love for the Sims in mind, the research began.
The research goals were:
The research investigates what makes or breaks online or multiplayer games, what makes them successful, and what can be worked on.
Market research was carried out on the Sims 4's direct competitors to optimize the user experience for the added-on feature.
Direct competitors:
Some strengths seen from competitors that were implemented were:
Direct competitors:
Some weaknesses seen in competitors that were avoided were:
Direct competitors:
A series of in-depth interviews were then conducted to further identify pain points, frustrations, needs, and desires for Sims Online and to determine exactly what Simmers would like to see out of the added feature.
To understand, I interviewed users who:
91% of users enjoy decorating, CAS customization, and world-building, as opposed to actual playthrough gameplay. They expressed concerns about the lack of detail in gameplay compared to previous Sims games.
77% of users mentioned the lack of lots and space in worlds when asked what improvements they want to see in the future of the game.
100% of users mentioned the limitations of how realistic The Sims has become in comparison to past Sims games. This results in a lot of Simmers resorting past Sims games and takes attention off the current game. For example, players resort to The Sims 3 to be able to travel in a car or to experience the open world again.
60% of users were frustrated with the maximum number of 8 slots for households. Especially in recent years, there have been a lot of social media challenges involving The Sims that require players to have large households to complete.
After gathering insights about Sims Online users' characteristics, goals, needs, and pain points directly from the source, their needs were refined into point-of-view reflections and "how might we" questions to better understand how to solve them.
As a player who seeks emotional depth in the game, I want a feature that allows my Sims to experience a wider range of emotions and reactions.
How might we expand the emotional depth of Sims in the game and relatable character interactions?
Answer: Sims can sync whims with other Sims they speak to for better connected gameplay and relationships. For example, if they have a negative relationship with a Sim, they can have a mischief-pranking war.
As a competitive player, I want a feature online that introduces challenging gameplay so that I can complete achievements.
How might we introduce competitive gameplay elements online without compromising the creative nature of the game?
Answer: For expansion packs with recreational activities like City Living, Outdoor Retreat, Island Living, Get Together, and Snowy Escape, there will be new activities that players can create lobbies for!
I enjoy playing with mods and custom content, I want a feature that upgrades both.
How might we ensure that online satisfies the large mods and custom content communities and enhances their gameplay experience?
Answer: There will be a feature for players to seamlessly integrate both mods and custom content directly into the game, with a download process similar to The Sims Resource.
Based on research from the market analysis, these were the features that would bring the best user experience.
Make chatting with your friends and fellow Simmers not only fun but safe too. You can filter out words and limit your chat visibility to friends, friends of friends, or everybody.
Invite your friends easily from your Sims profile!
Create your own world build your house, park, bar, or whatever you like solo or with your friends in a private server for a world of fun!
Over are the days of searching online for custom content with 80,000+ added already, constant uploads are made to the gallery daily making your game even more exciting!
Two main user personas emerged out of the research and interviews that would best benefit from using Sims Online.
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Now that Sims Online has its target users, I drafted up how they would use our platform.
This is the task flow created for Sims Online's prototyping process. It is from the POV of Simmer using online to invite and play with a friend!
This is the sitemap created for Gametrix's prototyping process.
These are the low-fidelity wireframes created from the task flow.
The goal of the Sims Online design system was to design exact replicas of the Sims icons, iconography, reusable components, and the beautiful blue and green colour theme featuring the beloved Sims typography.
Gathering insights I got users to test the high-fidelity prototypes to receive feedback.
After feedback from Sims Online users, the following information was gathered.
THE ORIGINAL SIMS MAIN MENU
The original Sims main menu.
SIMS ONLINE MAIN MENU
The same main menu with the addition of the online button.
THE ORIGINAL SIMS PROFILE PAGE
This is the influencer search page before iterations.
SIMS ONLINE PROFILE PAGE
Added the option to invite your friends from the profile page before loading into the game.
These are key features for Sims Online.
As I completed Sims Online, these are the things I've learned.
To summarize, this project was very special as I got to practice what originally sparked my love and interest for UI/UX, which was learning how to design a UI game interface and most importantly creating a great user experience for previous lovers of the game.
This process was very challenging as I recreated the whole Sims game in Figma but it allowed me to perfect my designing skills in Figma even further. I recreated The Sims 4 everything the same as the original game, down to the little logos. It was very time-consuming but I had so much fun doing this as it was a game I love.
I spoke with other real Simmers and was able to provide them with the option to expand their game with online they were beyond impressed with it and this was an overall success which I'm proud of.
INDUSTRY COMPLEXITIES
In an industry as complex as gaming, a lot of success relies heavily on community interaction and personalized experiences. Gamers are very noble and will take your product into their community and expand it organically if they like it. Because of such complexities, user research was extremely highlighted.
The next steps, with the limited time for this project, would've been a lot more user interviews with more diverse age groups, widening the lens of the community.
NEXT DESIGN
The flow that was designed focused more on showing users how to operate the new multiplayer and online functions. The next design process would focus on displaying the updates done with the gallery feature in the game. I would have loved to explore what changes I would make to the gallery. For example, I would add the power to get user-created mods and custom content straight from the gallery. I would have loved to design this if given more time on this project.
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