This was originally a spec design mockup of a user interface I created to improve on the dated interface of the video game "The Pinball Arcade." Although that company went out of business shortly after, a different company "Pinball FX" did adopt my UX layout. This was a welcome surprise, as Pinball FX is a massive game, housing IPs such as Star Wars, Marvel, South Park, Universal Studios, etc.
Previous pinball game interfaces had a large amount of information and data spread across multiple screens. I wanted to consolidate and unify the main elements into a simpler, cohesive experience. I put a lot of thought into how to re-organize the UX elements such as table info, scores, user progress, etc. Using the aesthetic of some modern competitive games (Battlefront, Battlefield etc) I completely re-imagined how a Pinball game interface could be laid out. I designed this interface from the ground up and animated it to emulate the feel of interactivity.
Earlier Pinball game interfaces were a bit disjointed. Above is the Pinball FX interface back when it required several interactions with different screens. In the image, I list several missing UX elements I felt were missing and should be included.
My proposed interface and the UX elements I arranged into a new unified arrangement, along with several new elements. UX elements are highlighted and labeled for visibility.
The new Pinball FX after adopting my UX layout. Nearly all of my proposed changes were heeded and the missing UX elements I included in my mockup are now present. The arrangement of elements remains almost exactly as my original proposal. The Global Top Menu Bar was also added, and includes my suggestions of "Tables", "Tournaments" and "Store."
The Pinball FX team made some slight alterations to the final design: The elements in the 'Display info on Selected Table' are now stacked and a bit more compact, which gave them room to expand the width of the Tables area on the left. I think this was a smart change to make.
The "Friends List" the only proposed element they did not adopt, but this is a feature that has not yet been added to the game. They did leave this region empty; perhaps we will see it when the feature is added?
The "Friends List" the only proposed element they did not adopt, but this is a feature that has not yet been added to the game. They did leave this region empty; perhaps we will see it when the feature is added?
The diagram above shows how Pinball FX was able to use my layout to consolidate several UX elements together. The colored boxes were existing elements that I consolidated into a new, unified screen. The white boxes were new elements I proposed in the layout that did not exist in the previous Pinball FX app, but were subsequently added.