Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Objectives:
Design a new online multiplayer feature
Scope:
Integration of new feature into the official website
Contributors:
Zachary Smith – UX Designer
Duration:
10 weeks
OVERVIEW
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a crossover fighting game where players can choose from over 80 fighters that originated from classic games such as Megaman and Pikachu. As it currently stands, SSBU online gameplay consists of Quickplay, weekly 1v1 tournaments, and private arenas.
With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate community rapidly growing, Nintendo would like to support competitive smash play and introduce ranked play matchmaking and tournaments.
The Problem
The goal of this project is to implement a form of ranked play into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that builds upon the product's current features.
It’s no question that the Smash community has been hoping for ranked play since earlier games in the franchise. Currently, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments are hosted by video game streamers and third party organizations. Bandai Namco Studios has provided all the necessary tools to implement a ranked mode and yet only Quickplay exists, which fails to satisfy the appetite for competitive gaming for hard core fans. Now with an online global player base of 9,400,000 regular players, Nintendo believes introducing ranked play in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will rapidly increase the player base while securing the loyalty of current players.
Research: Goals and Methodologies
I began with creating a research plan to assist with structuring my approach in developing ideas for possible key features of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Ranked Play. Three methodologies were utilized to meet the following research goals:
- Identify the preferred features players would like included in SSBU competitive leagues
- Identify the pain points of online SSBU
- Understand trends in competitive game modes across competitors
Competitive Analysis
Popular competitors of Super Smash Bros. that currently support ranked play are Overwatch, League of Legends, Pokemon Sword & Shield, and Dota 2. Similarly to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, each of these competitors have an established player base and viewership community. Unlike Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, these competitors excel at utilizing their offical website to promote and provide tournament information, player data, and general information regarding their games.
User Surveys and Interviews
A survey was conducted to collect quantitative data for both developing player archetypes and to understand player wants. The survey was created in Google Forms and distributed across Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Facebook groups, subreddits, and Discord channels.
Analyzing the survey data provided the foundation for developing the four primary player archetypes.
- Both online and offline gameplay features are unfulfilling and can be improved.
- Out of the 69% of users who most frequently play Super Smash Bros. Online, there's a relatively equal split in game mode preference.
- Six of those participants play more than 10 hours a week and prefer the Battle Arenas, Two participants play more than 10 hours a week and prefer Quickplay, while the remaining ten particpants play less than 10 hours and prefer Quickplay.
Seeing that the hardcore users play the most Super Smash Bros. Ultimate per week but prefer Battle Arenas, it's apparent that the most passionate and experienced SSBU users are not satisfied with Quickplay, which is currently the only mode that hosts Elite Smash, the closest thing to ranked play SSBU currently offers. I planned on diving deeper into this finding during user interviews to uncover the needs and pain points in context.
Four interview participants were chosen that best fit one of the four hypothesized player archetypes. The goal was to identify the most common ranked play feature preferences and pain points of for each archetype.
"I love how the Super Smash Bros. games continue to evolve the offline experience, but as a big fan of online play, I often feel like I'm not working toward a goal or reqard when playing Elite Smash in Quickplay."
– Andy, 25 year old
"After unlocking the exclusive Elite Smash mode in Quickplay, I was disappointed to see whacky preferred rules still prevalent. I'd rather just play friendlies in Battle Arena."
– Daniel, 24 year old
- The players who fall within the hardcore archetype regularly play Quickplay with preferred rules set to official tournament rules and maps, but normally become frustrated with RNG components of Quickplay.
- Those who prefer Battle Arenas over Quickplay are searching for more structure and consistency in the rules and maps. Additonally, Battle Arenas offers the opportunity to play friendly matches and/or with one's favorite Twitch or YouTube streamers.
- Players are looking for consistency and incentives to play SSBU, thus Battle Arenas is the primary battleground for passionate SSBU players.
- SSBU players generally agree that Elite Smash lacks structure and any incentives to come back and grind to the top. Players need a reason to continue playing a game and invest time into developing their skills.
User Persona
I synthesized the data collected during research into a user persona in order to address the user needs. By giving context and personality to the research data, I formed a clearer picture of the real problem I'm trying to solve for users.
Transforming the research data into user knowledge provided insight of the problem space from the point of view of the users. With this in mind, I reframed the problem statement as such:
Reframing the problem opened up more avenues to generate solutions to the right problem for our users.
With Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's user experience primarily being in-game on the Nintendo Switch, I realized the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate official website is heavily underutilized. Conversely, nearly all competitors I researched used their official websites as a central hub for news, updates, and most importantly: ranked play tournaments registration, schedules, and user profiles.
When I originally thought of implementing a ranked mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, I was expecting to focus solely on in-game features. However, with how simple and direct Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s in-game experience is, I realized there is a fine line between creating a revolutionary online experience, and overwhelming the users. Thus, I decided to create a significant portion of this new feature within the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate official website, as well as expand more into the seudo-ranked play alternative; Elite Smash.
WHAT IS ELITE SMASH?
One of the most innovative and exciting features of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is a hidden game mode called Elite Smash. Elite Smash is an unlockable online mode on Quickplay that allows people with a certain Global Smash Power to access. Once a character reaches the necessary GSP, that character is allowed to fight in Elite Smash. Not only is the mode unlocked, the UI of several in-game screens changes.
Sitemaps
Elite Smash is the primary incentive users continue playing online Quickplay mode and invest time and effort into becoming a skilled Super Smash Bros. player. However, the most common pain point across user archetypes is also associated with this feature. There’s a problem that lies after you achieve Elite Smash Status. What next?
Unfortunately, users who are looking for more must turn to third party organizations who host wifi tournaments, or revert back to playing Battle Arena friendlies with like-minded competitive players. Focusing on user needs, I decided to expand on the idea of unlocking new features for Elite Smash players when accessing the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website.
Users who have unlocked Elite Smash will have their own unique Elite Profile page where they can view a variety of stats and showcase their main fighter. They are also permitted to register for tournaments on the Schedule page.
Users who haven't unlocked Elite Smash will not have an Elite Profile link in the local navigation bar and are not permitted to register for tournaments on the Schedule page.
Wireframes
Ultimately, the goal is to design two seperate wireframes for the two categories of users; those who have unlocked Elite Smash and those who have not unlocked Elite Smash. But before doing so, I created a general set of wireframes using pen and paper to view the IA in context before buidling upon it.
Low Fidelity Usability Test
Whether a user is new to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate or a hardcore veteran of the series, most Elite League features will be accessible to view. However, only Elite Smash users will have the ability to register for tournaments, view upcoming tournament brackets, and will be awarded an Elite Profile with exclusive player stat insights, themes, and a personalized information hub.
Before designing the remaining screens that will be exclusive for Elite Smash users, I wanted to verify the base usability for the screens all users will have access to. Thus, I created a low fidelity prototype based on the wireframe sketches shown above.
Mid Fidelity Prototype
A mid-fidelity prototype was created based on the results gathered from the first round of testing. The hidden screens only available to Elite Smash users are also included in this iteration.
Discover How it Works, How to Play,
and How to Watch
Users can access Elite League through the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate home page. Users will learn about the features included such as how it works and can view the current prize pool, where to play, and how to watch. The call to action button directs users to the schedule page where they can view qualifier tournament and regional playoff schedules. Elite Smash users also have the option to register for their region’s qualifier tournament and regional playoffs.
Unlock Elite Smash and Earn a
Personalized Elite Profile
Users can view players standings within each region or international standings. Standings are displayed with player cards, which contain their rank, nickname, and an image of their main fighter. Each card is interactive and redirects users to that player’s Elite Profile.
Each Elite Profile displays background info and battle stats such as recent matches, upcoming registered events, and a graph displaying annual progression. Additionally, the page’s UI changes according to the theme of their main fighter’s original game. In this example this player’s main fighter is Greninja, thus a high fidelity mockup would display UI themes from Pokemon.
View Match Highlights From
Around the World
The media page features the most recent Elite League match highlights of each region as well as the latest international match highlights. The featured screen at the top will cycle livestreams of Elite Smash matches 24/7.
I conducted in-person usability tests with 4 participants; 2 of those users have unlocked Elite Smash while the other 2 have not. Each participant was given the following tasks to complete:
Locate the date and time for the North American Regional losers bracket – round 1 and winners final.
As a top qualifier for the North American Regional Playoffs, locate your regional rank and locate your elite profile.
None of the users experienced issues while completing the tasks. However, one of the four participants noted the second task was confusing at first since as they didn't realize the player card was interactive, but they still managed to complete the task.
The official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website is packed with useful information such as a vast library of character lore, item descriptions, music soundtracks, tips and tricks, and a smash blog, and yet it feels like something’s missing.
The overall reception of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate introducing ranked play was overwhelmingly positive and I hope fans of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate may one day see a similar feature rollout.
The official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website is unorthodox in the approach to alignment and design patterns. I found it difficult to identify any patterns in alignment and spacing because each page seemed to have followed an independent set of paramaters. However, I found uncovering the website's design patterns to be the most interesting phase of this project. Designing a new feature for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that followed branding guidlines was challenging, but rewarding nonetheless.