UI Design Lead, Game - Experience

SHRAPNEL

SHRAPNEL

Design
Seattle, WA, USA
Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2024

The Shrapnel team is seeking bright minds from every culture, discipline, and background to join us on a new creative endeavor.

We’re a mission-focused team with industry roots in world-class game development, studio building, and platform creation.

Our goal is empowering the world to share in our playful collaboration at the intersection of gaming, creation, and ownership.

The Shrapnel team is seeking bright minds from every culture, discipline, and background to join us on a new creative endeavor.

We’re a mission-focused team with industry roots in world-class game development, studio building, and platform creation.

Our goal is empowering the world to share in our playful collaboration at the intersection of gaming, creation, and ownership.

UI Visual Design Leadership for the Game is a critical ingredient to our success. Come join our mission to create the future of entertainment. On this team and in partnership with art and design teams across the studio, you will lead the look and feel of not only the in-game UI, but the entire player experience end to end. You will work with creative and art direction across studio to contribute to and inform how the visual design language of the game will be translated into the end user experience. You’ll be empowered and given autonomy. Your ideas will matter.

The Job

  • Create and iterate on UI typography/Motion/FX/Iconography and in-game branding for the end-to-end game experience in partnership with the rest of the UX/UI team.
  • Define and design epic, optimized and buildable in-game experiences by putting gameplay first.
  • Partner with designers to ensure that form always follows function.
  • Always represent the diversity of players by being their champion in all conversations to ensure as many players can play as possible.
  • Define best in class in-game experiences by pushing the boundaries of your tools and technology.
  • Be constantly thinking about the future in terms of finding ways to improve the game experience and the design of the games UI, with strong ownership and minimal direction required.
  • Serve as an advocate for the UX/UI team by ensuring the best tools, systems and process are being used to create the in-game experience possible.
  • Competitive-analysis, user journeys, user stories, user-flows, wireframes, mockups, prototypes for the end-to-end game experience, and build reviews in partnership with the rest of the UX, dev and game design teams.
  • Use active testing and feedback from partners, and players to iterate and refine your designs.
  • Be constantly thinking about the future in terms of finding ways to improve the game experience and the design of the games UI, with strong ownership and minimal direction required.
  • Work directly with all disciplines across the game team (dev/design/art/platform/marcom) to bring the brand and your work to life.
  • Be a thought leader in visual design to ensure we are pushing the edges of what's possible.
  • Leverage your years of experience to help bring the culture of user centered design to the entire game studio.
  • Cultivate design talent on the design team through active mentoring and leadership.

Who Will Be A Great Fit

We welcome your uniqueness. Research shows that diverse teams do the best work. Our customers are all over the world, and from all walks of life. It's important that we’re not all the same, so that we can draw on our differences, what we’ve experienced, and how we think.

  • 5+ years professional experience in UX/UI or Visual Design for games.
  • At least 2 games shipped from concept to completion (PC a plus)
  • A strong portfolio with examples of finished work and insight into your development style, thought and design process.
  • A strong foundation in graphic design and understanding how that can translate into great game interfaces through layout, color, and typography.
  • An understanding of the connections between UI functionality and UI aesthetics, and how to maximize impact for the benefit of gamers.
  • Experience with Rapid Prototyping using whatever tools help tell the story (Motion Design/3D/In-Engine)
  • Experience implementing UX/UI into a game engine, ideally Unreal Engine with in-depth expertise in UMG.
  • Meticulous about the details and driven to push the boundaries of your own work
  • A keen understanding of how important the micro-moments are, using the power of motion.
  • Strong technical skills and comfort with getting into the guts of a game engine.
  • Strong ownership over your deliverables and discipline, while enabling the voices around you to have impact on the outcomes.
  • Driven to hold the quality bar high while being willing to have the difficult conversations about finding the right balance between technical complexity, timely delivery, and the quality of the player experience
  • Always staying ahead of the trends, current class, and player expectations by learning new ways to craft more unique and exquisite experiences
  • Able to collaborate in not just the UI design discussions, but all discussions where your unique perspective can have an impact.

Nice to Have

  • Strong motion design and animation experience.
  • A diploma in Graphic or Visual Design program.
  • Strong Illustration skills
  • 3D Modeling or Tools Experience.
  • A passion for gaming and an understanding of what is best in class UX across multiple genres.
  • Driven to make the complex into simple in all things you and the team do.
  • A passionate advocate for ALL players regardless of their abilities and bring that passion into every conversation.
  • Experience developing Diegetic and Spatial UI.
  • Experience with keyboard/mouse UX considerations.
  • Experience working with localization/internationalization systems and dealing with related issues.
  • An aptitude for ownership, responsibility and aggressive problem solving.
  • You're comfortable with getting into the guts of a game engine.
  • Passion to leverage metrics, UXR and other feedback methods to evaluate and improve your work post-launch.
  • Office365 and Google Suite proficiency.
  • A mindset of continuous improvement; humble and ambitious.
  • Prior experience in a startup environment or small business.
  • Adaptable, with a good sense of humor.

The Perks

  • Competitive Salary and excellent Benefits.
  • Flexible hours, with the potential of remote working.
  • Visibility and input to business strategy, including technology and creative partners.
  • Autonomy and latitude within your role.
  • Seattle’s healthy living and vibrant city culture.
  • Tight knit, highly experienced, fun-loving team.

Additional Information

The base salary range for this full-time position is $150K - 200K + stocks + tokens + benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. Within the range, individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.

Seniority Level: Senior-Level

Industry: Video Games, Blockchain, UX, UI, Product Design

Employment Type: Full-time

Job Functions: UI Design, Design Systems, Typography, Iconography, Motion Design, Concepting, Communication

The Fine Print

At Shrapnel we prefer working in-office, together. We believe working in the same space can accelerate progress, improve collaboration, and is definitely more fun. But in-office work doesn't make sense for everyone at this time, and technology makes certain remote work possible. So for certain roles and perfect candidates we are open to discussing remote work. Please apply and we’ll decide case by case.

NEON Machine Inc and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity employers. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.

The Fine Print

At Shrapnel we prefer working in-office, together. We believe working in the same space can accelerate progress, improve collaboration, and is definitely more fun. But in-office work doesn't make sense for everyone at this time, and technology makes certain remote work possible. So for certain roles and perfect candidates we are open to discussing remote work. Please apply and we’ll decide case by case. In all cases, though, you must be allowed to work in the US without a visa.

We’re following WA state’s health guidelines regarding COVID-19. We make every effort keep our office safe and our employees healthy. No one comes to work sick, not even a sniffle. Our office is big enough to stay 6-feet apart easily, but if you’re in a meeting where distance is not possible and you’re not vaccinated then we require a mask (vaccinated folks might want to wear one too, your choice). Hand sanitizer is always close by, and the nightly janitor crew sanitizes work surfaces for the next day. We believe in the benefits of vaccines, but don’t require it. For now, masks are required in the public areas of our building, whether vaccinated or not, but if you’re working alone in a room you don’t need to wear a mask.https://coronavirus.wa.gov/information-for/business/workplace-safety-guidance

NEON Machine Inc and its subsidiaries are equal opportunity employers. Qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.