Halo Infinite Settings Heuristic Evaluation

Wrote up an audit of the screens across the frontend to create a backlog of quality of life and player experience improvements then created prototypes of said solutions in engine.

Skills:

Competitve Analysis, UX Writing/Specs, Game Engine/Widget Editor, Figma/Adobe XD, Wireframing/Lo-fi Mockups

Tools:

Faber/Slipspace Engine, Figma

Languages:

Global / List

Problem: The lists in the settings menu are very long and it's difficult to find settings you want to update.

Suggestions:

Add Collapsible Accordion Headers within the list.

Add the Keywords widget from the filtered list widget to search for specific settings

Problem: The contrast between headers and list items is too low.

Suggestions:

Change the format of the header list items
- Add additional left-side padding to list items
- Add padding between headers and list items
Change the styling of the text of headers to better differentiate them from list items
- Replace header style with underlined text
- Center-align header text
Add a Table of Contents/Outline for the headers

Global / Description Text

Problem: The readability of the description text could be increased.

Suggestions:

Highlight explanations for each option state or other key words (Enabled: What enabled means; Disabled: What disabled means). Stylistic options:
- Make the state text blue
- Underline each state
- Box in the states
Add a heading to the description to reiterate which setting is being changed

Global / Slider

Problem/Goal: Make adjusting the slider easier.

Suggestions:

Make the default setting arrow a number/button in the middle of the slider line
Make the slider a taller progress bar to make it easier to select the slider and change the value

Global / Dropdown

Problem: More could be done to distinguish between the active list item and the rest of the list when a dropdown is open.

Suggestion:

Reduce the opacity of the other options when the dropdown is open. The list item that was selected would have the normal disabled look.

Controller / Input Binding

Problem/Goal: Improve the ease in which players can customize their input bindings.

Currently, the control scheme for every context of play (on foot, vehicle, grenades, etc.) is listed in a single column. Only headers differentiated these contexts.

Minimum Viable Suggestion:

Allow players to switch between contexts without scrolling (e.g. tabs)

Exceptional Viable Version:

Split screen into list widget and turn the controller image into a *Interactable Controller Widget (something similar to DS4 Windows)

Interactable Controller Widget features:

The labels on the controller should be turned into buttons.
When clicked, scroll to the associated action on the lefthand list of bindings.
Group these labels together more based on the quadrant of the controller rather than spacing everything out evenly
Make it as minimalistic as NeiR Automata's Controls Screen
There should be different versions of the controller based on gameplay context – Vehicle, On Foot, etc. (rather than just one combined preview)

Settings to add to it:
- "Vibration" (the controller is what's vibrating). Also, put it under Accessibilty
  - Doing so will also cause both the controller and keyboard settings to start with the “Movement & Aiming setting
- "Button Layout"
  - Offer two states that players can switch between: Custom/Default
    Default would be the recommended settings for the given context
    Players would either need to manually switch to the Custom state to modify the button layout or the state changes as soon as the player edits something on that controller
- "Thumb Stick Layout”

Keyboard/Mouse / Input Binding

Keyboard version of the *Interactable Controller Widget
Each list item could have the option to Customize the button, use the Default or Remove the binding (not sure how to include redundant keys)
- One grid for bindings and another for Customize/Default/Remove

Accessibility and Graphics / Preview

Applicable Settings: Subtitle Size, Subtitle Background Opacity, HUD Opacity, Reticle Thickness etc.
Preview Visual Setting Hotkey (another screen)
Blurred HUD pocket level behind settings screen
Preview window under description; possibly interactable like the controller widget
Like in COD: Black Ops 4, show a split preview screen for default/current setting vs. selected setting

Accessibility / Communication

Move Communication to be the second section under Language

Accessibility / Colors

Move all five "Gameplay" colors to the Accessibility screen (Enemy, Friendly, Fireteam, Observer Team 1 and 2)
Create a widget to set the colors apart from the other options