Honkai Star Rail
Creating a Smart Equip menu to make character-equipping faster & easier for all types of players
Outcomes
82%
faster equipping time with new 'Smart Equip' menu
33%
decrease in menu bounce rate
after redesign
Project Info
My Role:
Design Relic-customization feature
Gather current player research & testing feedback
Prototype interface design & interactions
Design Goals:
Reduce friction in character-equipping flow & navigation
Enable players to spend more time playing, and less time choosing equipment
Lower frustrations associated with optimizing characters to retain players long-term
Solution caters to both casual & competitive players
Integrate solution into current game UI style & brand
Show Details
Overview
Key Features
An efficient equipment customization menu to help players spend less time equipping, and more time playing!
"Honkai Star Rail" (abbreviated as "HSR") is a video game played on PC/desktop, console, or mobile devices. In this game, the player can equip their combat characters with stat-boosting equipment called "Relics". Relics are equipped in sets of 4-&-2, and each individual Relic's stats are randomized, meaning players oftentimes spend a lot of time collecting & picking out the best Relics possible for their characters.
The "Smart Equip" menu I designed aims to make this Relic-equipment process faster & easier for players, enabling them to spend more time experiencing the actual gameplay, combat, and story instead.
Problem & Research
User Research
Players don't want to spend a lot of time choosing equipment for their characters!
As a current HSR player, I've observed many player discussions and feedback asking developers for a "custom loadout" feature that will allow them to save different configurations of Relics for each of their characters. Currently, if players want to swap their Relics, they have to do it one-by-one, which ends up being severely time-consuming considering the total number of different pages, clicks, and mental calculations needed.
Casual Player:
Wants to quickly put on any good enough Relics to immediately start playing.
Average Player:
Wants help choosing the most suitable Relics available for their characters.
Competitive Player:
Wants to efficiently combine Relics that best optimize their characters' stats.
Brainstorm & Ideation
Solution: A menu that enables players to quickly swap between entire sets of Relics they've self or system-configured beforehand.
Step 1: Pinpoint & Analyze Current Pain Points
View Process
Step 2: Brainstorm Opportunities to Delight
View Process
Step 3: Ideate New Player-Interaction Flow
View Process
Step 4: Identify Content Requirements & Sketch Wireframes
View Process
Core Product Features
Smart Equip Menu:
Gear Up Characters in Just 15 Seconds
The Smart Equip menu was designed to allow players to quickly swap their character's equipped Relics between entire saved configurations, reducing a previously multi-click process into just 2 clicks! It also allows players to create different Loadout Plans to equip their character for different team compositions, game modes, or playstyles. The goal was to help players reduce frustrations associated with time spent on equipping characters and encourage long-term player retainment.
Player-Testing Insights
User Feedback
Custom Plans: Empathizing & Appealing to Different Player Types
I redesigned the Smart Equip menu to support more than 1 player-created Custom Plan and to give players options between creating their plan from scratch or starting with system-generated recommendations. This allows players to choose how they want to utilize the Smart Equip menu, giving a range of options to appeal to every type of player ranging from casual to competitive.
Player-Testing Insights
User Feedback
Modify Loadout Plan:
Empower Players with Customized Gameplay
I created a new interaction flow that enables players to make modifications to any of their Loadout Plans, regardless whether they started out as player-created or system-generated. Relics that are: 1) already included in the Loadout Plan, 2) is currently equipped by the selected character, or 3) is equipped by another character, are marked accordingly for easy recognition in the player's inventory. This gives players complete control over their plans and permits adjustments as players collect more Relics with better stats over time.
Player-Testing Insights
User Feedback
Stat Goals:
Optimizing System-Generated Recommendations
I designed a new feature in the Smart Equip menu that would allow players to set 'goals' for their character's stats when creating custom plans with system-generated recommendations. Using these goals, the system will choose Relics from the player's inventory that add up or exceed the player's desired stats for that character. This feature aims to reduce time players spend on choosing relics (and on mental calculations) and lower associated frustrations.
Player-Testing Insights
User Feedback
Interactive Prototype
Honkai Star Rail "Custom Relic Loadouts" Menu
Try out the interactive prototype!
Takeaways
Giving Players More Agency of Choice — From my user research, I found that, just like user personas, players can be categorized based on their gameplay expectations and playtime commitment, and each of these types of players have different needs for the game. Especially because these expectations can vary widely on a spectrum, it's important to offer players more options to customize their gameplay experience. For example, my redesign offers HSR players the option to system-generate or user-create their relic loadout plans, with varying levels of user control, in order to ensure that HSR's Smart Equip feature would be accessible and useful to as many types of players as possible.
Incorporating New Designs into Existing Systems — HSR's Smart Equip feature already has an existing player-interaction flow and overall UI style. During my ideation phase, I realized that even if I decide to add completely new functionalities, my designs need to be able to smoothly integrate into what's currently existing in HSR—not only for intuitive adoption from the players' side, but also for easy implementation from the game developers' side.