Gaming
Overview
I led the UX for Epic Games’ Most Wanted Fortnite campaign experience, helping create a web journey that supported 473,000 registered users across 13 international markets and was later adopted as a reusable framework for future campaign initiatives.
Impact
473,000 registered users across campaign
13 International markets supported
Framework adopted for future campaigns
The Problem
Epic needed one campaign experience that could work for very different player states without creating confusion or friction. Lapsed players needed a reason to return, newer players needed clarity, and active players wanted challenge and competition. The risk was not lack of interest. It was early drop-off caused by complexity, unclear rewards, or too much effort up front.
How might we design a global campaign experience that makes reward mechanics easy to understand, motivates players quickly, and reduces early abandonment?
The Constraints
This project had several hard constraints. The experience needed to scale across 13 languages and regions, work reliably on both desktop and mobile, and hold up under global traffic and localisation demands. The campaign window was also short, which increased the pressure to create value quickly, while authentication was fixed through Epic and linked platform logins, limiting how much friction could be removed at entry.
My Role
I led the UX design for the campaign experience, focusing on login clarity, onboarding, progress tracking, reward comprehension, and the overall interaction model across web surfaces. I worked closely with developers and project managers to make sure the experience translated reliably into a global launch.
The Key Decisions
There were two obvious directions I could chose to pick from. The first being to expose more of the campaigns depth up front to the user, or simplify the entry and reveal complexity gradually. I chose the second path.
I prioritised comprehension over feature depth. The bigger risk was not under-explaining the campaign to experienced players. The bigger risk was losing users before they understood why it was worth their time.
That decision shaped a unified dashboard experience built around frictionless entry, visible progress, simple reward communication, milestone-based motivation, and competition that felt accessible rather than intimidating.
Why It Worked
Authentication was fixed through Epic and linked platform logins, so I could not remove friction by redesigning the full entry system. The solution had to come through better hierarchy, faster comprehension, and clearer momentum once players got in.
Sign-up was paired with an immediate onboarding reward. Progress and milestones made short sessions feel worthwhile. Leaderboards were designed to create motivation without alienating more casual players. The result was a campaign experience that felt easier to enter, easier to understand, and more rewarding to return to.
What I'd Change
The project delivered strong scale and reuse, but the measurement story could have been sharper. If I were revisiting it, I would define stronger success metrics earlier so the impact of onboarding, reward clarity, and progression decisions could be tied more directly to outcomes.
I would also explore whether segmented entry experiences for different player states could improve activation further without creating unnecessary product complexity.
What I Discovered
Global Scale Changes Design Priorities
Working at Epic's scale taught me that design decisions I'd normally consider minor, like information hierarchy and visual feedback, become critical when multiplied across hundreds of thousands of users and multiple markets.
User Research Drives Technical Decisions
Understanding different player motivations directly influenced technical architecture choices, proving that user insights should shape system design, not just interface design.
Cross-Functional Collaboration Amplifies Impact
The campaign's success came from tight collaboration between design, development, and Epic's product team. Design thinking became most powerful when it informed engineering decisions from the start.
This project shifted my approach from designing interfaces to designing systems. At global scale, the connections between components matter as much as the components themselves.