SOLUX

Designing for Yahtzee with Buddies

Timeframe

2 years

Position

Solo UX/UI

Date

2023-2024

What is it?

SOLUX was the internal name for a multi-year initiative to redesign the social and family experience in Yahtzee With Buddies.


The goal was to improve how players discover games, interact with their families, and stay engaged over time, while balancing player trust, business goals, and a live-service game environment.


The work spanned multiple phases, leadership changes, and shifting priorities, requiring repeated reframing of both the problem and the solution.

My Role & Team Model

I was the UX owner for the social and family experience, working within long-standing cross-functional pods made up of UX, game design, engineering, art, and a project manager.

Unlike project-based teams, pods stayed together across initiatives. Each pod owned a specific area of the product end-to-end. I was assigned to social and families due to my background in psychology and research-driven design.

UX was involved from problem framing through delivery. I partnered closely with game design and PM during ideation, presented proposals to stakeholders, led research and testing, and supported implementation through development and QA.

How We Worked

Our process followed a consistent loop:


  • Business direction came from PM

  • UX and game design reframed the problem and explored solutions

  • We presented early concepts, impact estimates, and tradeoffs to stakeholders

  • Design progressed with bi-weekly reviews and research validation

  • Art and engineering were looped in early for feasibility and cost

  • UX stayed engaged through development to resolve edge cases


In parallel, we worked on internal initiatives such as design systems, UX guidelines, and research operations to improve long-term velocity.

SOLUX: Multi-Phase Evolution (Summary)



Phase 1: Social Lobby Redesign (Paused)


Goal: Simplify the social lobby and better surface games and family interactions.

Challenge: Mid-project leadership changes shifted priorities toward faster, measurable wins.

Outcome: Design was well underway but paused before launch.



Phase 2: Road Trip Meta (Shipped & Validated)


Goal: Create a shared progression system that tied all social games together and encouraged families to play as a unit over time.

Challenge: Balancing stakeholder skepticism with player motivation and long-term engagement.

Outcome: Road Trip shipped successfully, increasing DAU, retention, and family engagement.



Phase 3: SOLUX Lite (Shipped Under Constraint)


Goal: Redesign the social lobby again, this time centering Road Trip while preserving core player behaviors.

Challenge: Scope reduced from ~6–7 sprints to 2, with pressure to prioritize metrics over familiarity.
Outcome: SOLUX Lite launched with Road Trip as the anchor, improving clarity and engagement while keeping social systems intact.

Phase 1: Social Lobby Redesign

SOLUX began as an initiative to redesign the social lobby in Yahtzee With Buddies. The existing experience was fragmented across multiple screens, making it hard for players to understand where to play, how to engage socially, and what mattered most in the family experience.


At the time, the business goal was clear:

  • Simplify the social experience

  • Surface games more effectively

  • Strengthen family chat

  • Encourage gameplay through clearer direction

Challenge

We were asked to improve clarity and engagement without adding complexity. Early constraints included:

  • A legacy UI with multiple competing entry points

  • Strong player attachment to existing social features

  • Pressure to show quick wins amid leadership changes

Product Decisions

We reduced the lobby from three screens into a single, more legible surface, re-prioritized core actions, and clarified social hierarchy.
We validated concepts through internal reviews and early player testing, aligning usability improvements with business KPIs.



Outcome

The redesign tested well, but before full rollout the project was paused due to a shift in leadership priorities. While unfinished, this phase established:


  • A shared understanding of player social behavior

  • A foundation for future social systems

  • Trust in the pod model and our working rhythm


Phase 2: Road Trip Meta
Following deprioritization of the lobby redesign, the team was asked to focus on a smaller, high-impact initiative: creating a new social meta that could unify family gameplay across multiple modes.

Meta (in gaming): A system that sits above individual games, giving players long-term goals, progression, and shared meaning beyond single matches.


Challenge

Families played together, but progress reset every few days. Social pressure and collaboration were limited because:

  • Points were tied to short matches

  • Players had to play specific games to contribute

  • Engagement dropped between cycles

  • No UX/UI changes to the family lobby


Stakeholders were skeptical that a longer, shared progression would work.


Insight to Interface

I proposed Road Trip as a metaphor for collective family progress. The idea was simple:

  • Any game contributes to shared goals

  • Progress persists over time

  • Rewards motivate daily return and collaboration

We tested reward pacing, challenge duration, and contribution mechanics extensively. The key insight was psychological: social pressure increases when contribution is flexible, not restrictive.

Outcome

Road Trip shipped and exceeded expectations:

  • Increased daily engagement

  • Higher family participation

  • Stronger long-term retention

Its success reframed how leadership viewed social features.

Phase 3: SOLUX Lite

After Road Trip’s success, leadership revisited the social lobby. However:

  • Scope was reduced from ~6–7 sprints to 2 sprints

  • Road Trip was mandated as the center of the family experience

  • There were active discussions about cutting family features entirely

Challenge

Research showed players primarily valued:

  • Family games

  • Family chat

Road Trip was still new. Replacing the familiar “family living room” with a meta system felt risky and potentially alienating.

At the same time, business metrics showed Road Trip driving DAU, retention, and engagement.
Core problem: What motivates players to want to support family progression?

Design Decisions

This phase required balancing player trust with business reality.

I led a rapid redesign that:

  • Made Road Trip the structural anchor

  • Preserved fast access to games and chat

  • Simplified the experience into a “SOLUX Lite” version

We paired the redesign with clear in-game communication and framing to help players acclimate.


Outcome

While some players initially resisted the change, adoption stabilized. Key results:

  • Family progression with any gameplay

  • Improved clarity of the social area

  • Continued growth in Road Trip engagement

  • Family features remained intact during a period when they were at risk of removal

  • Attetion given to family chat, gameplay CTA and meta (as per stakeholder request)

Key Learnings
SOLUX demonstrates how UX can operate as a strategic function in live-service products. Across multiple iterations, I balanced player trust, business goals, and delivery constraints while adapting to leadership changes and shifting priorities.

The work highlights my ability to:

  • Navigate ambiguity and changing direction without losing product coherence

  • Partner deeply with cross-functional teams over long time horizons

  • Use research and systems thinking to defend player-centered decisions

  • Find middle ground between metrics-driven leadership and long-term engagement


Most importantly, SOLUX shows how design can evolve without erasing what players value, even under extreme constraint.

What I shipped

Thank you