Pax Dei
Collaborated with Mainframe Industries to design an accessible traversal system for their sandbox MMO, Pax Dei, aimed at enhancing gameplay for blind players.
1. Project Overview
Brief introduction: Collaborated with Mainframe Industries to improve traversal accessibility in their sandbox MMO, Pax Dei, making it more inclusive for blind players.
My role: Project Manager, UX research, conducted playtesting and interviews, and developed iterative prototypes.
Key objective: Ensure blind players can navigate the world intuitively through effective audio cues and UI design.
2. My Role & Responsibilities
Research Coordination: Designed and executed UX studies to test accessibility solutions.
Prototyping & Testing: Developed and iterated audio-based navigation features with feedback from blind users.
Stakeholder Communication: Collaborated with accessibility consultant Brandon Cole and worked closely with Mainframe's Lead UX Designer Jasmin Dahncke.
3. Research & Design Process
Step 1: Research & Insights
Benchmarked games with strong blind accessibility features (The Last of Us 2, Sea of Thieves).
Conducted playtests, interviews, and sentiment surveys with blind players to identify key pain points.
Step 2: Concept Development
Created six initial accessibility concepts, including interactive maps and audio narration.
Refined ideas through expert consultation and early testing.
Step 3: Prototyping & Testing
Developed audio prototypes to guide blind players through waypoints and spatial awareness cues.
Conducted multiple test sessions, iterating designs based on user feedback.
Want to read a more in-detail description about this step, with findings and changes between iterations? You can find it in the toggle heading below.
Optional: More research & design details (click to expand)
1. DEFINING THE PROBLEM
The Brief
Our challenge was to design a solution for Mainframe Industries to make the traversal system in their sandbox MMO more accessible and enjoyable for totally blind individuals.
Target Group
Totally blind gamers.
Collaboration
We frequently updated Mainframes Lead UX Designer Jasmin Dahncke on our progress, and she provided us with insights. Mainframe also put us in contact with the accessibility consultant Brandon Cole, who we worked with closely during the project.
2. RESEARCH
We defined our top research goals:
How does a blind gamer play now?
How do other games implement accessibility well?
What was an accessibility design that failed in other games?
Playtest
We played the game to understand the flow, the feeling, and their user journey.
Benchmarking
During one of our first meetings we were assigned 3 game titles that had received praise for their accessibility settings.
We played these games in order to understand what was good, and what was bad.
Accessibility Consultant
We discussed our benchmark findings and questions with the accessibility consultant before our interviews and surveys.
Interviews & surveys
Before we could design any solutions we had to understand the main challenges that blind gamers face when they play.
We interviewed our target audience, and sent out surveys which helped us understand the challenges better.
3. CONCEPT
Concept sketches
Each team member created a concept that would fulfill the brief. We then voted on the top solutions to iterate on during the prototyping.
Player journey & Storyboard
We created a storyboard for the prototype and test flow for the player tests. This helped us create a better first test session.
Concepts
During our concept workshop we identified the top concepts:
Interactive Map
Navigation Assistance
Resource Tracking (Audio Cue Toggle)
Audio Narration
Audio Cues + Audio Glossary
Item Scan
Accessibility Consultant
We discussed our ideas with the accessibility consultant before moving on to prototyping, and he approved all the concepts. He also explained more in detail how he would prefer the navigation assistance and map to work.
4. PROTOTYPING & TESTING
We created an audio prototype which we iterated on, based on feedback from the player test sessions.
Due to technical issues with Adobe XD prototype sharing, we had to quickly adapt our test sessions. We realized that the button keybinds didn't work well in the browser, and that the testers needed to sign in to an adobe account in order to hear the audio. This forced us to improvise, and we solved it by pretending that the players used voice control and letting them tell us which buttons to press during the test session. This also gave us an opportunity to gather data regarding their preferred buttons for each interaction.
Version 1 top insights
All the testers liked the interactive map, and loved the audio narration descriptions. Most could easily navigate both the menu and the environment, but we identified the key problems to fix in the next iteration:
40% of the users had trouble with setting Home as a waypoint
40% of the users had trouble understanding some audio cues
40% of the users wished the list would tell you how many items are in it
40% of the users wanted the map to immediately tell them their location when opened
Version 2 top insights
The navigation worked much better during this version. Each tester completed the scenarios significantly faster than last time. We also gained insight into some details that could be made even better:
60% of the players struggled with finding information about resources in their current location
It wasn't clear to some players that "current location" was a menu
We realized that some audio cues were too similar
Summary of tests
Overall, the players were engaged, excited, and positive about the prototype! The interactive map and audio narration descriptions were especially well liked, and several mentioned that they were excited to play the game in the future.
As with all players, each has specific preferences. As such, it is important that the accessibility features are customizable and optional.
4. Outcomes & Impact
Final improvements enhanced the game’s navigation and accessibility for blind players.
Positive feedback from Mainframe Industries, recognizing the research's impact on inclusive game design.
Jasmin Dahncke has given several talks on about our work
We share all resources below to allow other devs to use it
"Their problem solving skills, organization and teamwork was truly inspiring. The process used by the team was an almost flawless execution of the design thinking framework.
They have provided us with plenty of useful material that will help to create a better product in terms of accessibility and additionally they might have laid the groundwork to enable blind gamers to navigate in sandbox games, which would be an industry first."
- Jasmin Dahncke, Lead UX Designer, and Sulka Haro, Design Director, at Mainframe Industries
"They really did an amazing job with this. They're way ahead of the vast majority of developers I've worked with when it comes to having a mindset for accessibility in games"
‒ Game Designer at Mainframe
"Gotta admit, I was so impressed with their work that I wanted to start pushing this stuff even more in our project. (...) this made me realize how we need to rewire people's thinking if we want to do this properly and not as an afterthought"
‒ Combat Lead at Mainframe
5. Key Learnings
Preparation is Crucial: Dry runs of tests improve research efficiency.
Adaptability is needed: Don't stick with something that clearly doesn't work, instead adapt and change the scenarios between tests if needed.
Clear Communication Matters: Using accessible language improves understanding across diverse teams.
Customization is Key: Players need adjustable accessibility features for different needs, and we need to test them on the target audience.
Resources
Please use these resources freely!