HI, I'M CARYN VAINIO.

I’ve worked in all kinds of team configurations in my ten years (so far) in the game industry, so I thought I’d talk a little bit about what I’ve experienced as a game UI/UX designer from two different perspectives: that of the embedded designer, and that of the “client services” designer. Both styles of working have their pros and cons. Read more →

I’ve been following with interest the discussion among non-game-industry UX designers that “UX is not UI,” and finding that the evolution of UX from UI within the game industry has created a unique type of UX designer that really does seem heavily tied into UI design. Read more →

A huge portion of my UI/UX design time is spent in the sketching phase. I don’t rely completely on stencils, but when I need one I like having it. The other day I realized that, for a long time, I’d been doing something that I wish I had a stencil for. I was sure such a stencil existed, but I did a Google search, asked around on Twitter, and turned up absolutely nothing. Completely surprised by this, I decided that it’s not hard to make my own — after all, I’d done it for quilting way back in the day, when I was into that sort of thing. Read more →

I use both Twitter and Facebook, but in very different ways, and I get very different user experiences out of both of them. My Facebook friends list is very highly curated; although I sometimes feel bad about it, I have … Read more →

I love prototyping, and I love the Paper app for my iPad. Here’s a short presentation on prototyping, done with Paper. Read more →

In order to for us to avoid wasting valuable engineering time, it’s almost vital that much of my work gets thrown away. It’s better to test out ideas and waste only a day of my time than it is to waste several days of several people’s time, only to discover the idea didn’t work. Read more →

If you’re a game developer, into which house does your company’s Sorting Hat put your UI team members? Art, Design, or Engineering? Read more →

UXMatters recently posted a great article called “Quieting the Outcry over Software User Interface Redesigns.” It touches on something we’ve probably all experienced on sites like Facebook: the moment there’s any significant redesign of the site, half of our feed … Read more →

Yesterday, we talked about how to get experience you’ll need to build good game UI; today I’m going to tell you about my own path into a career in game UI design and then give you a few resources to … Read more →

Yesterday we continued our series and discussed the tools that game UI designers and artists use. Today, let’s talk about how to get experience when you’re outside the industry and interested in getting in. Read more →