My Roles // Design Lead, Deck Builder, Wireframer, Politician
In the beginning, Battle.net was a small, bespoke application serving a few key franchises. Over time, the catalog grew and put strain on the user experience. Unfortunately, the engineering effort to make improvements in this area was deceivingly large (due to a variety of factors, not the least of which was, "Well, it wasn't built for that!) As a result, leadership often bypassed usability enhancements in deference to projects with short term revenue gains.
Enter Microsoft.
Following the acquisition, Battle.net was tasked with onboarding several new games at a pace we hadn't yet experienced. We were facing a world in which our catalog could grow 2-3x within a few years. User experience hurdles that were once forgivable were no longer viable. In order to demonstrate the importance of this work, I led a design workshop to identify problems and recommendations. I created the following presentation as an output of that workshop and presented it to stakeholders in an attempt to earn roadmap time for this initiative. The slides are intentionally void of visual design to focus the audience's attention and feedback on strategy and experience.
Outcome
As of winter 2026:
• at least three recommendations are in production,
• two are in development,
• one has been tested in beta, and
• two are in discovery/design.
• at least three recommendations are in production,
• two are in development,
• one has been tested in beta, and
• two are in discovery/design.
In Production
These improvements are in production today!
Friends list mini-profile gives a player quick access to frequently used actions.
Friends list right click utility.
"Search games" functionality and game tile right click utility
In Development
Here are a few of the features that are in development as of winter 2026.
"Quick Launch" module and "Launch Into" dropdown give the player surface level access to Game Modes. This was tested in Beta and is undergoing edits based on feedback and data.
By moving "Quick Links" to the top-right, we are able to give more emphasis to game related art, content, and notifications within the left rail play panel.
In Discovery
We went on a side quest to resolve Battle.net navigation holistically. It is a cross-team effort involving involving four separate teams, each with their own roadmap and priorities. The details of this work can be found here.
A few wireframes outlining major navigation shifts.
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