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Summary: 52% of mobile games are uninstalled within 30 days of being downloaded – and gaming is the second most-uninstalled app type across various devices. It’s never been more important to create mobile games with user experience at the forefront of mind throughout development – and UI can play a huge role in ensuring players are satisfied, entertained and interested. From accessibility and controls, to information display, playstyles and hand positioning; there’s a huge range of things to be considered when developing games for mobile.


Mobile gaming: the convenient, portable, accessible and affordable way for many people to find their new favourite game. This growing market has been on a steady rise over the last decade – reaching its peak in the pandemic – and is expected to grow by 6.39% by 2027 to command almost a quarter of global gamers.

No wonder, then, that game developers are looking at effective ways to bring their next title to mobile and secure new fans for their franchises. With over 700,000 mobile games to choose from (according to research from Udonis about the mobile market), and 81% of mobile game developers working on new titles (thanks to Sandsoft for this info) to meet player demand – how can game developers create effective mobile games to engage and entertain players, and to win and maintain their attention in this hugely popular market.

One way is through effective UI/UX. Last year, the team of porting pros at Lab42 documented some of the challenges developers can face when porting to various platforms, and for mobile the top challenge is the breadth of devices on offer – all with varying specs and screen size – and that adapting the UI well is fundamental to offering a good mobile gaming experience.

Someone who knows all about the complexities of designing UI for mobile game development is Anett Jaschke – Lead UI/UX Artist at Atomhawk Advance. Here, she discusses common challenges of creating good UI/UX on mobile, techniques to overcome them and highlight the fundamentals of UI for mobile games.

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF EFFECTIVE UI/UX DESIGN FOR MOBILE

A 2023 Statista report revealed that mobile games on Android devices are the second most uninstalled on mobile and tablet devices – with 52% of Google Play’s almost 250,000 mobile games getting uninstalled by users within 30 days of their download.

Whilst the precise reason for this isn’t revealed, it’s not hard to imagine that a huge contributing factor to the removal of mobile gaming apps from our devices is down to complicated, frustrating and clunky player experiences.

UI plays a big role in ensuring gameplay experiences are delivered to players in a clear and concise way that enables them to receive information easily, understand what’s required of them and enjoy their time playing. When it comes to mobile game development, UI designers are working in a smaller arena with limited space for information, menus, options and more.

Here, I share some of the fundamentals of UI/UX design for mobile games:

Sizing: With any mobile or tablet device, you can guarantee that you’re going to be working with a limited space. Compared to their PC or console counterparts, mobile games need to offer the player all the relevant information they need and have on-screen controls available for them. In the November 2024 Steam Hardware survey, it was revealed that almost 56% of PC gamers play on a 16:9 screen compared to just 11% of mobile gamers. This statistic proves it’s no longer enough to just take your existing UI and apply it to mobile – you have to consider all device sizes including 20:9 to, 4:3, and within these there is no dominant aspect ratio to design to.

Environment: Whilst players of PC or console games are likely carving out dedicated time to pick up their favourite game and play, this isn’t necessarily true for mobile. The majority of mobile games are played in shorter sessions – averaging between 4-5 minutes per session, and the player might be most likely to pick up a mobile game during a commute, waiting to meet someone, in the bathroom or in-between interactions. These environments are sub-optimal for full focus and attention, and UI/UX designers must consider ways to immediately capture and convey all relevant and important information to a player so it’s easy for them to digest and understand. They don’t want to miss a crucial instruction or task as they’re stepping off the bus or saying thank you to the barista.

An image featuring a quote in red text. Reads: Accessibility is not a feature, it’s a given standard that all game developers should endeavour to follow and support.

Controls: Whilst there are ways for mobile players to utilise external hardware as a means to control the on-screen action, it’s a very small percentage who utilise them during every play session. As a result, all controls for the game must be present on-screen in a way that is easy to understand, navigate and doesn’t distract from the action at hand. Outside of clear design and reasonable sizing, functionality of these controls has to be accurate and responsive to ensure players are getting precision in their play. It’s vital to offer a good touch target size, meaning the size of an element on-screen that has to be interacted with and how much tolerance that element has to be tapped by the player. Providing players with this buffer for on-screen elements means that they’re more likely to be successful with their tapping, and won’t end up getting frustrated. Equally, having padding between elements means that no interactive elements should ever be touching and the player will never touch something else by mistake. Especially for players on-the-go, it can be hard to find, select and interact with a small in-game element with 100% accuracy.

Accessibility: All game developers can be doing more to ensure that accessibility is deeply rooted within their games, and I feel that mobile is the platform with the most work still to do. Some things to consider when creating UI/UX for mobile game, include:

• DO: Introduce colour-blind and high contrast options.

• DO: Offer a clear hierarchy of information and have subtitles available.

• DO: Offer interface scaling and create layout customisation presets.

• DO: Implement screen-reader support and make dialogue history available.

• DO: Have options for control sensitivity, dyslexia font options, toggle options for haptics and have the option to undo a recent choice.

• DON’T: Use ALL CAPS in your body copy.

• DON’T: Have your text advance automatically.

• DON’T: Convey important information just through colour.

Accessibility is not a feature, it’s a given standard that all game developers should endeavour to follow and support wherever they can.

Legible Text: As discussed, distracted players form a huge percentage of mobile gamers and they need to be able to access important information clearly and concisely. The most efficient way to deliver information is via text, so when selecting a font for your game, ensure it’s a solid font that works in multiple colours and sizes. The body copy should sit at around 15/17pts, and small captions shouldn’t drop below 12pts.

Localisation: It’s expected that the number of mobile gamers globally by 2027 will sit at around 1.9bn – that’s a lot of languages for developers to be considering. Throughout development of your game, you should be thinking about how your text will translate into other languages, how word length might alter, what special characters might come into play and does your font support them? A great way to do this is pseudolocalization – a software testing method that will tell you how your text might appear in other languages. Using this throughout development will save you from potential issues like clipping of words, unrecognisable text or cut-off phrasing. Engines like Unity have this feature built-in and it’s a great way to ensure your gaming experience offers parity to all who play it.

Hands: As the main input method for mobile games, hands are a vital consideration when developing UI/UX for mobile games. Every single person holds and interacts with their phone in a different way: whether you’re a one-hand wizard, a two-hand cradler or a single-finger tapper, the way you use your mobile phone or tablet will impact the way it plays for you. One of the biggest challenges facing the mobile gaming industry is the ability to play games both horizontally and vertically depending on player preference. Developing games that work for both is a huge budgetary, time and skill-set commitment but can prove worthwhile if done correctly. Marie Jasmine at Bethesda delivered a great talk at GDC in 2019 which explored how the team designed The Elder Scrolls: Blades for both vertical and landscape orientations, and listed the benefits for the players, including accessibility, mobility, convenience, play styles. The result was that this customised approach allowed players to play their way wherever and whenever it suited them, and that they were spending more time playing the game because of this added convenience.

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Feedback: Busy and distracted players are also likely to be some of the most impatient. Mobile game developers need to send signals to players to confirm to them that an action has been recognised – whether it’s visual, auditory or physical, mobile technology offers plenty of ways to offer instant, valuable and recognisable feedback to players. These include:

• Visual: UI animations and transitions are great ways to send an instant signal to a player that an input has been recognised and the game is responding. Finding a clear and sensible animation is a good way to tell a player that something is happening or will happen, and won’t result in them continuously tapping the input to try and get a response.

• Audio: Despite it being reported by Tap Research that only 8% of mobile gamers play with audio, it’s important to cater to everyone. Creating clear and distinctive audio cues that convey a message to the player is another good way to offer them feedback. It must be distinctive enough from the soundtrack/scape that they recognise it, and I’d recommend having sounds that fall into the conventions of the world: positive and high-pitched for a good action, negative and sharp for an error or mistake.

• Physical: In my opinion, Haptic Feedback for mobile games is vastly under-utilised and is one of the most effective ways to send a message to your players. Haptic feedback refers to a physical sensation in response to something within the game/programme/app that directly correlates to a visual cue on screen. Think about the Duolingo Owl jumping for joy when you get a question right, and your phone vibrating in your hand to emphasise the point. It should always be used as an accompaniment to a visual or auditory event on-screen, but can be a great way to further engage your players.

On-Device Testing: There is absolutely no substitute for testing your game on its intended devices. Most game developers are designing in a 16:9 aspect ratio and without physically holding a range of devices in their hands to understand how it scales, moves, plays and responds to human touch, you cannot get a true read on the effectiveness of your UI.

WHAT PC AND CONSOLE CAN LEARN FROM MOBILE GAME DEVELOPMENT

In my career, I’ve designed UI for a range of games on a myriad of platforms, and have found that there are actually huge strengths to be found in developing for mobile that are not present in a lot of PC and console games.

Here are the top five things I think PC and console could learn from mobile UI design:

Playfulness: In my opinion, I think mobile developers have a lot of fun with their UI/UX while maintaining its effectiveness. PC and Console operates at different budgets and to expectations, and I think sometimes a lot of the creativity and personality of the design gets flattened during development. Some of my favourite UI in mobile games include AFK Arena and Bricky Boy.

Data Awareness: PC and console players seldom have to worry about storage space – with more-than-sufficient built-in storage available and the accessibility and ease of external hardware, PC and console games are able to balloon in size without consequence. Remember earlier when we said that mobile games are the 2nd most likely to be deleted from a device? Storage can play a huge role in this. Mobile game developers do a great job of keeping the quality of their games whilst optimising for smaller spaces.

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Onboarding: Most mobile games don’t expect that you have ever played a mobile game before, and offer comprehensive instructions and tutorials on how to use the controls, what to do next and how to progress. The First-Time User Experience for mobile is strong without being overwhelming, and it’s a great way to hook players in from day one.

Uncomplicated controls: Having only on-screen controls and your thumbs to work with means mobile games often have simple to understand controls that don’t overburden players with sequences or combinations. I love getting to play a really satisfying combo of inputs in games, but sometimes it’s nice to just dial it down and get back to basics.

Reduce cognitive load: What are games if not a way to unwind? As mobile games are most often being played in busy, loud and distracting environments on a small screen and with limited input, they are often easier to play than their PC or console counterparts. As tech, needs and life evolves around the development of games, it’s important to remember that ultimately games need to be satisfying, easy and – most importantly – fun to play.

THE FUTURE OF MOBILE GAME DESIGN

In a world of ever-evolving technology, changing player habits, games expanding their horizons and audiences through multi-platform development – the future of mobile game design is an exciting, daunting and interesting prospect. Here are some of my predictions for mobile game design in the future:

Powerful Technology: When the iPhone 15 Pro was revealed in Autumn 2023, its A17 Pro chipset, high refresh rate display, advanced graphics and hardware-accelerated ray tracing marked it as the future of mobile gaming technology. Unveiled with it were AAA games including Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Death Stranding, Resident Evil and more. Having a device in your pocket with the capability to play some of the biggest, most visually stunning and powerful games on the market is absolutely going to change the way people consume games. Nowadays, mobiles can compete with the processing power of a PC and some home consoles. We’ve moved on from simple-input tapper games, and mobile is the new arena for audiences to engage with AAA gaming.

Immersive Gaming: What if you could make progress in your favourite game on-the-go without having to carry around your console or PC? Well, you’re probably going to be able to in the not-so-distant future. Final Fantasy XIV released a companion app which enabled players to keep their gameplay alive when away from their console – granting players bonuses, giving them small tasks to take part in and access to a marketplace. I would love to see more games take on this approach in the future and give players new ways to engage with their favourite games.

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Competitive Gaming: In recent years, there’s been a huge increase in hardcore mobile gaming. Games like Mobile Legends: Bang Bang are storming the market for competitive mobile gaming – clocking over 530 million viewer hours in 2023, with other titles including PUBG Mobile and Arena of Valor & Honour of Kings both having over 100 million hours viewed. Through a combination of improving technology and hardware and a greater player-base maturity, mobile games are no longer just focussed on hyper-casual titles.

New Devices: First introduced in 1996 and popularised in the 2000s, flip phones were the ultimate trend before the introduction of the smartphone. Whilst it’s yet to be confirmed by Apple, the internet is packed with rumours that they are working on a rival to the Galaxy Z Flip with the iPhone Flip – bringing back this seemingly retro trend for modern audiences. While I do not think they will become the most popular device, I do think their screen design will present new challenges for UI/UX designers: how do we use both screens to their greatest potential? Can we utilise the outer screen for more casual experiences?


For many people, their first introduction to the world of video games is likely to be through mobile and tablet devices. Their gameplay loops, delivery of new content and upfront cost makes them one of the most accessible ways to pick up and play a new game.

As the mobile gaming industry continues to grow and players’ expectations increase along with it, it’s important to remember that games are for everyone and regardless of the device people play on, they deserve to have the very best experience. Whether you’re developing a game from the ground-up to be played on mobile, or porting a popular title to the platform, UI/UX is just one way you can offer players a satisfying, enjoyable and accessible experience.


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15th January 2025 Working in Games

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