Jagex Portfolio
Unifying the platform experience
Key Results
- Enabled support for third party games
- Community praised as "best looking front end for our games"
- Reduced onboarding friction through unified flows
- Created scalable PoS template for future games
- Enabled Publishing Vision multi-game expansion
Context
As Lead UX Designer at Jagex, I created Jagex Portfolio — a unified platform experience enabling players to discover, purchase, and play all Jagex games seamlessly while empowering game owners to self-manage titles. The project modernized Jagex's outdated Publishing Platform to support third-party game releases, starting with Melvor Idle, an indie game acquired by Jagex.
The Challenge
Build a scalable platform architecture while navigating legacy system constraints and tight timelines. No consistent way to sell or present paid games existed, players entered through inconsistent flows causing confusion and drop-off, and legacy system constraints required phased delivery.
Research
We conducted competitor analysis understanding how platforms like Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG Galaxy, and Battle.net enabled players to discover, purchase, and play games.
Key Insights
- Unified library is table stakes: Players expect all games in one place with seamless switching
- Contextual marketing works: Personalized promotions outperform generic banners
- Social features drive retention: Friends lists, activity feeds, achievements keep players engaged
- Clear information hierarchy critical: Game title → key info → call-to-action must be obvious
Workshops: Aligning Stakeholders
I facilitated collaborative planning sessions with Publishing Platform, Marketing, and Technical stakeholders defining core requirements, flows, and prioritizing features.
Critical Output: Consensus on phased delivery approach—start with core player experience, then add game owner self-service tools in Phase 2.
Personas
Working closely with Publishing Platform leadership, we defined two key personas focusing design — Player and Game Owner, drawing insights from previous research, survey data, and community feedback.
- Plays regularly across multiple Jagex titles and platforms
- Seeks immersive gameplay and a sense of progression
- Values community, social features, and shared achievements
- Solo dev or small studio building live service games
- Needs self-service publishing, storefronts, and analytics
- Values platform tools that reduce time spent on ops
User Flows
After workshops and feature mapping, I drafted key journeys covering different platform entry points—marketing, social ads, Launcher, direct links — identifying potential friction points and streamlining onboarding.
The new player, existing player and purchase flows
Key Finding
Most friction occurred at account creation step for new players — too many form fields, unclear value proposition. Simplified to minimal fields with clear signposting.
Design
After workshops and user flow mapping, I moved to early concepting — sketching low-fidelity wireframes exploring structure and interaction across core experiences including landing view, game PoS, game library, and developer portal.
Early wireframe of the Game Library view
Design Principle
Keep it familiar — players already know Steam/Epic patterns. Don't reinvent the wheel; focus energy on Jagex-specific features like character management and multi-game progression.
Final Designs
Using the Jagex Design System, I prototyped and iterated full-fidelity experiences in Figma across mobile, desktop, and Launcher environments, validated internally and delivered as phased milestones.
Final design of the Game Library view
Product Features
- Game-Agnostic Onboarding — Dynamic onboarding with consistent pattern regardless of which game brings players in, seamless deep linking, and smart account detection
- Unified Game PoS — Modular product page template with clear pricing structure, consistent experience across platforms, and scalable architecture
- Contextual Marketing — Targeted content in Launcher based on character and account data with personalized promotions and performance tracking
- Unified Game Library — Shared library with seamless character switching, integrated account management, and personalized news feed
Testing Validation
Usability testing with 15 internal staff validated core assumptions:
- Core flows validated: All participants successfully discovered, purchased, and accessed games without assistance
- Unified library praised: Players appreciated having all games in one place
- Character switching loved: Seamless switching was standout feature
Impact
Measurable Improvements
- Improved usability and perception praised by players and Jagex teams
- Successful Melvor Idle launch as first third-party paid game on modernized platform
- Reduced onboarding friction through simplified account creation and deep linking
- Scalable foundation laid enabling Publishing Vision and future multi-game expansion
Strategic Foundation
- Publishing Vision built directly on Portfolio architecture
- Scalable game PoS enabling new games without redesign
- Contextual marketing infrastructure for personalized promotions
- Unified library pattern establishing player expectations
Community Response
Positive reception from both players and internal teams proved platform redesign delivered tangible value, not just visual polish.
Internal stakeholder praise for clearer game flows and PoS improvements that simplified internal operations.
Congratulations to the Publishing Platform teams who worked on the new version of the Game Launcher - it's a huge improvement in visual design and is honestly the best looking front end for our games I've seen. Already seeing positive reaction from the community. Very slick work guys!
Reflections
Phased Delivery
Legacy system constraints made big-bang launch impossible. I broke features into phased milestones — core library → enhanced PoS → social features — keeping delivery moving despite constraints. Players benefited from improved Launcher months earlier than waiting for complete vision.
Engineering Partnership
The product vision only succeeds when engineering is engaged as equal partner, not receiving designs but co-creating solutions. Weekly sync with Tech Lead discussing constraints early meant we collaboratively found workarounds. Engineering became advocates for design vision.
Platform Thinking
I learned to design systems that enable future products, not just solve immediate problems. Every decision asked 'Does this scale to 10+ games?' Publishing Vision directly built on Portfolio architecture, proving platform thinking paid off.
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See how I modernized the Launcher, launched Melvor Idle as first third-party game, and laid scalable platform foundations.
Jagex Project Zanaris
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