Jagex Publishing Vision

Key Results

High-fidelity vision prototype created and validated with users
85% of testers preferred social features over community content
Positive brand perception
Executive stakeholder buy-in achieved

Context

After delivering the Jagex Portfolio milestone, I was asked to create a "North Star" UX vision for the Publishing Platform's long-term future—a concept prototype to gain executive buy-in and strategic alignment. The vision: Transform Jagex from single-publisher to multi-game platform—enabling external developers to publish while giving players a unified experience to manage games, connect socially, and influence development.

The Challenge

Design without clear constraints, defining user journeys and patterns from scratch. Balance player needs for intuitiveness and social connection with game owner needs for flexibility, analytics, and self-service. Deliver vision prototype within 3 months compressing typical research and iteration cycles.

Research

Before designing anything, I facilitated discovery workshops with internal stakeholders to establish vision scope and priorities.

Key Questions We Answered

What's the 3-5 year vision? Multi-game platform with 10+ external titles
Who are primary users? Existing Jagex players and indie game developers
What's non-negotiable? Social features and self-service game enrollment
What's "nice to have"? Community content curation, creator partnerships

Critical Insight

Stakeholders couldn't agree whether social features or community content mattered more to players. This became our primary research question for user testing.

Personas

Working closely with Publishing Platform leadership, we defined two key personas drawing insights from previous research, survey data, and community insights:

Ava

Player

"I want a game that evolves with me and a community I can be part of"

Plays regularly across multiple Jagex titles and platforms
Seeks immersive gameplay and a sense of progression
Values community, social features, and shared achievements

Leo

Game Owner

"I want to launch and grow my game without needing a massive team"

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

I mapped flows for key user journeys across both personas: game discovery and purchase, library management, social connections, community participation, game enrollment, build deployment, analytics dashboard, and revenue tracking.

New player flow through the platform

Key Decision

Player and game owner experiences completely separate. This prevented cognitive overload and allowed each experience to be optimized for its audience.

Design

Working with our external agency partner, I provided initial research, wireframes, and creative direction for three core experiences:

Landing Page (first impression for new visitors)
Game Library (player hub with social features)
Developer Portal (game owner tools for enrollment and management)

Design Principles

Familiar patterns: Feel like Steam/Epic but with Jagex personality
Social-first: Friends and activity embedded everywhere, not hidden in separate tab
Self-service: Game owners complete all tasks without contacting support
Premium perception: Visual quality matching AAA platforms

Final Designs

We transitioned to high-fidelity prototyping, visualizing how the platform could scale into a modern, feature-rich game distribution platform. In parallel, I expanded the Jagex Design System with new patterns and components reusable for future projects.

Final design of the platform vision landing page

Product Features

Community Roadmap — Interactive roadmap enabling players to see development and vote on features, building trust through transparency
Live Content Feed — Curated hub showcasing livestreams, developer updates, and creator videos on homepage for maximum engagement
Social Layer — Friends list, activity feed, and one-click party invite embedded across platform, not separate tab
Game Enrollment — Streamlined self-service workflow for game owners with clear submission checklist and real-time validation
Game Dashboard — Live dashboard showing trends over time for active players, retention, revenue, and player feedback

Critical Finding

When asked to choose between rich community content without social features or robust social features with minimal community content, 85% chose social features. Their reasoning: "I can get news anywhere. I can't get my friends list integrated everywhere."

This insight fundamentally shifted design priorities — social features became non-negotiable foundation; community content became secondary enhancement.

Impact

Research Validation

85% social preference: Players prioritize friend connections over curated content
100% task completion: Navigation and information architecture validated as intuitive
72% roadmap voting interest: Transparent development increases player loyalty
Strong brand perception: Prototype elevated Jagex to Steam/Epic level quality
80% purchase confidence: Would buy games on this platform

Strategic Influence

Social features accelerated in Jagex Portfolio and Launcher based on 85% finding
Design quality bar raised with vision prototype as aspiration for all platform work
Player voice validated influencing future community engagement strategy
Vision alignment achieved becoming shared reference point for "premium platform experience"

The Strategic Pivot

The Publishing Vision prototype successfully validated player preferences and gained executive buy-in, but was never implemented.

Jagex made a strategic decision in July 2024 to pivot away from third-party publishing, focusing instead on owned-IP games. While the vision wasn't realized, the research insights and design patterns influenced future platform decisions.

Social Preference Finding

This became the most valuable insight from the project, directly informing Jagex Portfolio prioritization, future launcher development, and Community team strategy.

Reflections

Vision Work Has Many Values

I thought vision projects only succeed if implemented. I learned vision work creates strategic alignment, actionable insights, design patterns, and raises aspirations.

The Publishing Vision succeeded by clarifying priorities and influencing future decisions — even though the platform didn't ship.

Prototype Fidelity Drives Decisions

Executive stakeholders struggled to evaluate vision from wireframes. When we presented a high-fidelity interactive prototype, buy-in was immediate — they could experience the vision rather than imagine it.

For high-stakes strategic projects, I now allocate 30-40% of time to prototype polish.

Clear Findings Beat Vague Insights

The 85% social preference insight influenced platform decisions for years ahead.

I now design research to surface clear, binary insights — forcing prioritization questions, quantifying preferences, and making findings immediately actionable.

Read the full story

See how I validated the 85% social preference finding, gained executive buy-in, and influenced future platform strategy.