All your games, friends, and benefits in one place.

Ubisoft Connect is a multi-platform ecosystem of player services and the go-to destination for your Ubisoft games. It aims at providing the best gaming environment for players to enjoy their games and connect with each other, no matter the device.

Accessible through our desktop app, mobile companion app, and directly from your games on both PC and console, Ubisoft Connect is a free service that only requires a Ubisoft account.

Uplay & Ubisoft Club: A Fragmented User Experience

Before the advent of Ubisoft Connect, managing Ubisoft games and accessing related services involved navigating two distinct platforms: Uplay and Ubisoft Club. While each served its purpose, their separate existence created a fragmented and often confusing user experience.

Uplay: The Game Launcher and More

Launched in 2012, Uplay initially served as a digital distribution platform and game launcher, allowing players to purchase, download, and update their Ubisoft games. Over time, it evolved to incorporate social features, such as friend lists and online chat, and a rewards system that allowed players to earn points for in-game achievements.

Ubisoft Club: Expanding the Rewards System

Introduced in 2015, Ubisoft Club (formerly Uplay Club) expanded upon Uplay's rewards system, offering more ways for players to earn points and redeem them for in-game items, discounts, and exclusive content. It also provided a platform for Ubisoft to communicate with players, share news and updates, and organize community events.

The Fragmentation Problem

While both Uplay and Ubisoft Club offered valuable features, their separate existence created several challenges for users:

• Inconsistent experience: Navigating between two platforms with different interfaces and functionalities created confusion and disrupted the flow of the user experience.
  
  
• Duplication of features: Some features, such as rewards and challenges, were duplicated across both platforms, leading to redundancy and inefficiency.
  
  
• Limited cross-platform integration: Uplay and Ubisoft Club were not seamlessly integrated, hindering the ability to track progress, access rewards, and connect with friends across different devices and platforms.

This fragmentation highlighted the need for a unified platform that could seamlessly integrate all aspects of the Ubisoft gaming experience. This need led to the development of Ubisoft Connect, a new ecosystem designed to bring together games, services, and community under one roof.

Unifying Experiences: The Birth of Ubisoft Connect

In 2020, we merged Uplay, the PC client that ran our Ubisoft games back then, with the Ubisoft Club rewards system. Our goal was to provide a more consistent experience across multiple platforms, and we've created this new ecosystem to bring our players together across multiple screens and devices. This commitment to a consistent user experience is at the heart of Ubisoft Connect, the next generation of Ubisoft gaming hub, and it reflects our strong vision for the future.

At first, we released a rebranded in-game overlay in 2020 and started working on redesigning our PC client along with our mobile companion app. We released the revamped mobile companion app in 2022 summer and rolled out the new PC client beta in 2023 summer.

My Role

Together with a small multidisciplinary agile team(product owner, programmers, testers, and data analyst), I was responsible for leading the design of the new landing page for the Ubisoft Connect PC client. This involved translating our high-level feature intentions for the homepage into a user-centered design.

Our initial feature intentions for the redesigned homepage were to create an experience that was:

• Accessible: Complying with WCAG A & AA requirements to ensure inclusivity for all users.
  
  
• Content-friendly: Easily showcasing diverse content from various teams without extra effort.
  
  
• Varied: Presenting a mix of news, player activities, videos, and live streams.
  
  
• Well-balanced: Providing a good balance between news, social activities, and personalized recommendations.
  
  
• Fresh: Offering new and updated content on a daily/weekly basis.
  
  
• Interactive: Providing engaging interactions, such as detailed views, calls to action, likes, shares, and video previews.
  
  
• Practical: Offering shortcuts to social features and quick actions for players.
  
  
• Personalized: Delivering relevant content through personalization tools.
  

Guided by these intentions, I embarked on the design process.

The Limitations of Uplay's News-Centric Landing Page

One of the main challenges with the existing Uplay client was its landing page, which primarily served as a news page. It was heavily populated with news articles and promotional banners for the Ubisoft web store. This created several issues:

• Content overload: The overwhelming focus on news and promotions often overshadowed key functionalities and made it difficult for users to find what they needed.
  
  
• Missed opportunities: The newsfeed-centric design limited the potential to promote new game releases, highlight community activities, or showcase personalized recommendations.
  
  
• Limited functionality: The news page naturally lacked essential features expected of a landing page, such as quick access to games, progression overview, or social features.

Bridging the Gap: Understanding the Challenges and Defining the Solution

Having identified the limitations of Uplay's news-centric landing page, I was particularly aware of the challenges faced by the teams responsible for creating and managing its content. My previous experience as a News-Banner Designer within the Live Operation team from 2019 to 2020 provided me with valuable insights into their workflow and pain points.

The Banner Design Bottleneck

The Graphic Designers faced a significant hurdle in creating banners for the Uplay News Page due to the platform's rigid requirements:

• Multiple aspect ratios: Designers had to create banners in up to three different aspect ratios beyond the standard 16:9, necessitating extensive cropping, resizing, and adjustments. The most prominent banner slot, in particular, was excessively wide and short, resulting in significant loss of visual information during cropping.
  
  
• Text localization: Each banner included text layers created in Photoshop, which then needed to be localized into over ten different languages. This process generated a multitude of variants for each banner, significantly increasing the workload for designers.

A Streamlined Approach

To alleviate these challenges and streamline the banner creation process, I proposed a two-pronged solution:

• Standardizing image dimensions: (Most) News images would be standardized to a 16:9 aspect ratio, eliminating the need for cropping and resizing and ensuring visual consistency.
  
  
• Decoupling text from images: Instead of embedding text within Photoshop files, a dedicated CMS tool would manage text content separately. This would enable efficient updates and translations without requiring designers to create numerous variations for each banner.

Balancing New and Old

From the Live Operation team's perspective, it was crucial to retain the existing content categories within the redesigned landing page. This included:

• Promotional banners: Two slots for promotions driven by the Ubisoft Store and CRM teams.
  
  
• Featured banner carousel: A prominent carousel showcasing up to four featured banners highlighting key content selected by the Live Ops team.
  
  
• Event banners (Highlights): Banners promoting free weekends, giveaways, beta registrations, and other time-sensitive events.
  
  
• Latest news banners: Banners displaying recent news and updates.

My challenge was to create a new layout that seamlessly integrated these diverse content categories while addressing the limitations of the previous design. This process involved careful consideration of information hierarchy, visual flow, and user engagement.

By combining my understanding of the existing challenges with a user-centered design approach, I aimed to create a landing page that was not only visually appealing and informative for players but also efficient for internal users from the Live Operation team.

A New Direction: Embracing a Unified Vision

After internal reviews of the initial design mockups, our agile team responsible for the new Homepage received an email from Charles Huteau, Creative Director for Ubisoft Connect, outlining some key considerations and recommendations for the project.

Initial Feedback and the Importance of Social

Charles's email in September 2021, emphasized the following:

• Prioritizing the Homepage: The redesign of the Homepage was deemed a key priority for the future of Ubisoft Connect.
  
  
• Maintaining existing functionality: For the initial Minimum Viable Product (MVP) on PC, it was agreed to retain all existing functionalities from the previous news page ("0 loss").
  
  
• Incorporating social elements: Charles strongly recommended exploring the inclusion of social elements in future iterations, particularly leveraging the existing "Feed" functionality and its "Friends Activity" component. This suggestion stemmed from a belief that social features could add significant value to the PC experience and that a dedicated team was working to enhance the Feed's robustness and appeal.
  
  
• Ensuring cross-platform consistency: For the mobile version, Charles stressed the importance of aligning the definition of "Live Events" and "Top News" with the "What's New" highlights on PC to ensure content parity across platforms. He emphasized that users should find the same content on both platforms, despite the technical decision to separate them into different micro-apps.

A Pivotal Shift: One Micro-App, Two Platforms

Shortly after, in late September 2021, Charles announced a significant change in direction. Based on the successful implementation of the new Chat micro-app on mobile, the decision was made to consolidate the Homepage into a single micro-app for both PC and mobile, leveraging Ubisoft Connect's "Build it once, deliver it anywhere" approach.

This decision presented both opportunities and challenges:

• Enhanced consistency: A single micro-app would ensure a more consistent user experience across platforms and streamline development efforts.
  
  
• Increased visibility: The Homepage would become the "front product" of Ubisoft's main platforms, increasing its visibility and importance.
  
  
• Design collaboration: The PC and mobile design teams would need to collaborate closely to ensure the micro-app functioned effectively on both platforms.
  
  
• Roadmap adjustments: The development roadmap would require adjustments to accommodate this new approach.

This unexpected shift required a reevaluation of the design strategy. While the initial focus was on creating separate experiences tailored to PC and mobile, the new mandate demanded a more unified approach that could adapt seamlessly to both platforms. This meant carefully considering the unique constraints and opportunities of each platform while maintaining a cohesive design language and user experience.

Shifting Gears: Prioritizing the Mobile Companion App

With the decision to consolidate the Homepage into a single micro-app came a shift in priorities. The Mobile Companion App had a scheduled launch date of July 2022, pushing its development ahead of the PC client.

Taking the Reins

As fate would have it, the team originally responsible for the Mobile Companion App's homepage design was reassigned to a different project. This presented a new opportunity for our team to take ownership and finalize the mobile design before circling back to the PC client.

Adapting to Mobile Constraints

Designing for mobile presented a unique set of challenges compared to the PC client. Unlike the PC client version, the mobile app won't be able to launch games directly from the device. This meant rethinking the content and layout to cater to the mobile user's needs and context.

Key Features of the Mobile Homepage

To address the limitations of the mobile platform and provide a valuable user experience, we focused on the following features for the mobile homepage:

Friends list: Allowing users to easily connect with and see the online status of their friends.

Feed: A personalized feed showcasing player's and friends' activities, such as updates when players start a new game, redeem rewards, complete challenges, levels up, and more. 

Last played game: Providing quick access to recently played games and their associated information (e.g., progress, challenges).

By prioritizing social features and convenient access to game information, we aimed to create an engaging and functional mobile homepage.

Influencing Future Iterations

The insights gained from designing the mobile homepage proved invaluable for subsequent iterations of the PC client's homepage. A feature like Feed on mobile underscored their importance for the PC experience as well, leading to their incorporation in later versions.

Gathering User Insights: Research for the PC Homepage

While finalizing the mobile homepage design, we also initiated user research to inform the subsequent iteration of the PC homepage. This research aimed to gather insights into user preferences, behaviors, and expectations to ensure the redesigned homepage effectively addressed their needs and provided a seamless and engaging experience.

Surveys and Interviews

In early April 2022, we conducted surveys and remote interviews with a diverse group of PC players. These methods allowed us to gather both quantitative and qualitative data on various aspects of the homepage experience, including: 

• Content preferences: We explored which types of content users prioritized, how they preferred to consume information, and what they considered relevant and engaging.  
  
  
• Information architecture: We investigated how users navigated the existing homepage, what challenges they faced in finding information, and how they organized and categorized content.
  
  
• Visual design: We gathered feedback on visual elements, such as image sizes, layout preferences, and the overall aesthetic appeal of the homepage.  
  
  
• User expectations: We explored users' expectations for the new homepage, including desired features, functionalities, and overall experience.  

Prototype Testing

Following the initial surveys and interviews, we conducted prototype testing sessions. These sessions involved presenting users with interactive prototypes of the redesigned homepage and observing their interactions and feedback.

The prototypes incorporated several design changes influenced by Charles Huteau's recommendations and the insights gained from the mobile homepage design. These changes included:

• Integrating the Feed: Adding a personalized feed showcasing player's and friends' activities.
  
  
• Promoting Ubisoft+: Incorporating a banner promoting the Ubisoft+ subscription service. Ubisoft+ is a gaming subscription service that gives players access to a growing catalog of 100+ Ubisoft games on PC, including new releases and additional content like expansions and season passes. Users can also enjoy their subscription on Xbox and via cloud gaming on Amazon Luna. The banner aimed to increase awareness and encourage users to explore the benefits of Ubisoft+.

By testing these prototypes, we aimed to validate our design decisions, identify potential usability issues, and gather further insights to refine the homepage experience.  

A Phased Approach: Refining Content for the Closed Beta

Following the initial user research, we adopted a phased approach to refine and release the various content sections of the new PC client's homepage for the Closed Beta. This allowed us to prioritize essential elements, address stakeholder needs, and ensure a smooth rollout of features.

Prioritizing Essential Content

The first milestone focused on delivering the core news sections: Top News and Latest News. This prioritization was based on several factors:

• Stakeholder alignment: We had already established strong alignment with the Live Operation team, the primary stakeholder for these sections, ensuring their needs and expectations were met.
  
  
• Technical readiness: The news sections were technically ready for release, allowing us to deliver immediate value to users in the Closed Beta.

Addressing Challenging Requirements

The next milestone involved tackling two more complex content areas:

• Events: This section would feature various events, such as Free Weekends, giveaways, and beta registrations, requiring careful consideration of how to present time-sensitive information effectively.
  
  
• Ubisoft Store promotions: This area proved particularly challenging due to the Ubisoft Store team's desire to maintain the same level of visibility as the previous Uplay client. This meant accommodating their specific requirements for banner formats and placement, limiting our flexibility in redesigning this section.

Expanding Functionality

The final milestones leading up to the Open Beta centered on incorporating the remaining key features and content, solidifying the MVP for our launch:

• Feed: Integrating the feed showcasing players' and friends' activities was crucial for enhancing social engagement.
  
  
• Ubisoft+ promotion: Adding a dedicated section to promote the Ubisoft+ subscription service aimed to drive awareness and adoption of this key offering.

With the integration of these elements, the Homepage MVP was complete, and we were ready to transition to the Open Beta phase. This phased approach allowed us to effectively manage the complexity of the homepage redesign, prioritize key features, and gather valuable user feedback throughout the Closed Beta. This iterative process ensured a more polished and user-centric experience for the eventual Open Beta release.

Validating the Design: Positive Open Beta Feedback

The Open Beta release marked a crucial stage in the development of the Ubisoft Connect homepage. It allowed us to gather feedback from a larger player base and validate the effectiveness of our design decisions. The UX Research Operations team conducted a preliminary player feedback survey using Qualtrics to assess user satisfaction with the new homepage.

Positive Reception

The results of the survey were encouraging. The homepage received positive feedback overall, with players praising its clean and modern design, ease of navigation, and clear presentation of information.

Key highlights from the survey included: 

• 75% of users praised the homepage's design.  
   
• Players described the homepage as "clean," "modern," and "easy to read."    
  
  
• Users appreciated the quick access to games from the homepage.

These findings confirmed that the redesigned homepage was a significant improvement compared to the previous Uplay client's news-centric approach. The positive feedback validated our design decisions and highlighted the successful implementation of our feature intentions.

Open Beta and Beyond: The Quest for Personalization

With the completion of the homepage MVP and the transition to Open Beta, we entered a new phase focused on continuous improvement and further user research. The Open Beta provided a valuable opportunity to gather feedback from a wider audience and identify areas for optimization and further development.

Thematic Explorations and the Persistent Need for Personalization

Before the Open Beta, we experimented with thematic overlays for specific events and promotions. While these themes were generally well-received, user feedback consistently highlighted a strong desire for personalization. Players wanted the ability to tailor the homepage content to their individual interests and preferences, further emphasizing the need for customization options.

Exploring Personalization Options

To address this need, we explored various ideas for implementing personalization features within the homepage micro-app. One such idea involved leveraging the existing internal News Tool and our given internal plugin to filter news based on user ownership of games. This approach aimed to provide a short-term solution for personalization while waiting for the full development of personalized features within the News Tool itself.

This concept involved:

• Utilizing the "getOwnership" functionality: This functionality allowed us to identify which games a user-owned within their Ubisoft Connect library.
  
  
• Filtering news based on ownership: We could then filter the news displayed on the homepage to prioritize news related to games the user owned, increasing the relevance and value of the content.

A/B Testing and Iterative Development

To validate the effectiveness of this approach, we planned to conduct A/B testing, comparing the personalized news feed with the generic feed. This would allow us to measure user engagement and satisfaction with the personalized experience and gather data to inform further development.

The Unfolding Path

While this specific personalization experiment did not come to fruition due to technical limitations and resource constraints, the exploration itself proved valuable. It highlighted the ongoing need for personalization and underscored the importance of continued research and development in this area.

Unfortunately, my direct involvement with the homepage ended in the summer of 2023 when, due to a company reorganization, ownership of the homepage was transferred to a different team. The two screenshots below showcase the most recent version of the homepage, reflecting the design changes implemented by the current team.

Although the homepage micro-app still lacks robust personalization features, the journey towards achieving this goal has been marked by valuable learnings and a commitment to user-centric design. The pursuit of personalization remains an ongoing endeavor, and Ubisoft continues to explore new avenues and opportunities to deliver a truly tailored and engaging experience for every Ubisoft Connect user.

© Daekeon Kim 2025