This is the seventh and final post in a series about UX design principles we can draw on from video games. Click here to start form the beginning.
Ever spend hours building a virtual life in The Sims or conquering empires in Civilization? Surprise — that's great UX design at work. Video games are masters at onboarding players, keeping them engaged, and rewarding their efforts. I'm exploring how popular video games (The Sims, Civilization, Overwatch, Fortnite, Candy Crush, and more) create addictive and intuitive experiences. More importantly, we’ll translate those gaming UX principles into practical takeaways for your digital product — no cheat codes required!
Before I dive in, a quick note: I'll use examples from games purely to illustrate UX concepts. You don’t need to be a gamer or know these titles in detail – we’ll explain the context and draw out the practical insights for product design.
Consistency and Cross-Platform Experience – Fortnite’s Ubiquity
Let’s touch on a more technical UX principle that video games handle impressively: cross-platform consistency. Fortnite became a phenomenon in part because you could play it anywhere – PC, console, handheld, phone – and it was essentially the same game with a unified experience. You could start a match on your laptop and later play on your phone, and aside from interface scaling, nothing was fundamentally different. This required huge engineering effort, but the UX payoff was massive: frictionless access. Players didn’t have to learn different controls or face stripped-down features; Fortnite on mobile wasn’t an inferior cousin, it was Fortnite. This consistency across devices set a user expectation that they could engage with the game whenever and however they wanted.
For digital products, especially startups targeting users on web and mobile, consistency is key. A user might sign up on your website but later download the mobile app – if the experience feels totally different or certain actions aren’t available on one platform, it’s jarring. Modern users expect their data and experience to sync seamlessly (think how your messages, notes, or to-do lists sync across devices). Fortnite shows that adapting to multiple platforms (responsive design, adaptive layouts, etc.) can dramatically widen your reach and keep users in your ecosystem. It also underscores the importance of responsive design principles – your interface should gracefully adjust to different screen sizes and input methods without losing its core identity.
Product design takeaway
Strive for a unified, device-agnostic experience. This means maintaining consistent branding, features, and user flows on web, iOS, Android, etc. Use responsive design for different screen sizes and test that key tasks can be accomplished on all devices. As the Fortnite example suggests, users appreciate being able to switch context without friction — and in many contexts, this is tablestakes. Can you imagine accessing your email on your phone, and not seeing the same inbox on your computer? If your startup has a web app and is considering a mobile app, plan early how they will connect. Can users start a process on one and finish on the other? If not, you might inadvertently limit engagement to when they have that specific device.
Consistency also applies to UI elements and terminology. A setting or feature should have the same name and icon across platforms. If your website calls something “Projects” but the mobile app calls it “Folders”, users will be confused – it’s like if Fortnite changed the color coding of weapons between console and PC. Consistent language and visuals build familiarity (a core UX heuristic).
Another consideration: performance parity. While not purely UX in the visual sense, a slow, laggy experience on one platform will deter use. Fortnite invested in making even the phone experience smooth (albeit with lower graphics). For your product, ensure that the “lighter” version (maybe the mobile web or an older device support) still runs well and has critical features. If not, users may give up entirely if that’s their primary access point. It’s better to gracefully degrade features than to have one platform fully featured and another severely limited without explanation.
In practical terms, achieving this principle might involve using a responsive web framework or ensuring your design system is portable to native mobile components. It might mean making tough choices to limit a feature until you can offer it everywhere. But as Fortnite’s success shows, meeting users where they are – on whatever device – with a coherent experience is a winning strategy. It builds trust (users feel the company is thinking of them) and encourages more frequent usage (no device barrier). For a startup, that can amplify growth and user satisfaction significantly.
Wrapping it up
Video games aren’t just entertainment; they are masterclasses in user experience design. As we’ve seen, principles from games like The Sims and Civilization can directly inspire better UX in digital products. Startup founders looking for an edge in product design would do well to think like game designers:
- Onboard like a game – make the first-time experience effortless and even fun, so users stick around.
- Keep users in a flow – whether through engagement loops or clear next steps, ensure there’s always something to do or achieve, avoiding dead-ends.
- Reward and encourage – recognize user accomplishments, give positive feedback, and maybe throw in a bit of gamified reward to sweeten the deal (users love feeling a sense of win, however small).
- Empower the user – provide freedom, choices, and customization. A user who can tailor the product to their needs will likely be more invested (just like a gamer invests in their customized character or city).
- Stay consistent and convenient – deliver a cohesive experience across touchpoints, so using your product becomes a habit integrated in users’ lives (no matter what device or context).
Adopting these ideas doesn’t require turning your app into a literal game or adding frivolous features. It’s about understanding the psychology of engagement and satisfaction. Games, by necessity, are experts in holding attention and delighting users over time – goals that any product can aspire to. In practice, involve your product designer in brainstorming how each of these principles could solve current UX challenges. For instance, if users drop off after sign-up, focus on the onboarding and first-session experience. If engagement is high but retention is low, think about rewards and loops. If power users complain the app is too limiting, add customization or advanced mode. And always test these changes – what works for gamers should be adapted and validated with your audience.
By learning from video games, you can create a product that not only meets users’ needs but also sparks joy and loyalty. The moment a game stops teaching us new things or stops offering new possibilities, it stops being fun... the same could be said of digital products – keep delighting your users with possibilities, and they’ll keep coming back. Game on!
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