Learning UX from games — apex legends edition

Understanding UX principles like Miller’s Law and LATCH using in-game examples

Apex legends are the most trending battle royale game right now. It is packed with tons of enjoyable gameplay experiences and it is very engaging from the beginning.

You can choose from a variety of legends in the roster and each legend possesses a unique skill that you can take advantage of during your gameplay.

Roster of legends

Today let’s see some of the UX laws they have used inside the game that increases the pleasant feeling when playing the game.

While I was playing apex legends with my friends, I found they are using two important UX principles.

When you are engaging in battle with the enemy, you need to recharge your battery or heal in between. But while playing a highly engaging battle, you can’t take your eyes off of your enemies and navigate through menus to find the necessary items. In order to solve that, the Apex legends team has come up with a solution. Before knowing that let's see what are all the ways are there to recharge your shield or health.

A different way to use consumables:

1. You can long-press your shortcut key and the wheel menu will show up to quickly access the items you have.

2. You can also press the shortcut keys 5,6,7,8,9 ( 5 -> shield cell, 6 -> Shield Battery , 7 -> Syringe kit, 8 -> Med kit, 9 -> Phoenix kit).

#1 Law — Miller’s Law

• According to Miller’s Law, an average person can only keep 7 items in their working memory. Plus or Minus 2 depending upon the user. They have a total of 5 items and it is easier for the players to easily remember all the lists and they can easily focus on the game instead of thinking about the items menu

https://uxdesign.cc/millers-law-is-there-a-magical-number-in-ux-design-7999f92ef7b8#:~:text=Miller's%20Law%20states%20that%20the,group%20information%20into%20smaller%20chunks.

#2 Law — Hierarchy or Continnium ( 5 hat racks)

• Hierarchy or continuum refers to the organization by magnitude (e.g highest to lowest, best to worst). They have kept the item orders from lower to higher, so players can easily differentiate between shield cell and shield battery, syringe kit, and medkit

https://rikwilliams.net/ux/information-architecture/five-hat-racks-latch-principle/#:~:text=An%20irreducible%20truth%20in%20information%20classification%2C%20architecture%20and%20design.&text=Five%20hat%20racks.,Time%2C%20Category%2C%20or%20Hierarchy.

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I will try to create a series of posts to help people understand UX laws from live examples.