Leveling up your UX
Nintendo empowers returning users in its latest Legend of Zelda adventure
Tears of the Kingdom exemplifies the value in respecting your experienced users
Warning: Spoilers ahead (if you’ve been able to avoid them)
Breath of the Wild broke records as Nintendo’s beloved addition to the Legend of Zelda franchise 6 years ago. Last month, Nintendo released Tears of the Kingdom — a direct follow-up to the Breath of the Wild story. This sequel was highly anticipated and motivated swarms of Nintendo Switch owners (myself included) to dust off their consoles and join in on the latest Zelda hype.
Shortly after starting my Tears of the Kingdom marathon I had already started a mental list of Breath of the Wild improvements I noticed. I love to bring UX into nearly everything, so I knew that the design choices I was admiring were carefully and intentionally made to craft a better experience for Tears of the Kingdom players, the majority of which have already played Breath of the Wild.
It turns out that Tears of the Kingdom is an excellent case study in respecting users and their experiences.
Before diving into the details, I want to define a couple of prominent user groups that every product, game, and software will cater to: new users and returning users.
New users have never used your product (or have used it, but have not yet developed familiarity and comfort), while returning users are comfortable using your product beyond the basics.
New users don’t have an existing mental model for your product and often rely on tutorials, help guides, labeling, and other learning features to develop and deepen their understanding. Returning (or experienced) users, on the other hand, already know how to use your product. They don’t need to rely on the same contextual and supporting information.
It’s important to balance the needs of both user groups by ensuring that your product is both flexible and efficient.
Nintendo successfully balanced both metrics in their development of Tears of the Kingdom, presenting a valuable UX case study that demonstrates the powerful outcomes that can be achieved by focusing enhancements in these areas.
Flexibility
Allowing for flexible task completion helps ensure that users can accomplish tasks in ways that best align with their workflow. To create this assurance, it is important to let users complete a task via multiple methods or paths.
Breath of the Wild players found creative ways to force flexibility into a promising, but slightly rigid game physics system. From flipping over a shrine puzzle, to stacking random objects, they found ways to get things done — even if it wasn’t what Nintendo intended. Rather than restrict these workarounds, Nintendo embraces creativity and provides new mechanics in Tears of the Kingdom that not only tolerate, but actually encourage players to be imaginative and push boundaries.
When they go high, you go higher
Traveling through the sky was a key tactic in Breath of the Wild. It was fast and it was fun. But there were limited options to actually get airborne. Players were limited to either jumping from a high point or using the unlockable ability Revali’s Gale. Tears of the Kingdom gives players more than double the methods, including:
- Ascend ability
- Recall ability used on a fallen object
- Flying vehicles
- Fused rocket contraption
- Sky towers
- An entire map of platforms hovering in the sky
Giving players additional options for accessing a beloved transportation method demonstrates that Nintendo understands the aspects of the game that players consider useful and fun. They used this knowledge to expand on an enjoyable system to give players even more flexibility.
Fight fire with…whatever you want
Weapons were generally impermanent in Breath of the Wild. They would break after you used them for a while. When you found a good weapon, it was important to use it sparingly and save it for the most dangerous moments. In Tears of the Kingdom, weapons are still breakable, but you can now fuse them with your other materials to make them stronger and more unique. There are now countless combinations of base weapons and attachments, so there’s no need to hoard every strong weapon you find.
Letting players have more control over their weapons supports a more immersive and unrestricted gaming experience. It ensures that players won’t feel as underprepared as they may have at times in Breath of the Wild.
Bend the world to your will (and whim)
Players can manipulate the world around them to complete puzzles, create shortcuts, fight enemies, and just play around. Breath of the Wild players found creative workarounds to move the world to their whim, which Nintendo embraced and further enabled in Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo made the world even more interactive and spent many months testing their new, flexible mechanics to ensure that they would hold up to the creativity of their users.
These new mechanics allow players to complete tasks through a wide variety of approaches. Because of this, there’s often no “right way” to solve a puzzle or complete a quest. Returning players are rewarded for their patience with the limitations of the last game and are given the freedom to play and interact with the world as they please.
Efficiency
Of course, you should respect the time of all of your users to ensure they can use your product quickly and painlessly. But, returning users are often looking to go beyond basic efficiency measures. It’s important to provide shortcuts that allow these more experienced users to complete important tasks faster. These accelerators don’t slow down inexperienced users, but they do speed up advanced users. Typically, software products make use of accelerators through things like keyboard and gesture shortcuts.
Breath of the Wild, like many games, enables players to become increasingly efficient the longer that they play. Players were able to speed up their experience by skipping cutscenes, fast traveling, and making progress before picking up the official quest (such as collecting 10 of an item that you’ll need later). These efficiency shortcuts were pretty limited, but Nintendo expanded options in Tears of the Kingdom.
Out with the old, in with the new
Treasure chests make up the main reward system in both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. You can locate chests by completing puzzles or stumbling across them while running around the large, open world. Chests allow you to earn a number of valuable prizes, including rupees, weapons, clues, or armor.
In Breath of the Wild chests had a small, but constant annoyance: when you would find a new weapon or piece of armor, but already had a full inventory, you couldn’t easily swap items out. The chest would slam shut, then you had to drop an item from your inventory and reopen the chest. It sounds small, but when this happens over and over again, it’s quite frustrating.
Nintendo heard and acknowledged players’ frustrations with this system and made a vital change to this process in Tears of the Kingdom. Now, you’re able to drop an item from your inventory while you’re opening a chest. No more having to go back and forth between menus and screens to grab your reward. New players (that haven’t played Breath of the Wild) may not recognize and value this enhancement, but returning players will be grateful for the efficiency boost that it grants.
Now we’re cookin’
Cooking meals was a necessary evil in Breath of the Wild. With a world full of angry monsters and tall cliffs, taking damage is something that players quickly became well-versed in. But, in Breath of the Wild, you could only cook food if you came across a cooking station, typically at a random campsite or a stable. This proved inconvenient when you were on the go, low on health, and far from the nearest station. You also had to memorize recipes and try to figure out what ingredients you need to combine for your desired dish every time.
In Tears of the Kingdom, you can now avoid the inconvenient trek to a cooking station by utilizing the new portable pots, which allow you to cook a meal anywhere. Nintendo also integrated a recipe book system that allows you to track and view the combination of ingredients for a meal.
These enhancements made a necessary function of the game easier to access and more convenient to take advantage of. Returning users can skillfully use the cooking system to streamline their journey and feel ready for battle.
With Tears of the Kingdom, Nintendo reinforces a tried and true UX practice: design your products based on your users’ needs. The flexibility and efficiency improvements that I’ve outlined may be unique to game design and the Zelda universe, but they demonstrate the invaluable impact that can come from listening and valuing feedback.
And, the nice thing about designing for your returning users is that it also benefits your new users. Your new users will be happy. Your returning users will be happy. And you’ll be happy when your product is well received and enjoyed. It’s a win, win, win.
Have a story of your own? Write with us! Our community thrives on diverse voices — let’s hear yours.
