Video games have experienced a meteoric rise in the last ten years, from a sometimes despised passion to one that occupies the minds of all young and not so young people, myself included.
Streaming on Twitch has almost replaced YouTube, because it allows live interaction and emphasises the community aspect. You can now watch and talk to someone playing while on the underground, in the bath, on the couch, in bed, and maybe even try it yourself by posting a live Fortnite game for friends or thousands of people.
Twitch has become a real business with an economy of its own, and I wanted to analyse from the inside how such a solicited application managed to stay clear despite the continuous flow of information (spoiler: it isn’t).
REVERSE ENGINEERING
Analysing the application and making low-fidelity prototypes helped me to understand the core of the application, how it was really designed and what the recurring elements were. Unsurprisingly, video takes up most of the space.
The second step of this challenge was to create medium fidelity wireframes on Figma, a way for me to familiarise myself with this software that I didn’t know until now. In a previous challenge, I had to create an exact clone of the application. So I deconstructed what I had previously created. While the previous exercise required a lot of detail and patience, the medium fidelity wireframes helped me understand what were the key features.
To finish this exercise, I had to make an interactive prototype with the few designed screens.
I didn’t have too much trouble getting used to Figma at first as it looks quite similar to another software I enjoy, Illustrator, but the few extra features delighted me. The component libraries, grids and ease of integration are very promising and I look forward to learning more and progressing.
I loved being able to deconstruct and rebuild an application that I use on a daily basis, to almost be able to make wireframes without needing to consult the application as I was beginning to know it perfectly. I think it could be more instinctive though, because it’s very dense and repetitive, even for someone who’s used to it, it can sometimes seem confusing because everything looks the same from one screen to another.
