Overview

The Universe Comics Platform is a digital comic reading experience that helps players find, navigate, and explore League of Legends IP comics that engage and deepen their connection to the overall lore and universe.

Background

When the comics team formed, Universe did not have the support for comics from a design or technical perspective yet. More generally, there was no way to look through content organized by media types or other filtering (e.g. release date). Players were currently driven down the champion or region route in order to find individual content.

User Research & Competitive Analysis

What problems were users facing?

• There is no way to access comics from one location.

• It takes a lot of effort to read comics on the phone.

• Users are not sure what to do after reading a comic.

• There is no way to differentiate comic one shots from series.

Product Goals

• A frictionless experience when reading comics on a mobile device

• Ability to access other comics on Universe from one place

• Intuitive navigation to access comics on Universe

• Discover more content related to the comic the user just read

User Flows

I created basic user flows to drive alignment on how players should move in, within, and out of the comic reader, and discover more comics on the platform.

Early Design Explorations

We wanted to explore the idea of the end of comic reading experience screen. Most comics platforms don’t strategically utilize digital to enhance the reading experience and many mobile reading experiences are no better than scanned pages navigated by left and right swipes. I believed that we had the ability to explore how interconnecting all the relevant lore content could enhance the reading experience.

LoFi Wireframes

Final Product & Results

Players can access all of Riot’s comics in one place on Universe. They are separated by clearly defined categories for easier discovery.

We created a place for comic series to showcase additional information of the series, featured champions, mailing subscription, etc.

Players can easily read comics on their computers and phones.

Players can discover related content to continue learning more about their favorite champions or find new comics.

Iterations Post-Launch

Our combined data from Hotjar, Google Analytics, and post-launch surveys suggest players were interested in more comics and enjoyed using our reader, but there are opportunities to better meet their preferences by increasing product awareness and investing in additional quality of life improvement features.

We used the next few sprints to address QoL concerns, including zoom functionality, horizontal and vertical orientation improvements, and explore new ways to interweave comics with related media that would tell a richer story.

We added introduction and recap pages to the reader and bring our reader to parity with app competitors.

What I’ve Learned

Having the experience to design the hub that showcases all of Riot’s Comics and co-designing the comic reader was really pivotal for my growth as a designer. I learned so much with this project. I learned better approaches to the discovery processes, content strategy techniques, and improved my wireframing skills to better communicate design intent. I also learned to be a better partner with the Comics team, giving me a better process for onboarding and working collaborative with future teams moving forward.

Visit Universe to read the latest comics featuring League champions!