Blog Post 1: Design and Research 

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As a starting point for this project, I chose to focus my attention on ‘The Sims 4’. This decision was largely due to this year marking the 25th anniversary of the game franchise (E. Arts, 2025).

Embedded Figjam File showing my ‘Mood Board’, as well as screenshots of my competitor research (explained below).

For my competitor research I chose to look at a variation of different apps. My first step was to look at other gaming companion apps. This led me to the ‘Dilly’ Fortnite companion (Dilly, 2025) and the Animal Crossing pocket guide (ACNH, 2020). Alongside these, I also wanted to look at other popular apps my user might engage with on a regular basis. Focusing on Vinted (Vinted, 2025), TikTok (TikTok, 2025) and Instagram (Instagram, 2025). From these, I chose to incorporate similar features for different elements of my app. Whilst I liked the Fortnite homepage (Dilly, 2025), I leaned more towards TikTok’s (TikTok, 2025) account page. I also wanted to address the apps on-boarding features and sign in pages, to help inspire my design features moving forward.

Thanks to my research, I was able to gauge my key user demographic, choosing to focus on 13–40-year-olds, that were primarily women with a creative side. Their hobbies might include casual/cozy gaming, escapism, and home decor or renovations. From here I had a clearer idea of what I wanted to do for my initial ideas, focusing on trying to emulate a social media platform.

Rough Sketches for my ‘Initial Ideas’ for my app design – created in Procreate and uploaded to my mood board.

When creating my initial ideas, I focused primarily on Jakob’s Law (E. Stevens 2024). This ties in with my competitor research, as I mimicked certain familiar elements in my own design. This included key recognizable features, such as the menu buttons on the lower portion of my app, alongside a notification feature in the top right. Both elements were supported by sites like Instagram (Instagram, 2025) and TikTok (TikTok, 2025), but even other companion game apps. I wanted to focus more on the functionality and less on the aesthetics, essentially creating a wire-frame mock-up to help with my app development. My overall goal is to make sure each page has a clear function, making it easier for my user to apply Fitt’s Law (E. Stevens 2024).

References

Mood Board Images

EA Maxis (2013) File:Sims 4 logo.svg – Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sims_4_logo.svg [Accessed 5 May 2025]

Colour

Imagery

UI & UX

User

User Research