UX Postmortem: How a Studio's Menu Overhaul Raised Retention by 18%

Gaming · 4 min read

EmberPeak’s flagship title initially shipped with a dense radial menu packed with icons and nested tabs. While veteran players appreciated quick shortcuts, new players reported confusion and difficulty locating core actions like inventory and abilities. Heatmaps and funnel tracking confirmed that many churned during the first session after being overwhelmed.

The redesign simplified the menu into a progressive reveal system that prioritized contextually relevant actions and moved secondary settings into an accessible but separate options panel. Designers replaced ambiguous icons with labeled cards during the first two hours of play and introduced a ‘skill discover’ tutorial tied to the simplified interface.

Post-launch telemetry showed an 18% lift in week-one retention and a 12% increase in average session length among new players. Veteran players initially resisted the change, but subsequent updates added a compact mode that preserved quick-access functionality while keeping the default experience newcomer-friendly.

The studio’s experience underscores the importance of designing for the largest-onboarding persona first, then layering efficiency for experts. Iterative testing with both cohorts and flexible UI modes can reconcile competing needs without hurting the primary growth funnel.