GameView Bootstrap
Making the Invisible Visible
Content creators in FrostEd had no visibility into multi-stage asset preview processes. A minimal top-right indicator provided no information about progress stages, completion time, or system errors—leading to premature interactions, crashes, and frustrated guesswork.
About the project
Overview
When my Technical Director identified the need for alignment with the Editor Framework team—a separate department whose notification system we'd need to integrate with—initial attempts to delegate this coordination stalled. I took initiative to orchestrate direct alignment between teams, reaching out to their UX Architect and Technical Director to validate our approach before committing engineering resources.
Goal & Impact
Challenges
Navigating Constraints:
Users had no visibility into backend bootstrap stages. The existing UI showed minimal feedback in the top-right corner of GameView—just enough to know something was happening, but not what stage the process was in, whether it had hung, or how long to expect before it was safe to interact. This gap led to crashes, wasted time checking logs, and unnecessary support burden.
My Approach:
I coordinated directly with Editor Framework leadership when my Technical Director's delegation attempts stalled. Rather than proceed independently, I presented our proposed solution as a sanity check, ensuring we wouldn't trample on their architecture.
This uncovered a strategic opportunity: our feature addressed a previous backlog item from their team. What began as a tactical fix became a collaborative effort, with engineering split between departments and shared ownership of the outcome.
Key Decisions
"Chris prioritizes collaboration by bringing together cross-functional teams and stakeholders, fostering dynamic collaboration, transparency and open communication to drive project clarity and forward momentum."
Cross-Team Coordination First
When my Technical Director mentioned needing Editor Framework alignment twice—first attempting to delegate to engineers with no follow-through—I took direct action. I contacted their UX Architect (Brendan, Vancouver) and Technical Director (Pablo) to schedule a cross-timezone meeting with both teams present. What unfolded was a collaborative discovery session. As I described in our team Show & Tell: "What ended up happening was this really fun jam session around getting feedback and having everyone just look at this thing together, and surface opportunities from previous initiatives that could potentially inform the notification toaster we were zeroing in on." This sanity check before committing resources prevented architectural conflicts and revealed a shared backlog opportunity—turning a tactical fix into strategic collaboration.
Determinate vs. Indeterminate State Language
Partnered with Editor Framework's UX Architect to establish clear messaging patterns for progress communication. We defined when to show specific completion percentages (determinate) versus activity indicators without time estimates (indeterminate), ensuring consistency across both systems.
Resilience to User Actions
Designed progress feedback to persist regardless of editor settings or panel configurations. Users can close panels, toggle settings, or switch views without losing visibility into GameView's readiness state—a critical improvement over the previous implementation.
Telemetry Integration
Built robust logging to track process durations, identify bottlenecks, and enable data-driven iteration. While adding development complexity upfront, this positions the team to measure impact and continuously optimize the bootstrap experience.
Where It's At Today
GameView Bootstrap is in the final stages of implementation. As noted in recent project updates: "Both Game View bootstrap flow recording and viewing context features are now in implementation, reflecting strong progress in team alignment."
Beyond the original scope, this work has created ripple effects across teams. Brendan (Editor Framework UX Architect) identified positive overlap between my progress reporting patterns and a parallel initiative led by my colleague Tim on long load operations. Tim has referenced my GameView Bootstrap designs as a foundation for his work, and I've been invited into their design sessions and added to ongoing Slack channels to maintain cross-initiative alignment.
I'm working closely with lead engineers to ensure usability remains strong as we prepare to ship. My goal is to keep the team abreast of opportunities to test this as it gets into the hands of our end users—the Battlefield development teams—so we can measure impact in an ongoing, meaningful way.
This project reinforced that staff-level impact often happens between the lines—not just in the interface design, but in orchestrating collaboration, navigating organizational complexity, and creating reusable patterns that benefit teams beyond your original scope. When I saw my Technical Director signal the need for cross-team alignment but struggle to execute it, I stepped in to design the coordination itself.
The result wasn't just a better UI. It was a stronger cross-functional relationship, unified backlog priorities, a repeatable collaboration model, and design patterns now informing other teams' work. I'm proud of both the solution we're building and the organizational impact it's generating.
Electronic Arts
Frostbite
, -
Industry
Technology
Duration
6
weeks
Services
Redefined the brand’s identity with a bold and modern design that reflects TechNext’s forward-thinking approach.
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Showcase 01:
Streamlining Input Auditioning in FrostEd Editor
Streamlining Input Auditioning in FrostEd Editor
Role: Senior UX Designer| Lead, FrostEd Editor
Impact: Eliminated mode confusion for content creators by clarifying input ownership between editing and game simulation states, reducing cognitive load and support tickets
Problem: Users couldn't distinguish between "Editing Mode" and "Auditioning Mode" when testing game content live in FrostEd. This ambiguity around which system controlled inputs (mouse/gamepad) led to mistakes, workflow disruptions, and productivity loss.
Clear mode signifiers: Color-coded HUD messages, mode-specific icons, and optional visual borders to indicate current state
Input ownership clarity: Defined which system receives inputs per mode, disabling conflicting interactions
Customizable controls: User-configurable keybindings (Shift+Tab default) and cursor visibility preferences
Actionable feedback: Contextual UI messages guide users when attempting unavailable actions
Permissive over restrictive: Avoided blocking input methods unless strictly necessary, maintaining user agency
Progressive disclosure: Designed lightweight indicators first, reserving heavier visual treatments (borders) as optional enhancements
Flexibility by default: Made cursor behavior customizable rather than prescriptive, respecting diverse workflows
