Jan Ning

As a long-time player of League, I’ve always found the Item Set feature very useful yet undervalued, and the topic of using item sets were brought up one night when talking to friends while playing some ARAM. I quickly realized that I was the only one of the group that utilized this tool and that most of my friends didn’t even know that this feature existed. Which is what led to the creation of this redesign.

I conducted a series of short user interviews for this redesign, utilizing both Discord and the in-game client through direct messages and champion select lobbies. Surprisingly, many of the veteran players I interviewed, including those in high ranks such as Diamond and Masters+, were unaware of the existence of the item sets feature.

Furthermore, those who were familiar with the tool considered it to be outdated, not particularly useful, and some even had misconceptions of how the tool is used. However, I did encounter one player in champion select who utilized item sets to teach their newer friends what items to build, highlighting the tool's potential value.

In general, my findings suggest a lack of education around the item sets feature. While the tool has undergone updates and offers intuitive UI elements that facilitate ease of use, many players remain unaware of its capabilities. I strongly believe that this tool could greatly benefit both new and experienced players, and am committed to improving its visibility and usability in my redesign.

Based on what I learned from the user interviews, I took a look at the current design and sketched a potential flow that targets all the areas that would cause confusion or misconceptions.

One of the first changes I made was renaming the tab from "Items" to "Item Sets", as this provides users with a clearer expectation of what they will find upon clicking the tab. Additionally, I created an explanatory video that showcases the benefits of using item sets, in a way that is easily accessible and understandable to users.

Another area of concern was the flow of creating an item set. Currently, players click on "Create Item Set" and are taken to a page that shows irrelevant champion-exclusive items, as well as ARAM and URF specific items, even if the Summoner's Rift icon is selected.

To improve this, I added two additional screens, one to select the map and another to select the champion, which allows for better filtering of items and gives the player a sense of investment in creating the item set.



Finally, I redesigned the shop and added a "Preview" button so that the player can see exactly what the item set will look like in-game.
This creates a more immersive experience for the user and provides further clarification on the benefits of creating an item set.

Overall, these changes aim to improve the user experience and promote the use of the item set feature by making it more intuitive, accessible, and relevant to the player's needs.

After the completion of the high fidelity prototype, I wanted to validate my efforts and research.

The main things I wanted to test were:

• if players would understood the function of item sets through my redesign
• if players would be more inclined to use the feature if my changes were implemented
• if there were any other obvious issues that I overlooked

Findings

Pros

• In general, most of the players found my design to be more intuitive and user friendly, especially the newer players who appreciated the added preview button which helped them visualize what they were actually creating
• Everyone said that having the tab be renamed "Item Sets" helped clear misunderstandings about the tool's functionality
• One player liked the fact that champion and map specific items were cleared from the selection screens

Cons

• One veteran player had valid concerns over the missing gold costs in the redesigned shop which I completely overlooked
• One player had concerns over not being able to see the item description and build paths for mythic items
• A few players brought up a good point of lack of clarity in the shop's filter icons
• As this was a niche feature to begin with, some players had concerns over the general usefulness of the tool