Nintendo has captured hearts and imaginations for decades (mine included), and is synonymous with playfulness, joy, and happiness.

Unfortunately, that joy is woefully missing when you boot up the Switch and are greeted by a sterile, grey screen. The interface is certainly clean and intuitive, but it was just missing what I, and so many people, have come to associate with Nintendo: happiness.

This was a different challenge for me: bringing some of the Nintendo brand’s core tenants of playfulness and joy to the Switch menu UI.

 
 
Does this spark joy?

Does this spark joy?

Goal : Integrate more of Nintendo’s playful, colorful design aesthetic into an overhaul of the Switch’s main menu

Skills: Brand research, sketching, wireframing, interaction design, UI design, animation

Research & Sketching

nintendo switch website.PNG
 
 
 

Brand Research: Nintendo’s USA Switch Website

I started by looking to Nintendo’s USA Switch website. I wanted to find out what colors, elements, animations, and fonts they used. Nintendo’s iconic red and white take center stage here, and are complimented by other bright colors, geometric shapes, and playful animation.

 

Concept Sketches

After pulling together some concepts from their website, I started imagining how they could be tweaked to bring the same emotions and aesthetic to the main menu. I focused on maintaining usability but bringing in more playfulness using animations and larger game art.

 

UI Design

I brought in the same color palette from the website, leaning heavily on the brand’s red and white focus colors, and using the rest of the colors as accents and to draw attention to important items in the menu. The geometric shapes from the website were also used in the background of the main menu, and are used together with animation when moving between menu screens.

I brought in the same color palette from the website, leaning heavily on the brand’s red and white focus colors, and using the rest of the colors as accents and to draw attention to important items in the menu. The geometric shapes from the website were also used in the background of the main menu, and are used together with animation when moving between menu screens.

 
 

The focus of the main menu is on the games. Making game art larger, and adding a more playful, tactile snap to the animation when scrolling games.

 

Using animation, the geometric shapes create a distinct space for the left menu of the shop.

 
 
 

Adding game focused submenus makes finding related games and content easier for players.