The redesigned RPG Companion App character screen on an iPhone

RPG Companion App

Redesigned the dark-fantasy UI and streamlined complex tabletop mechanics for an established mobile app serving over 1 million active users.

ROLE: PRODUCT DESIGNER

TIMELINE: 4 WEEKS

OVERVIEW

A cross-system mobile app for tabletop RPG players and Dungeon Masters, built to manage character sheets, game states, and rules compendiums on the fly.

SCALE & POTENTIAL MARKET

Over 1 million current active users and growing across indie and mainstream TTRPG communities.1+ Million daily users.

CHALLENGE

Modernize and streamline the RPG companion app’s user experience to improve usability and feature navigation while honoring established player habits and core app mechanics.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The app serves over 1 million users, but its current interface creates friction during live sessions and lacks a true RPG aesthetic. The central design challenge is modernizing the experience without alienating existing power users who are already accustomed to the current layout.

  • Friction & Slow Navigation

    Multi-step menus delay gameplay, breaking narrative flow for players and DMs.

  • Lack of Brand & Fantasy Identity

    The app feels like a plain database, missing an atmospheric look and distinct brand presence.

  • User Retention Risk

    Redesigning for a large active user base requires balancing major UX upgrades with familiar navigation so returning users aren't confused or frustrated by the update.

PREVIOUS APP DESIGN

The current companion app suffers from a severely outdated visual design and high interaction friction, prioritizing raw data entry over live gameplay utility

Three screens of the previous app: character sheet, home and compendium

HOME

CHARACTER

COMPENDIUM

HEURISTIC EVALUATION

Analysis revealed multiple critical UX breakdowns based on Nielsen’s 10 Usability Heuristics

72%Violation Rate

High friction across 8 of 10 Nielsen principles.

  • Critical breakdowns in system status feedback, visual standards, error prevention, and search efficiency create severe cognitive friction during gameplay.

  • Resolving these foundational usability issues through streamlined navigation and clear visual affordances will drastically reduce in-game delays without frustrating or displacing our 1M+ active user base.

USER RESEARCH & PERSONAS

66,7%

33,3%

Players

Dungeon Masters

  • Setup Frustration Rate

    85%

    Users report character creation takes too long during Session 0.

  • UI Immersion Satisfaction

    2.1 / 6

    Users feel the app looks like a spreadsheet, not a fantasy game.

  • Mid-Game Lookup Delay

    12–18 sec

    DMs spend too much time navigating away to look up rules/spells.

  • Customization

    6 / 6

    Users like having the opportunity to customize the app with themes.

  • Brand Recognition

    12%

    Almost no visual recall for the app’s logo or visual identity.

Portrait of Alex
ALEX

"I just need an app that gets out of my way so I can run a fast, immersive game without hunting through 6 menus for a single stat block."

ABOUT

Alex has been running D&D campaigns for over 5 years. Alex relies heavily on digital utility apps to keep sessions running smoothly without flipping through physical sourcebooks.

PERSONALITY

IntrovertExtrovertAnalyticalCreativeBusyTime richMessyOrganizedIndependentTeam player

GOALS

PAIN POINTS

Keep combat fast-paced and fluid without breaking immersion.

Look up monster stat blocks, spell rules, and items in under 2 seconds.

Manage custom homebrew monsters and campaign prep cleanly in one place.

Needs 5–6 taps across sub-menus just to pull up a monster mid-combat.

Encounter tracker cards cut off on mobile, and "Next Turn" skips players.

Heavy screen transitions slow down quick searches.

Portrait of Sam
SAM

"When it's my turn in combat, I hate scrolling back and forth for 30 seconds just to find my weapon bonus while everyone waits on me."

ABOUT

Sam plays in a weekly D&D 5e campaign. While Sam loves character customization and roleplay, managing a digital character sheet during live play can feel overwhelming—especially when tracking spell slots, inventory, and weapon modifiers on the fly.

PERSONALITY

IntrovertExtrovertAnalyticalCreativeBusyTime richMessyOrganizedIndependentTeam player

GOALS

PAIN POINTS

Quickly check attack bonuses, spells, and skill checks when it's their turn.

Build and level up characters effortlessly without memorizing rulebook layouts.

Collaborate with party members to track shared group loot and campaign progress.

Critical combat actions are placed at opposite ends of a single long page, causing severe vertical scroll fatigue during high-frequency tasks.

Scrolling causes accidental "swipe-to-delete" triggers on inventory items.

SOLUTION

  • Friction-Free Architecture

    Restructured core user journeys into streamlined, linear paths that reduce click-depth and cognitive load across the entire application.

  • Immersive Fantasy Visual System

    Replaced generic UI patterns with an atmospheric, domain-specific visual language engineered for high legibility in table environments.

  • Complete Rebrand

    Built a coherent design system, logo, theme engine, and brand identity from scratch.

MOODBOARD

The visual research phase focused on establishing an authentic fantasy medieval atmosphere to deeply immerse users in the tabletop experience.

Collage of fantasy references: old books, dice, armour, ornate blue and gold card backs and spell art

BRANDING & IDENTITY

The legacy app lacked any identifiable branding. The logo was redesigned from scratch into an iconic, memorable brand emblem that blends clean, modern UI geometry with classic tabletop RPG motifs (a stylized d20 die fused with a crest).

The legacy app icon: a goat and dragon crest around a rainbow d20

Before

The new app icon: a gold winged d20 emblem

Now

The emblem on its construction grid
The new emblem as an app icon in an iPhone dockThe new emblem as an app icon in an iPhone dock
Engineered for high visual impact, the emblem scales seamlessly across small app icons, dark-mode splash screens, and real-world physical extensions.
Hoodie printed with the RPG Companion App emblem
Street billboards carrying the emblem
Business cards with the emblem
Tote bag with the emblem
Poster hanging in a shop window
Matchbox with the emblem
Outdoor arch sign with the emblem
Holographic packaging
Peeling sticker with the emblem
The emblem and RPG Companion App wordmark in a range of colour variants and sizesThe emblem and RPG Companion App wordmark in a range of colour variants and sizes

Plus Jakarta Sans - Mobile

ElementWeightSize
Display Header700 (Bold)28px
H1 Header600 (SemiBold)24px
H2 Header600 (SemiBold)20px
H3 Header500 (Medium)18px
Body400 (Regular)16px
Body600 (SemiBold)16px
Small Body400 (Regular)14px

Cinzel Decorative

ElementWeightSize
Display Header700 (BLACK)28px
H1 Header600 (BOLD)24px
H2 Header600 (BOLD)20px
H3 Header500 (REGULAR)18px

WIREFRAMING & DESIGN

Low-fidelity grey wireframes of every app screenLow-fidelity grey wireframes of every app screen

HOME

The central gateway designed around a clear, immediate split between the app's three core pillars:

Player Hub, Dungeon Master Hub, and the Compendium.

It also provides quick secondary access to system settings, multi-system switching, theme customization, community-created content, and live session setup.

Home screen: Player, Dungeon Master and Compendium hubs, community and live session

DUNGEON MASTER

A command center designed for high-stress campaign management.

Dungeon Master screen with party, action log and encounter tools

PLAYER

A streamlined, interactive character hub optimized for live play.

Player character hub with the d20 radial menu
Compendium category picker: rules, armor, background, class, encounter, feat and more

ENCOUNTER

A dynamic combat manager that automates turn tracking, status conditions, and enemy health pools, keeping battle pacing fast, fluid, and narrative-focused.

Encounter tracker with turn order, spell slots and monsters

VIRTUAL DICES

An atmospheric, physics-based rolling drawer accessible from any view with a single tap.

Dice drawer over a blurred character sheet

COMPENDIUM

A fast, multi-system database for rules, items, spells, and more. Outfitted with instant bottom-sheet filters and auto-complete search to resolve mid-session rules questions in seconds.

Familiars, inventory coins and the live session screen
Rows of high-fidelity screens: community, character sheets, compendium, encounters, settings, inventory and character creationRows of high-fidelity screens: community, character sheets, compendium, encounters, settings, inventory and character creation

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

To accommodate how tabletop RPGs are played—whether crammed onto a crowded gaming table or used on an iPad behind a DM screen—the redesign was engineered with a fully responsive auto-layout architecture

The character screen on an iPad Pro in portrait with an Apple Pencil
The character screen on an iPad Mini in landscape with an Apple Pencil

USER FEEDBACK

Quantitative and qualitative usability sessions with existing users of the original app alongside new TTRPG players. Testing focused on evaluating navigation speed, cognitive load during live sessions, and overall task completion efficiency.

98%

Task Completion Rate

Improvement +34%

89/100

System Usability Scale (SUS)

4.2 sec

Avg. Time to Roll Skill Check

77% Faster

6.0 sec

Compendium Search Time

74% Faster

  • "The fantasy redesign completely transforms the vibe, it actually feels like a tabletop companion now instead of a boring spreadsheet. Everything looks super polished and gorgeous!" - Ray

  • "Finding rules in the compendium mid-combat used to slow down our whole session, but the new Quick Access feature is lightning fast. I didn't lose my place on the DM screen even once." - Carol

  • "Character setup was so effortless this time. The 3-step creation flow makes rolling up a new sheet ridiculously quick, clear, and satisfying to complete." - Sam

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