Kevin

HI THERE, I'M KEVIN.

I build engaging experiences, usable interfaces, and design teams based on feedback & candor. With 20 years of experience in the video game industry in addition to various freelancing projects, I shift regularly from low level implementation details to high level strategy, process, hiring, and team building. My focus is game UX design with an emphasis on interaction design: how it supports vision and intent through UI, animations, game mechanics, controls, and more. I have a hybrid UX, UI, and technical skillset, and enjoy working on the technical implementation of UI systems.

Outside of work I enjoy movies, board games, baking, photography, and more video games! Some of my favourites are: Limbo, Monument Valley, Half-Life 2, The Last Guardian, Knights of the Old Republic, and The Last of Us.

SKILLS

  • Unity

  • Unreal

  • Figma
  • Axure
  • Adobe Ps/Ai/Pr

  • Adobe Xd
  • Protopie
  • Quartz Composer

  • HTML/CSS
  • Experimenting:

  • Swift/Xcode

  • R

DESIGN

Wireframing
Prototyping
Visual & Graphic Design
Information Architecture
User Flows
Mentorship
Team Building

RESEARCH

User Interviews
Contextual Inquiry
Card Sorting
Questionnaires
Persona Generation

EVALUATION

Usability Testing
Heuristic Evaluation
Design Critique
GOMS Analysis
Telemetry Analysis

EXPERIENCE

Riot Games

August 2025 - Present

Principal UX Designer - League of Legends

2025: Shipped WASD controls, allowing more players to try League. I provided UX designs and in-engine UI implementation both to refactor existing UI to support WASD, like HUD labeling, and new features like improved click feedback, range indicators, plus the ability to select WASD in the tutorial.

2026: Shipped Champion-Specific Hotkeys, allowing players to set hotkeys for each champion using an override system. I took existing concepts and redesigned them both for accessibility and to fit elegantly into the options menu. I iterated in-engine heavily and gathered playtest feedback, creating both UX concepts and final UI art assets. This was a long-requested feature, and player reception has been positive.

Netflix

April 2025 - July 2025

Senior Lead UX Designer

Led UX for an internal game R&D team at Netflix. Delivered more than 10 unique prototypes in a variety of genres for mobile and cloud platforms.

I innovated on second-screen experiences using the Netflix Game Controller app. I also helped design pitch decks, gaining critical alignment with film & TV directors on potential game partnerships. In one case, the deck combined with the multi-screen feature I was responsible for gained significant traction and led to the project being marked as a priority for Netflix Games.

Not only did I completely own UX and UI design, I wore many other hats contributing to: VO, sound design, video editing, motion design, haptic design, etc, in addition to implementing much of my UI directly in engine (Unity C#, Unreal blueprints).

I helped hone our team's culture by exemplifying Netflix's cultural values including frequent feedback, candor, trust in people over process, and more - for which I received positive feedback.

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June 2022 - April 2025

Lead UX Designer

Relic Entertainment

April 2019 - June 2022

Principal UX Designer

Age of Empires IV (PC): Lead UX designer. Metacritic: 81.

I provided extensive UX leadership including 1:1's, mentorship, culture work, and cross-team reviews. I presented a deck to the studio on memory, cognition, and perception. Hands-on work included user flows, wireframes, prototypes, user research, and technical implementation. I helped develop novel features including simpler scouting, tutorial missions, and visualized build menus all while balancing appeal to existing players and new players alike. I drove key accessibility features, including a complex overhaul allowing all UI text in the game to scale up. I also interfaced with user research labs and our community council, interpreting often divergent or conflicting user feedback.


Company of Heroes 3 (PC): UX support & team building. Metacritic: 80.

While leading Age of Empires IV's' UX design, I helped the Company of Heroes 3 team define their goals, vision, and UX pillars. I assisted with hiring, team-building, and mentorship. Provided UX support interpreting data, player feedback, and outlining HUD UX. I also created provisional user personas by utilizing R to cluster survey data. Additionally, I helped shore up a design culture of feedback and ownership (what Netflix might call Informed Captains).


Unannounced Title(s)

I had the privilege of working on two unannounced titles from the early concept stage. I learned that I gain deep satisfaction working in the unknown where neither the problems nor the solutions are obvious. I helped define visions and hypotheses, then created prototypes to support or refute them. On the second project, I was part of the leadership team which steered the direction of the game and of the team. I expanded my skillset, assisting with UI art direction including creating visual concepts and creating PowerPoint templates.

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July 2015 - April 2019

Senior UX Designer

Electronic Arts

May 2013 - July 2015

UX Designer - NHL

EA SPORTS NHL 16 (Xbox One & PS4): I led NHL 16's UX design, focusing on improving the efficiency of the main menu while designing new features to fit into a tile-based interaction model. I emphasized more consistent use of UI components for easier user navigation and lower implementation cost. I worked closely with the Lead Gameplay Engineer to devise the groundbreaking On-Ice Trainer that visualizes gameplay information and helps onboard new players. This led to measurable improvements in player learning and retention.


EA SPORTS NHL 15 (Xbox One & PS4): this was a transition year to the new Xbox One and PS4. I was responsible for UX overhauls to the entire front-end menu system of over 300 screens, game modes, and in-game HUD elements. Activities included sketching, wireframing, prototyping, information architecture, UX testing, and more.


EA SPORTS NHL 14 (Xbox 360 & PS3): I optimized the main menu structure by designing information architecture changes to improve the clarity of "Play Now" and "Featured" items. I worked with UX Testing Labs to gather insight into user expectations and implement changes based on feedback.

Sundown: Boogie Frights (iOS & Android): I provided UX support for this experimental free-to-play title, helping to create wireframes and prototypes for key areas of the UI.

Simon Fraser University

January 2013 - April 2013

Teaching Assistant - IAT334: User Interface Design

Teaching assistant for IAT 334: User Interface Design. Worked with instructor to design and lead lab activities on HTML and CSS. Gave design critiques to student projects and marked assignments. Students reviewed me higher than the SFU average score.

Used the opportunity to create and deliver a lecture on memory, cognition, and how they apply to form UI design.

I have since had the pleasure to work with some of my former students in the industry!

Electronic Arts

May 2011 - September 2012

Associate UX Designer - EA SPORTS Online

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13 (Web): Designed Tiger Woods Country Clubs web feature UX end-to-end. Worked closely with game designers to identify core feedback loops and surface relevant progression to players.

EA SPORTS Arena (Web): Optimized EA SPORTS Arena sign-up experience on the web and on console; GOMS analysis showed user flow efficiency was improved up to 66%.

EA SPORTS Season Ticket (Web): created wireframes for one of the industry's first subscription programs.

Illumo Design

Jan 2007 - July 2015

Freelancing

Created multiple website re-designs including information architecture, wireframes, and visual designs. Coded one project independently with HTML and CSS, which improved SEO and boosted Google PageRank considerably.

Simon Fraser University

May 2008 - May 2010

TechOne Student Communications Assistant

Designed, built and maintained a community website for first year students built on Joomla! that received 3,700 visits and 21,000 page views over one school year. Used ActionScript to develop an interactive Flash game for use at open house events on large touchscreen SmartBoards.

Pwnage TV: e-Sports Broadcasting

2007-2008

Lead Designer

Built one of the first North American e-sports broadcasting communities, delivering both live and archived videos of competitive video game matches. Designed a Joomla!-backed website and drove more than 2,500 registrations. Assisted with technical implementation of some HTML/CSS and CMS configuration.

Combat Studios

2005-2007

Video Producer

Coordinated a virtual team of video editors, delivering more than 10 promotional videos. Captured and edited in-game footage using Adobe Premiere, After Effects and Sony Vegas. Our videos were featured in Computer Gaming World magazine and at E3 2006 on the show floor.

EDUCATION

Simon Fraser University

2007 - 2013

B.Sc. in Interactive Arts & Technology (Interactive Systems)

Original game Hootlin nominated for Canadian Videogame Award and won 2012 SIAT Showcase for Interface Design. Design courses include: Advanced Game Design, Graphic Design, Information Design, UI Design, Advanced HCI, IxD Methods, and more. Programming courses include: C++, Java, ActionScript, Python, & HTML/CSS.

AWARDS

2022: Canadian Game Awards - Best PC Game (Age of Empires IV)

2022: DICE Awards - Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year (Age of Empires IV)

2021: The Game Awards - Best Sim/Strategy Game (Age of Empires IV)

2014: E3 Best Sports Game of the Show (NHL 15)

2013: E3 Best Sports Game of the Show (NHL 14)

2012: SFU SIAT Showcase Award (Student game Hootlin)

2011: Canadian Game Awards Finalist (Student game Hootlin)

LET'S CHAT

Let's talk shop! Feel free to shoot me an email about what you see here, future work, or anything else you'd like to chat about.

EMAIL ME