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Sierra Lorenzini — Xbox Internship 2018

Sierra Lorenzini — Xbox Internship 2018

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Project — Microsoft Studios Global Publishing · Summer 2018

GAME Design internship II

GAME Design internship II

GAME Design internship II

Age of Empires II · Forza Motorsport 7

Age of Empires II · Forza Motorsport 7

two franchises, one summer — and a design that shipped.

two franchises, one summer — and a design that shipped.

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  • Age of Empires II · Forza Motorsport 7 · Microsoft Studios Global Publishing · Summer 2018 ·

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Age of Empires II

Age of Empires II

The problem: the original menu looked outdated, could be confusing, and wasted a lot of space. I worked with the team to decide what we liked about the menu and what to change, which gave me the context to start wireframing.

Initial gray-box wireframes were presented to the team; with their feedback, I took their favorite to a high-fidelity mockup of the final product.

The original Age of Empires II HD Edition main menu

The original menu

Gray-box wireframe

Gray-box wireframe of the redesigned menu with shield-shaped buttons and social and news panels

Alternative layout

Alternative gray-box layout with menu buttons in two side columns

High-fidelity mockup

High-fidelity mockup of the redesigned menu — shield buttons over a painted village scene with a community panel

Shipped

In November 2019, a version of my design was implemented in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.

The Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition main menu

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Forza Motorsport 7

Forza Motorsport 7

For the last few weeks of the internship I moved to Turn 10 Studios — a first taste of the studio I’d later join full-time. In Forza, players compete in multiplayer groups called “hoppers” for as long as they choose to stay, but there was no way to see who was doing best across the whole session — only the individual race.

I designed a mini-leaderboard for the hoppers and produced three video mockups exploring how it could be presented in-game.

Forza Motorsport 7 race HUD mockup featuring the mini-leaderboard of nearby drivers

The mini-leaderboard