Joining Roblox!
Have you ever heard of Roblox? If you know anyone between the ages of 7 and 15, you most likely have. I hadn’t until a few months ago when a good friend mentioned I should pay more attention to them…
After a few months of engaging conversations with the team, I’m delighted to share that I’ve joined as the head of design for their core app experience!
A few reasons why I’m excited about the role:
- I didn’t anticipate going back into gaming after King for fear of getting typecast, but I like that this is platform and ecosystem building vs game creation. I reckon it will be more like building entire LEGO systems vs a particular LEGO kit.
- Anyone can create a virtual world in Roblox Studio and inhabit them for play or just socializing. In many ways, it’s become the replacement for kids hanging out in malls, but with a lot more creativity.
- They’re doing amazingly well and accelerating like crazy.
- Having little ones of my own, I like the idea of impacting something they are likely to spend significant time with down the road. I wonder how we might improve the platform’s UX to better balance freedom of expression and experimentation, while minimizing the negative aspects of excessive screen time and social networking usage.
- I love that it’s cross-platform and designed to work on older hand me down devices. Instead of trying to compete with eye-popping graphics, they’ve maximized flexibility and reach — a unique approach in the larger gaming industry.
- The interview process was thoughtful and gracious which makes me think the day job will be that way as well. The team I’m joining is filled with talented people from a wide variety of backgrounds that I’m excited to learn from.
- It’s weird… really weird… most adults will have no clue what’s going on if they try it, but the experience magically resonates with kids. Figuring out how to play in any of the thousands of worlds in Roblox is core to the experience which turns a lot of sacrosanct UX rules on their head.
- The founders started Roblox from modest beginnings…
and are now working to build this…
The Apps team has many interesting design challenges to tackle to help bring the company’s vision to the next level. I’m particularly interested to explore how we can expand the platform, opening it up to a wider audience, as well as enabling new kinds of experiences for our users to enjoy. Follow along here on Medium for more updates on my journey or leave a comment if you’re interested in doing design or research work on our growing team! — Ario
