Sports Interactive | SEGA

Football Manager Mobile: enhancing user experience and engagement

Add new and improved features to the world's top football management simulation game developed by Sports Interactive, published by SEGA.

FMM_hero_screensFMM_hero_screens

Problem statement

In today's fiercely competitive mobile gaming landscape, sustaining user engagement and delivering an immersive experience are imperative for success. Football Manager Mobile confronts the ongoing challenge of meeting evolving player expectations while preserving its core gameplay essence.

The 2020 iteration of the game falls short of maximising user satisfaction and extending gameplay sessions due to lacking features and optimisations. Integrating player dynamics, a robust tactics platform, refined set pieces, enhanced player interaction sections, nuanced player squad relationships, and a refreshed iconography throughout the game promises to invigorate user experience and drive prolonged engagement.

The goal

To break the previous years' sales records, demonstrating the game's continued relevance and appeal while solidifying its position as the premier football management experience on mobile platforms. Our ultimate objective is to establish Football Manager Mobile as the definitive destination for football enthusiasts, offering unparalleled depth, realism, and enjoyment on mobile devices.

Research

Stakeholders Interviews
I conducted interviews with key stakeholders to understand business objectives and project requirements.

Secondary research
I leveraged secondary research to gather valuable insights and support my arguments. By examining the existing PC game, I strengthened the foundation of my work, providing a well-rounded perspective on the topic at hand.

Squad dynamics

The Football Manager PC product contains 'Squad dynamics' and the business wanted to bring this into the mobile version but simplified somewhat for the mobile audience. The mobile version will comprise of one specific section of the ‘Club Squad’ with several different areas within it:

  • Hierarchy
  • Social Groups
  • Player Squad Relationships Page

Hierarchy

Football Manager PC squad dynamics

Taking the PC version as a starting point, my brief was to display the hierarchy of players within the club so users can at a glance see which are the most important. Screen size limitations was an issue on mobile, so these had to be taken into consideration. The design needed to show the most influential players (both negative and positive).

The groups to be shown were:

  1. Team Leaders
  2. Highly Influential Players
  3. Influential Players
  4. Others


A new smaller version of the player card would need to be designed for this feature. The new card would be clickable and take the user to the ‘Squad Relationships’ section of the player profile.

Early sketches

Hierarchy_sketchesHierarchy_sketches
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Wireframes in Miro

Pyramid hierarchy

The proposal of showing the different layers stacked like a pyramid resonated well with the stakeholders. The only foreseeable usability issue was with the size of the card, would the contents be too small? Removing a row would allow for the cards to be bigger.

Increasing fidelity

Further iterations led to a higher resolution of wireframe. Removing a row did allow for the cards to be increased in size. I added arrows to allow the user to scroll and view more players.

Iterating in a higher fidelity

A new card component was required. The card needed to contain, an avatar or an image of the player, player name and number, as well as their influence. I also introduced a notion of a light source and from above direction into the assets. Hopefully giving the UI a richness. I would take the lighting concepts onto other UI used within the game.

For the 'Team Leaders' I wanted them to have distinctive look and separate from the others. I introduced an extra level of detail to add a certain refinement.

small player cardsmall player card

Final small player cards

Getting ready for hand off

Adding onto the cards small icons to represent the captain and vice captain. The high fidelity screen for sign off and handover for development.

It was decided to drop the subtle pyramid from the released version in the end.

Squad_HierarchySquad_Hierarchy

Final in game screen

Social groups

Football Manager PC social group

The PC version contains an equivalent page and the mobile page communicates similar information. The page is intended to indicate which social group a player fits within. Explanatory text gives context to the group.

The groups to be shown:

  • Core
    Players are part of the main group within the club. These might not all be influential (or even have similar personalities) but they have solid ties into each other for various reasons which will be visible on their Personal Dynamics page.
     
  • Secondary
    Players who aren't part of the core socials group but who have clicked with at least some people within the club.

     
  • Others
    Players who don’t fit into a social group, don't speak the same language as others there or who have just joined the club or aren’t gelling with others at the moment.

Replicate hierarchy screen

The 'Hierarchy' layout was working well and so could be utilised here. Again space would be an issue unless a group row was removed.

The amount of explanatory text could be a problem. The solution would be to enable a popover with the information.

social_groupsocial_group

Final in game screen

Player squad relationships

This was a new screen with no equivalent in the PC game. A new section of the player profile detailed the squad relationships that a player had. The screen showed where an association exists between a player and another, this could be positive or negative.

Other information represented on this page needed to include:

  • Social Group
  • Items which contribute to that standing (both positive and negative – ie. Long-standing player at club, good reputation etc.).
  • Morale
  • Personality
  • Age
  • Position
  • Squad Status
dynamics_sketchesdynamics_sketches

Early sketches

I reduced the card size to the small version used on the 'Hierarchy' and 'Social groups' screens. This allowed for more content to be included. Adding connecting lines would link together players to form relationships. A user would click on the player cards to flip between different content. There was a lot of content to fit into this screen.

player_relationships2player_relationships2

Final in game screen

Football Manager branding 2021

A new iteration of the larger player card was required for 2021 release.

The branding for the year incorporated multiple diagonal strips throughout all game versions. I decided to include this style of graphic subtly into the card backgrounds to link the version.

There were x2 versions of the player cards required, a star player, represented by a gold background and a standard player with a purple background. I continued with the introduction of a notion of a light source from above, as I had implemented into other assets.

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Player card concepts

Player_cardsPlayer_cards

Final cards

Method example 2
Iconography and game art assets

I refreshed all navigation icons in menus. I felt they were too detailed for the resolution they were scaled for and weren't in line with the format of icons used in other areas of the game. I endeavoured to make a consistent set and bring unity to the game.

old_iconsold_icons

Old FMM 2020 icons

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New FMM 2021 icons

New Pitch and player position indicators

  • New pitch with a gradient circular cut grass simulation, added the consistent light source feel. (who would have thought grass was tricky to get looking correct)
  • Consistency in colour across active touch points
  • Simplifying and unifying the touch points
  • Introducing a notion of a light source to the player pitch shapes
  • Introducing a shadow to lift player shapes off the pitch
  • Larger team formation graphic element
  • New interactive graphic element toggle for on pitch player chemistry
FM21_playerShapesFM21_playerShapes

New FMM 2021 player position indicators

New attack assets

Reflection

To be able to work on such an iconic project who’s sole purpose is to bring joy and entertain, has been overwhelmingly enjoyable.

The mobile team embraced a new way of working that I proposed to speed up the process of delivery.

The 2021 version of the mobile game has broken the previous sales record of over 1,000,000+ sales.

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