Redesigning the Roll20 Pathfinder 2e Character Sheet: Leading With Lean UX and Evolutionary Design

by Patrice Cantalupo, Sr. Product Manager & Miguel Peres, Designer/Developer

In our previous blog post, we shared how we created a new Character builder and sheet for the Marvel Multiverse RPG on Roll20 utilizing a user-centered design process. We’re using the same process, but with a twist: with the principles of Lean UX and Evolutionary Design, we’re redesigning the Pathfinder 2E character sheet to accommodate the newest Remaster changes.

Pathfinder 2E is a fantasy role-playing game that offers a rich and diverse world of adventure and customization. Players can create their own characters from a variety of ancestries, classes, skills, feats, spells, and equipment. However, with so many options and rules, building and playing a character can be overwhelming, especially for new players.

That’s why we decided to redesign the Pathfinder 2E character sheet on Roll20, to make it easier, faster, and more enjoyable for players and game masters alike. But we also wanted to do it in a way that would let us collaborate with our community in a back-and-forth dialogue over time to make the best sheet we can. That’s where Lean UX and Evolutionary Design come in.

What are Lean UX and Evolutionary Design?

Lean UX is an approach to user experience design that focuses on delivering value to the users as quickly as possible, by building a minimum viable product (MVP) and testing it with real users, then learning from the feedback and iterating on the design. Lean UX is based on the following principles:

• Assume less, learn more. Instead of relying on assumptions or opinions, we use hypotheses and experiments to validate our ideas: when something doesn’t work, we take that lesson and try again until we get it just right.
• Build, measure, learn. We build a MVP that has the core features and functionality of our product, then we measure how it performs with real users, and we learn from the data and feedback to improve our design.
• Collaborate and co-create. We involve the whole team, from developers to stakeholders, in the design process, and we co-create solutions with our users, by listening to their needs and preferences.

Evolutionary Design is an approach to software development that embraces change and adapts to the evolving needs of the users and the business. Evolutionary Design is based on the following principles:

• Start simple. We start with the simplest solution that works, and we avoid over-engineering or premature optimization.
• Refactor continuously. We constantly improve the quality and structure of our code, by applying small and frequent changes that make it more readable, maintainable, and extensible.
• Add behavior incrementally. We add new features and functionality to our product in small and manageable increments, by following the feedback-driven cycle of build, measure, learn.

How We Applied Lean UX and Evolutionary Design to the Pathfinder 2E Character Sheet

We applied Lean UX and Evolutionary Design to the Pathfinder 2E character sheet by following these steps:

Define the problem and the Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

• We conducted user research to understand the pain points and needs of our users when creating and playing Pathfinder 2E characters on Roll20 and other platforms. We also analyzed the game system rules and mechanics, and the Remaster changes, to identify the core features and functionality that our character sheet needed to have. We defined our MVP as a character sheet that supports the basic actions and calculations of Pathfinder 2E, such as ability scores, skills, saving throws, attacks, conditions, and inventory. 

Starting Lo-Fi

• Using the insights we generated during the previous step, we brainstormed and sketched low-level design alternatives that would satisfy our initial requirements.
• As a team, we evaluated those alternatives taking in account the the experience they would provide to our players but also the technical aspects that would be involved into making them a reality. Once a direction was set, we further refined the information architecture for the chosen option aiming to group information and define how a player would accomplish specific tests within the character sheet.

Moving into Hi-Fi

• Finally, we tested our high-fidelity prototypes with users again and made further adjustments as needed:

Parallel Development

What comes next…

By then end of the year we are planning to release the beta version of the sheet, with that MVP you’ll see the new UX as well as some key improvements from our current PF2 sheet, including:

• Improved Automation: We’ve re-engineered how calculations are done across the sheet which will allow modifications to properly propagate throughout the sheet; from now on automation around calculated field will only help and never get in the way of playing
• Improved Conditions: Bonuses from default conditions will now propagate through to the entire sheet
• Improved Bonus/Penalty Types: Status, Circumstances, and Items will now be applied & calculated correctly throughout the entire sheet

But this won’t be the end! We have a roadmap or improvements planned to make the sheet even better.  We will also be actively soliciting feedback and adjusting our roadmap to prioritize the biggest needs of the community.  Some of the things we’re thinking about for the future:

• Traits Handling: Filtering and dynamically organizing your sheet by trait, and easily referencing trait definitions. 
• Better Roll Handling: Support for rolls made secretly by or to the GM, and improved methods of making these rolls quickly in a game session.
• Custom Conditions: Ability to add toggleable custom conditions and spell effects to your sheet that will automatically apply any mechanical effects
• Improved Feats: Ability to see actions, strikes, other feats, etc. that are granted by your current feats, make relevant choices and toggle a wide variety of bonuses on and off across your sheet. 
• Rolling back your level: Ability to roll a character back to an earlier level without manually removing the feats, attribute boosts, other character creation choices that were made along the way.
• Character Builder: Build a character from start to finish with a guided character builder
• And so much more!

The Result: A Better Character Sheet for Pathfinder 2E

By applying Lean UX and Evolutionary Design to the Pathfinder 2E character sheet, we achieved the following results:

• A more immersive and enjoyable character playing experience. We redesigned our character sheet to be more visually appealing and engaging, by using the Pathfinder 2E art style and icons, and by adding dynamic elements such as animations and sounds. We also added features that enhance the gameplay, such as automation for repetitive tasks and an easier way to manage character conditions.
• A more scalable and adaptable character sheet framework. We built our character sheet to be flexible and modular, by using components and templates that can be reused and modified for different game systems. We also developed something we call “Integrants” that will allow us to state how any attribute, condition or item can modify pretty much anything else in the character sheet, which will allow us to do some pretty complex things moving forward. We hope to talk more about that in a future post geared to our more technically inclined readers.

We hope that our character sheet will inspire more people to play Pathfinder 2E on Roll20, and to explore the amazing world of fantasy and adventure that it offers. We also look forward to having you help us co-creating the best experience possible within our next development cycles.