I think the most common question I get asked is what exactly is a Technical Experience Designer? When we say Experience we’re referring to UX or User Experience, so let’s break it down. 1/8

When we talk about experience design, the majority of the time we are talking about UI. Examples are things like the HUD, or the settings screen. However this discipline also extends beyond UI into things like user flows, first time boot ups, and such. 2/8
To make a UI in a game the following people typically are involved: Experience Designers, Technical Experience Designers, Programmers, and UI Artists. 3/8
An Experience Designer is likely the one you’re most familiar with. They create wireframes and design documentation for features. They also may work closely with groups like user experience research, data specialists, and various feature owners. 4/8
Okay but what exactly is a Technical Experience Designer then? Well they take those wireframes and design documentation and create it in game. They work with the Experience Designer and try to implement the most performant and best feeling version possible. 5/8
So then they’re programmers? Well sort of, they have a strong technical background but they don’t often work in C++. They either work in visual scripting languages like Unreals Blueprints or in a more traditional scripting language. 6/8
They do work closely with the programmers working on engine features they will need. As you may have also guessed they work closely with the UI Artists to implement their vision into the game. I like to think of them as a bridge between three very different disciplines. 7/8
Many Technical Experience Designers also are passionate about one of the other three disciplines they work with. This strengthens their skillset and helps them bridge the gaps between the disciplines. 8/8

More from Tech

There has been a lot of discussion about negative emissions technologies (NETs) lately. While we need to be skeptical of assumed planetary-scale engineering and wary of moral hazard, we also need much greater RD&D funding to keep our options open. A quick thread: 1/10

Energy system models love NETs, particularly for very rapid mitigation scenarios like 1.5C (where the alternative is zero global emissions by 2040)! More problematically, they also like tons of NETs in 2C scenarios where NETs are less essential.
https://t.co/M3ACyD4cv7 2/10


In model world the math is simple: very rapid mitigation is expensive today, particularly once you get outside the power sector, and technological advancement may make later NETs cheaper than near-term mitigation after a point. 3/10

This is, of course, problematic if the aim is to ensure that particular targets (such as well-below 2C) are met; betting that a "backstop" technology that does not exist today at any meaningful scale will save the day is a hell of a moral hazard. 4/10

Many models go completely overboard with CCS, seeing a future resurgence of coal and a large part of global primary energy occurring with carbon capture. For example, here is what the MESSAGE SSP2-1.9 scenario shows: 5/10

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So the cryptocurrency industry has basically two products, one which is relatively benign and doesn't have product market fit, and one which is malignant and does. The industry has a weird superposition of understanding this fact and (strategically?) not understanding it.


The benign product is sovereign programmable money, which is historically a niche interest of folks with a relatively clustered set of beliefs about the state, the literary merit of Snow Crash, and the utility of gold to the modern economy.

This product has narrow appeal and, accordingly, is worth about as much as everything else on a 486 sitting in someone's basement is worth.

The other product is investment scams, which have approximately the best product market fit of anything produced by humans. In no age, in no country, in no city, at no level of sophistication do people consistently say "Actually I would prefer not to get money for nothing."

This product needs the exchanges like they need oxygen, because the value of it is directly tied to having payment rails to move real currency into the ecosystem and some jurisdictional and regulatory legerdemain to stay one step ahead of the banhammer.