CASE STUDY 6: PLAYSTATION (SCEE)

Designing for the Living Room — and the Pocket

Role: Senior Web Designer / UX Lead
Duration: Jan 2002 – Mar 2011
Sector: Gaming / Entertainment

The Challenge

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe needed to unify its digital presence across three very different contexts: a television-based browser used from a sofa, a rapidly growing mobile audience, and a complex content-managed website serving dozens of European markets. Each context had unique constraints: 8–10ft viewing distances on the PS3, emerging touchscreen patterns on early smartphones, and the need for localised content at scale.

The Approach

Over nine years I led UX and conceptual design for SCEE's key digital platforms, often acting as the bridge between creative vision and engineering reality.

  • PS3 PlayStation Portal: I designed the "built-in browser" experience for television, treating it as an application rather than a website. I created a full icon library and visual vocabulary optimised for 8–10ft viewing distances, with strong contrast, clear focal points, and D-pad navigation patterns.

  • PlayStation Mobile App: I produced the initial conceptual and UX design for Sony's first PlayStation mobile app. This work was used as the basis for pitching the project to external agencies, and I subsequently acted as client-side Art Director during agency delivery, shaping specifications and ensuring brand adherence.

  • eu.playstation.com: I was lead design for the Europe-wide consumer site, working within Agile sprint cycles to add features and improve functionality. I also art-directed multiple agency collaborations and created campaign sites for first-party game launches and developer events.

  • Internal systems: I designed the corporate site, Third Party Relations intranet, and the Flow CMS that powered the consumer portal — ensuring content editors could manage localised experiences without developer dependency.

The Outcome

  • TV-optimised interface became the standard on-console PlayStation Portal experience on PS3 across Europe, handling navigation via game controller rather than mouse.

  • Mobile app concept was adopted as the agency brief and formed the foundation for the first official PlayStation mobile application.

  • eu.playstation.com served as the primary digital touchpoint for 50M+ European users, with localised content managed through the CMS I helped design.

  • Created a reusable visual system and icon library that accelerated future screen designs across the PlayStation digital ecosystem.