16 · UI / UX

Status: Skeleton · Owner: TBD · Updated: 2026-09-23

Purpose

Define screen flow, information architecture, and the onboarding that decides whether anyone stays past day one.

To define

• Screen map / navigation diagram
• Home screen layout — city view as the hub
• City ↔ world map transition
• Alliance hub and chat/war-room layout
• Notification and badge policy (in-game and push)
• Onboarding: first 5 minutes, first session, first week
• Tutorial approach: guided hand, contextual, or skippable
• Accessibility: text size, colour-blind modes, one-handed reach, tap targets
• Localisation layout tolerance (German/Thai string lengths break layouts)
• Offline/return summary screen

Think about

• The genre's UX default is a screen buried in red dots and floating sale icons. It converts, and it is also why people describe these games as exhausting. Decide deliberately how much clutter you accept; a clean version of this game is a real differentiator, and a real revenue risk. Pick knowingly.
• The first 5 minutes decide the install. Most of this genre opens with a scripted attack, a rescue and a rebuild — it works because it gives emotional stakes before it gives systems. Your premise supports something stronger: the player arrives at the ruin of their own dynasty and lays the first stone.
• Do not teach the whole game. Teach one loop, then let events and the alliance teach the rest over the first week. Front-loaded tutorials are where new players are lost.
• The return summary is a core screen, not a courtesy. Players are away for 8–12 hours. What happened while they slept — attacks, help given, completed builds, alliance events — should be one readable screen, not eight popups.
• Alliance chat is the most-used screen in the game and usually the worst designed. Treat it as a first-class feature: translation, pins, rally links, readable at a glance.
• Design for one hand on a large phone. Primary actions belong in the bottom third. This genre's players play in bed, on transit, at work.
• Notification policy is a retention lever and a churn lever simultaneously. "Your city is under attack" must arrive; "A new bundle is available" thrice daily gets your notifications disabled entirely — and then the attack alert never arrives either.

Open questions

#	Question	Blocks	Owner
1	How aggressive is store/offer surfacing?	Monetisation, retention
2	Is the tutorial skippable?	Onboarding metrics
3	Portrait, landscape, or both?	Art, UI, all screens