"Coming from an outsider's perspective on AR Technology, I’m ready to tackle the new trend of AR with meaningful design." UI/UX Designer Who Worked on the Nintendo Switch【Pretia's Stories】

Hello! My name is Moeko, the HR Manager at Pretia Technologies.
Pretia Technologies is excited to welcome Sugino, a UI/UX designer who worked on the Nintendo Switch and who is also a "Flipbook Artist".

Masaaki Sugino, UI/UX Designer, Pretia Technologies Inc.

“I realized that a single designer can only make change with small things. So I became a director so that I could build a team to consider the entire user experience.”

ーFirst of all, can you tell us about your career history?

“I was in Sapporo City College of Technology, which no longer exists, but it was the only college of technology in design and art at the time.
After, I went on to graduate school at Keio University, where I was a part of the digital entertainment research lab. After graduation, I joined Nintendo and was assigned to the UI design group. From there, I stayed at Nintendo for about 11 years. Afterwards, I devoted myself to Flipbook authorship for the next few years before joining Pretia.”

↑Flipbook created by Sugino

“I was working on something AR-like in my graduate school lab. At the time, there were no smartphones. But we attached a webcam to a handheld device and created a gimmick that allowed the user to see things with the camera.
For example, when a camera captures light, it glows white, right? The world spread out on the other side of that white light, and the character moved within it. Technically, it was a simple thing, but I created the graphics and programmed it all by myself.”

ーWhat kind of work did you do at Nintendo?

“As a UI/UX designer at Nintendo, I designed a wide range of things; sometimes I would design for in-game or sometimes the hardware itself.
During my 11 years at Nintendo, I worked in a variety of roles while working as a designer. I did things such as localization of games and a debugging instructor.
Eventually, I even took on the role of Director of Designers. Which, I took on because of the sense of the challenges I would face. When I was designing as a designer, there were times when I thought, "If I want to design something easy to use, I can't do it unless I change the specifications".

That is why I felt it was necessary to think about design from the upstream, which is how I was made a director. I came to think that unless you think upstream and start from the wireframe, you will never be able to create a truly good product.

After I started working as a director, I strongly felt that many UI/UX designers worked "only" in their area of responsibility.

For example, thinking only about the initial setup of the Switch by pressing the power button is inappropriate from the perspective of the "initial set up flow”.

The customer excitedly buys the Switch, opens the box at home, sets the Joy-Cons, and presses the power button - all of this is part of the initial set up process.

If the customer is not aware that we are creating the entire service, the customer's experience will not be the same when they use the service. I felt that we all need to have the awareness that we are creating the whole. I thought it would be great if we could work within Nintendo to have the thought process that everyone is creating the user journey. Which is why I conveyed this philosophy to the people around me.

To change to this philosophy, of course, it is not enough to look only at the designer team. I talked with people who were not involved before I became director, such as the people who created the packaging, the advertising staff who were in charge of creating commercials, and the engineers, to create a path for the work to proceed.

 
In this way, I tried to think about the Nintendo Switch from a bird's eye view of the user experience. It seems that many people are using the system, and I hope that my efforts have made a little sense.”

“I believe that the good stories that come my way are ‘destiny’”.

ーWhy did you leave Nintendo?.

“I had always wanted to be a creator, so I didn't intend to stay at Nintendo forever. I thought 10 years was a good milestone, so I decided to leave to do what I wanted.
Although I was working as a creator, the publishing industry was in recession due to the Covid 19... I was trying to spread my activities through workshops just as Covid was beginning to spread.

 
That plan came to a halt and while I was asking Pretia if I could increase my workload a little more, I was asked if I would like to join the company and become a full-time employee.

I live in Hokkaido with my family, so I wanted to work from a full remote location. I was a little worried that I wouldn't be able to do my job well in a fully remote position, but after working at the company, I think I'm surprised at how well I'm doing.”

ーDid you have any other options other than working at Pretia?

“Nothing at all! When I joined Nintendo, there were only about three companies I applied for. To be invited to join Pretia was"destiny"! I am very happy to be here. In my life so far, I have had more experiences of things going in a better direction than I expected, and I think I may be valuing destiny more than anything else. In particular, in terms of my contact with Pretia, I was doing AR-like research in graduate school, so I'm feeling like I'm back to my roots”

 
ーWhat kind of work do you do as a UI/UX designer at Pretia?

“First, I receive specifications and wireframes from the product manager, but when I think about it as a "product", usually I see that many components are still not enough. Although there are many missing components, the wireframes express a lot about "How should this product behave?". I digest this information, discuss the components that are beyond our interpretation. Further defining what we want this product to do and where we want to go with it.

As we stop to think and listen, we conclude that "this is how the wireframe for this product should look like”. Then, I create a new wireframe and return it to the product manager. Sharing my design and what I have in mind. That's how I create a meaningful design.”

ーDo you ever have to deal with people who push back on your designs?

“The way I work, there is no part of the wireframe in which I can't answer "why" to my design. Questions like “Why does this screen here exist?”, “Why is it such a color?”, and “Why are there buttons here?”. As to how I worked in my Nintendo days, I think about everything in a holistic way. There is no part of my work that I cannot answer.

 
If I can explain properly, the product manager and the client will understand. I don't get pushed around too much.”

“As a professional, cut corners with a good pinch of salt.”

ーHow do you feel about working as a designer at Pretia?

“When I made products at Nintendo, it took 2-3 years to create one product, but Pretia is completely different. We complete a design in 3 ~ 5 months at the longest, and repeatedly verify and revise it.

 
That is why I feel that my current position is interesting with new challenges and learning through repeated trial and error.

In addition, working at a startup, I encounter many situations where I need to "cut corners with a good pinch of salt". The more elaborate the design, the more you can do. But then you run out of time and the release gets further away.

 
I think it is fun to "cut corners with a good pinch of salt," that is, to think of places where we need to "cut" some of the functions or specifications and cut them off appropriately.

 
"Cutting corners with the right amount of salt" does not mean crudely thinking of the product, but rather creating a state in which the most desired part of the product can be seen most beautifully. I enjoy thinking about this continuously.

When I look at something I designed a few months ago, I sometimes think, "There was room for improvement here." Using this as a learning situation for the next go-around. I like to say that, if I keep producing, it means that my skills are improving. Which is also another interesting recent discovery about myself.”

ーWhat do you find the most challenging here at Pretia?

“English! Since English is the official language in the company, I am trying my best to catch up.

Since I am the only UI/UX designer, I am entrusted with a range of tasks that an ordinary designer would not be able to do. Such as creating posters, certificates, background images for videoconferences, and logos. Even though my title is "UI/UX designer".

I feel that if you only do UI/UX design, your skills will become too specialized. When I create a logo or a poster, I sometimes feel a new essence and then I try to import this essence back into UI/UX design. It's interesting.”

“We want to create a new UI for the new soil of AR.”

ーWhat kind of person would be an ideal UI/UX designer for Pretia?

“Like myself, I prefer people who have a broader perspective in their daily lives. There are many things that I don't notice, but I am aware of the things that I don't notice.

 
I can't use a bad UI and that is why I have to ask myself "If I were a user, how would I feel about this experience?” My wife often gets angry with me for not noticing various things in my daily life.

In terms of mindset, because there are not many designers in the company, I think that a person whose main focus is UI/UX but who is also interested in various things and can take a hands-on approach would be suited for this position.”

ーWhat are some of the things you would like to do or accomplish at Pretia?

“I would like to create a new standard UI for the AR space.

There was a time when gradients and glossy buttons were favored. In this trend, the design was such that it was easy to tell that it was a button just by looking at it. After a while, the trend shifted to a flat design.

 
With this major change, users were confused as to whether it is just text or arranged as buttons at first glance. I predicted that flat design was going to be confusing when it first came out, but gradually it became a major trend and everyone could understand it.

In this way, I would like to create a new UI trend for "AR". I think it is easy to take on the challenge of creating UI trends because of the early stage of the industry. I also feel the future is here and I would be happy to work with people who share this future.”

ーGreat! Thank you for sharing your story with us!

Pretia Technologies is looking for a second UI/UX designer to help us achieve our vision of "Delivering the Joy of Achievement Together!"

 
If you're interested, let's connect!

▼Click here to read more about our UI/UX Designer position
https://herp.careers/v1/pretia/cHQxp96xLVEf


▼We are looking for a person who is interested in working for our company.

Apply through our recruiting portal by clicking the link below.

Pretia Technologies - Hiring[EN]