Death Stranding

Accessibility Case Study Overview

With my excitement for Death Stranding 2’s release on the PC, I decided to replay the first Death Stranding.

As I was playing, I decided this time to choose a few screens that I thought could benefit from an accessibility pass and a slight redesign without overhauling the whole thing.

The research and resources I used for the accessibility pass include:

My Role

  • UX Designer

    • Created alternate versions of existing screens with adjustments to enhance accessibility

Objective

To do an accessibility pass on some of the screens and adjust them to create better experiences for the player.

*Adjust them without completely redesigning the screens

Concerns & Adjustments

Adjustments

  • Font & background combination that passes contrast requirements

  • A visually static option selector to avoid flashing/pulsating effect

  • Added more options to the sound setting to improve overall experience

    • Previously only had 3 options (Subtitle toggle, size, and master volume)

Adjustments

  • Added darkened and blurred layer behind texts to improve legibility

  • Added labels to the menu on the left to make the selections more clear

  • Moved information around and put them in expandable menus to reduce visual clutter on the map

  • Included dashes on the edges of the status bar to clearly differentiate sections that are full vs partial

Adjustments

  • Added speaker label for clear distinction of who’s speaking

  • Added translucent background behind text for improved contrast and legibility

Tools

Figma

Concerns

  • The contrast of the text and the selection box is quite low, making it difficult to read

  • The box also has a pulsating effect which can make it harder to read

Concerns

  • The lack of speaker labels can make dialogue confusing for people deaf and hard of hearing, as well as anyone who may need it

  • Subtitles can get obscured depending on the background of the game

  • No options to change the colour of the subtitles

Concerns

  • Low text legibility

  • Decorative elements on map screen add to visual clutter

  • Overwhelming amount of information on screen

  • Status bars on bottom left can be unclear (full vs partial)