The Useful Interface

Designer of Experiences & Interfaces. Illustrator. Wearer of Cat Shirts.

Cat Shirts

Who is Aerin Artessa?

I am a UI Technical Artist with 16 years of experience in game development, specializing in building complex menu systems, creating dynamic visual effects, and leading teams to deliver user-friendly interfaces. I have a strong technical foundation and a keen artistic eye, bridging the gap between art and programming, ensuring high-quality results across multiple projects. I have extensive experience collaborating with international partners, fostering clear communication, and driving projects to successful completion. I am passionate about pushing the boundaries of UI in games, and I continuously seek innovative solutions to enhance player experiences.

Some of the companies I have brought my talents to are EA, Riot Games, Hasbro, MIT, Harmonix, Farrar Straus and Giroux, Scholastic and Macmillian. In addition to these companies,I frequently work with smaller start ups like Navitome, Earplay and Superhealos who need someone that is a bit of a one-stop-shop in regards to services. Regardless of the size or scope of the project I always bring a keen eye and an innate ability to gauge experience from a variety user’s perspectives.

When I'm not working I'm an avid cyclist, runner, miniature painter, skier and general lover of all things outdoors.

Battlefield 6

Battlefield 6

Battlefield Studios | EA

After returning from Jedi Survivor, I rejoined Battlefield Studios as the UI Technical Design Lead for the North American Meta team on Battlefield 6. My work focused on frontend systems, including game selection, upsell surfaces, Portal, the in-game store, camera systems, shader development, and overall menu architecture, while also collaborating closely with our European partners at DICE in Sweden. In parallel with my individual contributions, I expanded the North American UI Technical Design team from 3 to 9 members over the course of the project. Battlefield 6 ultimately launched as the best-selling game of 2025.

Jedi Survivor

Jedi Survivor

Respawn Entertainment | EA

Between Battlefield 2042 and Battlefield 6, I was loaned to Respawn Entertainment to support the development of Jedi Survivor. Working in Unreal Engine, I led the development of the photo mode, implemented tutorial toasts with contextual input prompts, and built out the main menu systems. I was responsible for translating UX wireframes and established style guides into polished UI through animation, effects, and layout design. This project was a personal dream of mine, and I’m incredibly proud of what we accomplished as a team.

Battlefield 2042

Battlefield 2042

Battlefield Studios | EA

I joined Ripple Effect Studios toward the end of Battlefield 2042’s development to help bring Portal 1.0 across the finish line, while also supporting post-launch features and improvements. My contributions—spanning HUD scaling, play menu redesign, enhanced Portal customization tools, and camera system improvements—were quickly recognized, leading to my promotion to Senior Technical UI Designer.

Doctor Who: Pocket Paradox

Runeterra

Riot Games

At my time with Demiurge we contracted with the Runeterra team to create Leaderboards, Profile and one unannounced feature. Leaderboard list styles were all designed and produced by myself but the remainder of the profile was kit-bashed using the existing art within the game.

Doctor Who: Pocket Paradox

Doctor Who: Pocket Paradox

Disruptor Beam

Doctor Who: Pocket Paradox was a Character Collector mobile RPG and spiritual successor to Star Trek: Timelines. I was brought on as the Lead UI/UX Designer for the project where I used Sketch to create UX Wireframes, Styleguide Libraries and led a small team of designers. Unfortunately Disruptor Beam fell apart and the project was cancelled before it could be launched.

Gigsmart

GigSmart

Rocket Farm Studios

I was contracted by Rocket Farm Studios to handle UX and UI for the Gigsmart App, a gig app directed at blue collar jobs in the Pittsburgh area. I took the initial wireframes and fleshed them out fully with expansions on the first time user experience, account creation, onboarding and list features (swiping for quick controls). All of my wireframing and designs were created in Adobe XD, Sketch and Zeplin.

Star Trek Timelines

Star Trek Timelines

Disruptor Beam

Star Trek Timelines is a Character Collector mobile RPG for iOS, Android, Facebook and now Windows. It has been running strong for near four years now and continues to improve and add new features for an avid fanbase.

I came onto the project and quickly began modernizing the out-of-date Sketch libraries and taking quality of life features including: modernizing mission results, unifying scrolling elements in daily missions, fixing scaling issues causing text to be illegible and new iconography. In addition to this I handled the UX and UI for a new Campaign feature which incorporates a battle pass feature. Ultimately this feature was highly successful and increased revenue as well as improving user engagement.

The Walking Dead: March to War

The Walking Dead: March to War

Disruptor Beam

Walking Dead: March to War was a mobile War Game for iOS and Android incorporating a survivor collector mechanic to differentiate it from other titles in the genre. I brought my technical expertise to the project creating shaders, building transitions for the majority of in game panels, building particle effects for celebration moments and scripting complex UI animations and panels when no engineers were available for QOL features. In addition to this I handled the UX and UI design of Elite Survivor selection, In-Game Mail and Weekly Events.

Go Home Dinosaurs

Earplay Player Prototype

Earplay

Earplay is a start up company that combines top-notch storytelling with industry leading narrative designers of the gaming industry. What you get is cutting-edge interactive stories you can play with your voice.

Earplay brought me on early as a brand, UI and UX designer. In this part of the project I helped out specifically with investor materials, logo design and UI flow/design of the prototype story player application.

Rock Band Blitz

Rock Band Blitz

Harmonix

Rock Band Blitz is a different take on the Rock Band franchise favoring standard controllers over the iconic plastic instruments. Having this as an option, I was able to create a wheel style menu system allowing users to hop from the store to their song list in a few seconds as opposed to a linear heriarchical one which took significantly more effort but felt more natural using the guitar. Admittedly This was a bit of a risk since it was so drastically different from the other menu systems in the franchise but through a prototype I constructed in Flash, combined with user testing, it showed great promise. Ultimately the menus were a success leading to that rare occassion where a reviewer actually complimented the menus. Blitz was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 in the summer of 2012.

On this I was the primary UI and UX designer for the game's menu systems barring background illustrations (Jacques Peña) and game iconography (Colby Grenier). In addition to this I did light 3D work, scripted UI effects, animated transitions and built the menus using the Harmonix proprietary game engine.

Go Home Dinosaurs

Go Home Dinosaurs

Firehose Games

Go Home Dinosaurs is a fun, light hearted tower defense title with collectable cards and puzzle like elements. Working on this game was a unique experience as we were actively developing the engine for it as we created content. This presented an interesting challenge working with developers to refine or implement systems and pioneer art pipelines for the project with little to no support.

. Much of my focus on this project was iconography, menus, 2D illustration of HUD elements, fontography, logo design and UX design of the loadout / pre-game screens.

Illustration

More than just UI

Pixel Artist, Podcaster, Illustrator and Brand Designer

While my primary job is doing UI/UX work, my roots are with brand design, typography and illustration. I still maintain these practices for clients and my own personal projects.

Get in Touch

Interested in working with me on a project? Are you a student or new to the art field looking for some advice? Want to just say you appreciate my work? All inquiries are welcome, send your messages to and I will get back to you shortly.