My Name is Hawke. I'm a front-end designer.

About Me

Currently, I work as a UX Designer at Riot Games on VALORANT in sunny, Southern California.

Prior to VAL, I used to design for Legends of Runeterra. Note that I haven't updated this portfolio since before joining Riot. Some of my older work is below.

I also used to manage a small group of designers within Battle.net across multiple product teams. Say hi!

Skills & Interests

Platform design
Internal & external tools
Systems design
Around-game & social design

Projects

Blizzard Battle.net
Diablo Sites
Heroes & StarCraft

Blizzard Battle.net Leading Platform Design Teams

Battle.net is Blizzard’s online gaming service, combining multiplayer connectivity, purchases, account management, social features, and more into a single package.

Previously, I led several teams within “Battle.net & Online Products,” including a group tasked with making tools and tech decisions for Blizzard’s web properties. Most of this work is still behind an NDA.

Some early adopters of our tech are shown below, including Diablo Immortal (also below), Warcraft III Reforged, and World of Warcraft Classic.

Diablo Game Sites & New Tech

The Diablo series features multiple “hack-and-slash” dungeon-crawler games. Blizzard’s latest addition, Diablo Immortal, is its first primarily mobile title.

In 2018, my team created three announcement websites as “test pilots” for our next-gen web tech platform, two of which were Diablo games.

Using an internally-built design tool and a React-based system, we were able to ship these Blizzard-quality sites in half of the time… and with far fewer contributors.

Diablo Immortal key art showing Diablo as a skeleton

Diablo 3 Switch announcement website header sections

Diablo Immortal Announcement Site

The hardest part about announcing new games is that their releases come often months (or years) later.

The DI site was the first use a new “one-click” opt-in service to register for the upcoming public beta, leading to much improved conversion rates and engagement. Previously, players would have to visit a separate Battle.net Account Management site, and then complete a multi-page web form in order to sign up.

Playable classes: Barbarian, Monk, Wizard, Crusader, Demon Hunter, and Necromancer

Timeline showing when Diablo Immortal takes place relative to other games

Heroes, StarCraft Game & Esports Sites

Further back in my time at the company, I worked on numerous announcement, marketing, and esports websites.

The nature of RTS and MOBA-style games is that they are updated constantly. And since joining, the company has gone from four to nine active titles. Our challenge was to continue to deliver “Blizzard quality” work while also scaling up to meet the increased demand.

Homepage art, showing Jim Raynor, Sarah Kerrigan, and Artanis

StarCraft II Scalable Design System

StarCraft II is a legendary RTS (real-time strategy) game by Blizzard Entertainment.

Blizzard changed the title’s business model seven years after its original release, making it free-to-play and bringing in new players. I was tasked with redesigning the older, outdated (and non-responsive) site into something scalable and future-proof.

In addition to a modern, modular design, I also built the site’s component library. This reduced both the time and manpower needed to ship the initial site by at least half, while also making future work easier to complete.

Before and after comparison for StarCraft2.com

Several StarCraft-themed components, including buttons, color schemes, and navigation

An explanation of how to play a real-time strategy game

Several StarCraft components, including cards and tiles

Heroes of the Storm The 2.0 Relaunch

Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA-style game by Blizzard Entertainment. Players become legendary heroes from Blizzard’s various titles, then battle each other online.

In April 2017, the company put out “Heroes 2.0,” a large update and redesign of the game and its systems. Our team laid the foundation for the game site’s redesign with a new homepage, visual design system, and promotional content.

CTA to download and play Heroes for free

Timeline of Heroes of the Storm's history, featuring Chromie

Snippet of the Lunar Festival event header