UX Research · Usability Testing · QA · Tencent Games
ArtFlow
Systematic usability testing and iterative optimization for an internal art asset management and collaboration platform — uncovering 100+ issues and driving a 95% fix rate through cross-functional collaboration.
Role
QA & UX Research Intern
Team
Tencent Games R&D International Business Unit
Timeline
Jun – Sep 2025 (3 months)
Methods & Tools
Usability Testing Bug Tracking · Jira Iterative Testing Stakeholder Reports
5+
Rounds of User Testing
100+
Issues Identified
20+
Key Recommendations
95%
Issue Fix Rate
01 — Background
The Challenge
ArtFlow is Tencent Games' internal platform for art asset management and cross-team collaboration, used by game artists, producers, and engineers across distributed studios. As the platform grew in complexity, critical usability gaps began to slow down production workflows.
About ArtFlow
ArtFlow centralizes game art pipelines — handling asset versioning, team collaboration, lifecycle tracking, and workflow coordination across global game development teams. With hundreds of daily active users relying on it for shipping titles, even small friction points compound into significant productivity losses.
02 — Methodology
How I Ran the Tests
I designed and executed a systematic usability testing program across multiple rounds, covering core workflows and edge cases that surfaced real production pain points.
Test Planning
Defined scope, recruited internal users across roles (artists, APM, engineers), and designed task scenarios that mirrored real production workflows.
Task Execution
Facilitated 5+ rounds of moderated usability tests, observing users interact with ArtFlow on tasks including asset upload, version control, collaboration handoffs, and status tracking.
Issue Logging
Documented 100+ findings across interaction problems, edge cases, version conflict behaviors, and workflow breakdowns — each tagged by severity, frequency, and affected component.
Analysis & Reporting
Synthesized findings into structured usability evaluation reports, mapping issues to user goals and identifying root causes in interface clarity, error states, and task flow logic.
Recommendations
Proposed 20+ actionable design improvements prioritized by impact, including progress visualization, system state unification, and error message clarity enhancements.
Validation Testing
Conducted before/after comparison testing on implemented changes, verifying that fixes resolved the original issues without introducing new friction.
03 — Key Findings
What We Uncovered
Testing revealed four major categories of usability issues affecting daily productivity and team collaboration across distributed studios.
Interface Clarity
Labels, icons, and status indicators were ambiguous — users frequently misread asset states, leading to duplicate uploads and version overwrites.
Version Conflict Handling
Concurrent editing by distributed teams triggered unresolved conflicts with no clear system feedback, causing silent data loss in collaborative workflows.
Error State Communication
Error messages lacked specificity and recovery paths — users didn't know what failed, why it failed, or how to proceed, increasing support tickets.
Workflow Interruptions
Core task flows (upload → review → approve → publish) were interrupted by missing progress indicators and inconsistent system behavior across modules.
04 — Recommendations
20+ Improvements Proposed
Each recommendation was grounded in observed user behavior and tied to a specific usability failure. The product team adopted all major suggestions for implementation.
Progress Visualization
Add persistent, real-time progress indicators for long-running operations like batch uploads and pipeline processing to reduce user uncertainty.
System State Unification
Standardize status labels and state transitions across all modules — eliminate inconsistencies where identical states displayed differently depending on context.
Conflict Resolution UI
Design an explicit conflict resolution flow with side-by-side comparison and clear ownership attribution when version conflicts occur.
Error Message Redesign
Replace generic error strings with specific, actionable messages that tell users what went wrong, who it affects, and how to recover.
Contextual Tooltips
Add inline help text and tooltips to technical fields and status badges to reduce cognitive load for non-technical collaborators.
Bulk Action Feedback
Provide operation summaries after batch actions, confirming what succeeded, what failed, and why — instead of silent completion.
05 — Impact
Measurable Outcomes
Through close collaboration with product designers, frontend, and backend engineers, usability issues were systematically converted into shipped improvements.
95%
Fix Rate
Of identified issues resolved after iterative testing cycles
100+
Bug Tickets
Filed and tracked through full resolution lifecycle
20+
Adopted
Key design recommendations implemented by the product team
5+
Test Rounds
Ensuring fixes held and no regression was introduced
06 — Reflection
What I Learned
Working inside a large-scale internal tool taught me how compounding friction erodes productivity at scale — a tiny ambiguous label multiplied across hundreds of daily users creates thousands of minutes of lost time.
Bridging research and engineering required translating subjective usability observations into specific, reproducible bug reports — a skill that made me a more precise communicator.
The 95% fix rate came from building a trust loop with the engineering team: clear reproduction steps, severity framing, and proactive follow-up validation replaced one-off reports with a continuous improvement cycle.
Before/after comparison testing proved the value of closing the loop — it's not enough to file issues, you have to verify the solution actually solves the problem for real users.
Available for opportunities
Let's work together)
Open to collaborations, internships, and new opportunities.
View Resume