I help studios improve onboarding, player journeys, accessibility and the story behind their systems, bringing twelve years of UX and creative direction on AAA console and live mobile games with 2K, NetEase Games, THQ Nordic, Ten Square Games and Miniclip.I help studios make games easier to learn, navigate and return to—with thoughtful onboarding, accessible journeys and story-rich systems.
Studios I've worked with
I help your team make games easier to learn, clearer to navigate and more rewarding to return to. From first session through endgame, I connect player needs with your game's creative vision and production goals, with accessibility built in throughout.
Players learn by playing, at the moment they need it.
Seen in Mafia: The Old Country, Destroy All Humans! 2
A clear path for new, returning and mid-game players.
Seen in Man of Honor DLC, Football Strike, Fishing Masters
Players feel and hear a game as much as they see it.
Seen in Mafia: The Old Country, Destroy All Humans!
Console, PC and mobile each have their own rules.
Seen in EVE Echoes, Destroy All Humans!, Rise to War
Story belongs inside the experience, in every system and screen.
Seen in Hatchyverse, Magical District, Fishing Masters, Mafia: The Old Country
Good UX is a system the whole team can build on.
Seen in TopSpin 2K25, WWE Champions, Mafia: The Old Country
Most people picture UX as menus and buttons. In games, a large part of the experience happens through sound, touch, hands and memory. These are the layers I design for.
UI sounds, music stings and voice lines tell players what happened before they read a word. Audio cues can confirm, warn and point attention off-screen. On Mafia: The Old Country I managed the full list of sound and haptic feedback with the audio team.
Vibration and haptics make impacts, warnings and confirmations physical. On Destroy All Humans!, haptics carried alerts, hits and the destruction of buildings and vehicles.
Contrast, text size, subtitles and HUD density decide whether everyone can read the game, from a sofa or on a train. Mafia: The Old Country lets players set subtitle size and preview every option before they start.
A thumb, a mouse and a controller need different layouts, hit areas and shortcuts. EVE Echoes and Rise to War were rebuilt around touch and gestures, Destroy All Humans! around the controller.
One new idea at a time. Tutorials arrive when they're needed, hints step in only after repeated failure, and systems reuse patterns players already know.
UX writing in the game's own voice: one-line prompts, clear labels and lore that teaches. In Man of Honor, handwritten letters come with a transcription, so nobody has to decipher them.
Every engagement starts the same way: I play your build like your players will, then we decide how deep to go.
A full review of your first hour or a key flow, with a prioritised list of fixes your team can act on straight away.
See a sample auditI work inside your team part-time, designing, reviewing and mentoring through a milestone, from pre-production to launch.
I own the UX or creative vision of a project and align design, art and production behind it.
Cinematic console, a protected IP on mobile, a team under pressure and a world built from scratch.
Recommendations from people I've worked with. More on LinkedIn.
His deep knowledge and constant research in game UX means he was not only skilled as a UX designer but also an excellent Lead that made working with other roles in the studio smooth and collaborative.
I can wholeheartedly recommend working with Francis. His deep knowledge and constant research in game UX means he was not only skilled as a UX designer but also an excellent Lead that made working with other roles in the studio smooth and collaborative as we met milestones and deadlines. He was always clear in his communication and feedback, while also bringing creative ideas for solving the problems we faced and encourage pitching my own ideas. He was truly a great Lead, colleague and friend that I hope I get the opportunity to work with him again!
He can seamlessly combine different worlds, gaming, web, movies, TV series, into something that feels magical.
Francis is the most inspiring person I've met in my entire career. His knowledge and understanding of the gaming and entertainment market, from a user experience perspective, feels impossible for one person to possess. His creativity is unparalleled. He can seamlessly combine different worlds - gaming, web, movies, TV series - into something that feels magical. When we were brainstorming concepts for new gaming products, the team was always left speechless with their jaws dropped on the cushy office floor. If you're looking for someone to elevate your product's creative direction to new heights or build something new with a fresh, innovative, yet grounded perspective, Francis is the person to choose.
Fifteen projects across AAA console, live mobile, original IP and connected products.
I'm Francis, a UX and creative direction consultant for games. Italian, born in Sicily and raised in Milan, with Filipino roots.
Growing up between two cultures, and later working across Europe and Asia, taught me that players read the same screen in very different ways.
I studied product-service system design at Politecnico di Milano and NABA, with a year at Tongji University in Shanghai. It taught me to design the whole journey around a product, as well as what's on screen.
My first role was at Technogym, designing the connected console on its gym equipment. Watching people use it mid-workout, tired and distracted, taught me to design around how people actually behave. I took that into games at Miniclip and never looked back.
Since then I've shipped mobile hits, built original IP and led UX on AAA console games in Italy, China, Vietnam, Germany, Poland and the UK. Today I work with studios as a consultant on player experience and creative direction, and I write books about directing and the creative process.
Bronze Award, Samsung Young Design Award, for Cerere, a playful food-education system for children
2013Winning team, Audi App Jam, Shanghai
2013Winner, "Un designer per le imprese", Milan Chamber of Commerce, exhibited at La Triennale di Milano
2010Student winner, L.E.D. Light Exhibition Design, City of Milan, shown in Piazza della Scala
2009Artwork for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Origins, exhibited at Lucca Comics & Games
2017Artwork for Assassin's Creed Unity, exhibited in Venice during the 56th Biennale
2015Artwork published in the Game Art Revolution and Art (R)evolution books
2015–18Books, interviews, talks and perspectives on game UX, user research, creative direction and the people who make games.
A guide to directing games through the ADHD lens
How I structure projects, find motivation and move from concept to execution in a process full of ups and downs. A book about directing, storytelling and making creative decisions in a way that works with your mind instead of against it.
Conversations about game UX, research and directing, from newsletters to an academic paper.
Shorter pieces on building worlds, teams and a healthy creative life.
Whether you need fresh eyes on your onboarding, a partner through your next milestone or someone to lead UX and creative direction, I'd love to hear about your game.