The Netflix logo in black and white.

Nailed It! Baking Bash

Netflix commissioned Paladin Studios (known for Cut the Rope and My Tamagotchi Forever) to create a mobile party game, based on the hit TV series, Nailed It! As Lead UX Designer, I structured the menu systems, ingame UI, and managed the UI development team.

A blue TV cartoon character with a happy expression sitting on a yellow platform, surrounded by crumbled cake, with the words "Nailed It!" written above in white, on a light blue background.

The Challenge

Nailed It! is one of Netflix’s most watched TV shows, now in its 7th series.

“Home bakers with a terrible track record take a crack at re-creating edible masterpieces for a $10,000 prize. It's part reality contest, part hot mess.”

Netflix wanted to create an accompanying mobile app that family and friends could play together. The UX was key - it had to be accessible for all kinds of players, from little kids to grandmas.

While Paladin is an established studio, they didn’t have an in-house UX Designer, so needed a specialist to help shape not only the game, but also install best practice across the company.

Sequence of four colorful game screens related to baking, dress-up, and voting. The first shows baking ingredients and a 'Slide to Bake' button. The second displays a decorated sugar skull cake with a 'Play!' button. The third features a decorated cake titled 'Nailed It!' with festive elements. The fourth shows a voting interface where players drag chef hats onto pictures of characters for points, with a 'I'm Done!' button.

The Process

I undertook multiple processes and tasks over my time on the game. Including:

  • Leading a UX/UI cross-disciplinary team

  • Developing UX strategy for the game

  • Creating player personas

  • Building out player flows for single and multiplayer modes

  • Creating mockups for the UI artist to develop

  • Developing prototypes to demonstrate transitions and button states

  • Introducing right-sized UX best practices that included thorough design documentation and inter-disciplinary communication

  • Conducting playtests and player research, analysing collated data, and making informed design decisions

The Result

The game launched in 2022 to some rave reviews. It also helped kick start Netflix’s mobile game arm - which had only been officially launched a few months prior. Unfortunately, Paladin Studios shut down in 2024, so the game is no longer supported and players now have logging in issues. We’ll just have to get our Nailed It kicks on the telly.

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