Meta Horizon Worlds

Transforming mobile loading screen friction into engagement with interactive mini-games and personalized content.

2024-25

Product Designer

Mobile loading screens are where engagement goes to die. Data shows 30-40% of users abandon apps during extended load times, and in multiplayer social platforms like Horizon Worlds, that friction is amplified. Users are trying to connect with friends, jump into experiences, and every extra second of waiting erodes that excitement.

For Horizon Worlds mobile, loading times vary dramatically based on world complexity, network conditions, and device performance. A smaller, casual hangout world could load in 7 seconds. A complex multiplayer game? 45+ seconds. That variability creates unpredictable moments where users decide whether to stay or bail.

Mobile

Prototyping

Visual design

Product strategy

Interaction design

Stakeholder management

Challenge

We're losing 1 in 4 users in some of our top Worlds due to lengthy load times.

4-9%

abandonment daily

>36s

average load for mobile deep linking

23-27%

abandonment rates in some top performing worlds

Approach

From passive to purposeful

Rather than just showing pretty video game trailers that users passively watched on repeat while they waited, I hypothesized that giving people something fresh and meaningful to do or learn would reduce abandonment.

Key insight
Users of varying tenure need different things during those crucial seconds of waiting to get in the game—whether it be learning the basics of how to play, staying engaged, or reducing wait-time anxiety.

Rather than just showing pretty video game trailers that users passively watched on repeat while they waited, I hypothesized that giving people something fresh and meaningful to do or learn would reduce abandonment.

Key insight
Users of varying tenure need different things during those crucial seconds of waiting to get in the game—whether it be learning the basics of how to play, staying engaged, or reducing wait-time anxiety.

ITERATION 1
Interactive tutorial

Concept
What if we turned loading into onboarding? Let new users learn controls and game mechanics through an interactive tutorial that runs while the world loads. Instead of passive waiting, they'd arrive ready to play.

Why it didn't work

Engineering complexity vs. impact tradeoff. This would have been incredible for new user competence but the engineering lift was too high for the timeline. The solution also didn't scale well for more tenured users.


Learning

Ambitious ideas need to be scalable and balance impact with feasibility early. Great design is about what you can actually ship.

Concept
What if we turned loading into onboarding? Let new users learn controls and game mechanics through an interactive tutorial that runs while the world loads. Instead of passive waiting, they'd arrive ready to play.

Why it didn't work

Engineering complexity vs. impact tradeoff. This would have been incredible for new user competence but the engineering lift was too high for the timeline. The solution also didn't scale well for more tenured users.


Learning

Ambitious ideas need to be scalable and balance impact with feasibility early. Great design is about what you can actually ship.

ITERATION 2
Curated contextual cards

Concept
New users need education and guidance. Returning users need social pull and reasons to stay engaged. So we built a system of 0-4 second cards that adapt to user context and available load time—showing gameplay tips, active quests, social proof, leaderboards, and friend invites based on what matters most to each user segment.

Why this worked

Functional value beats passive entertainment value during friction points. This balanced ambitious user impact with realistic engineering constraints. We could ship it, and it would meaningfully improve the experience.


Learning

Ship the 80% solution that works vs. the 100% solution that never ships. This approach gave us a clear v1 with clear paths for iteration.

Concept
New users need education and guidance. Returning users need social pull and reasons to stay engaged. So we built a system of 0-4 second cards that adapt to user context and available load time—showing gameplay tips, active quests, social proof, leaderboards, and friend invites based on what matters most to each user segment.

Why this worked

Functional value beats passive entertainment value during friction points. This balanced ambitious user impact with realistic engineering constraints. We could ship it, and it would meaningfully improve the experience.


Learning

Ship the 80% solution that works vs. the 100% solution that never ships. This approach gave us a clear v1 with clear paths for iteration.

The timer demonstrates how the system adapts to varying load times (7-45+ seconds). Each card module is 0-4 seconds, ensuring content scales gracefully, curated to each user type for the duration of loading.

The timer demonstrates how the system adapts to varying load times (7-45+ seconds). Each card module is 0-4 seconds, ensuring content scales gracefully, curated to each user type for the duration of loading.

ITERATION 3
Mini-game: "Load Runner"

Vison
The ultimate evolution: turn loading into play. Users opt into a quest where their avatar runs through a fantastical tunnel maze, collecting orbs and power-ups while the world loads in the background. Every second of wait time becomes a moment of joy and achievement.

Future potential

This concept established a North Star for the experience and got the team genuinely excited about the possibilities. As the loading screen becomes a higher-priority surface, we're positioned to push for this in future roadmaps. Sometimes the best design work is creating a compelling vision that shifts how people think about a problem space.


Learning

Sometimes the best ideas need to wait for the right moment. Building a vision that excites the team (even if it can't ship immediately) creates momentum and alignment for future work.

Vison
The ultimate evolution: turn loading into play. Users opt into a quest where their avatar runs through a fantastical tunnel maze, collecting orbs and power-ups while the world loads in the background. Every second of wait time becomes a moment of joy and achievement.

Future potential

This concept established a North Star for the experience and got the team genuinely excited about the possibilities. As the loading screen becomes a higher-priority surface, we're positioned to push for this in future roadmaps. Sometimes the best design work is creating a compelling vision that shifts how people think about a problem space.


Learning

Sometimes the best ideas need to wait for the right moment. Building a vision that excites the team (even if it can't ship immediately) creates momentum and alignment for future work.

Thanks for stopping by!
If you're interested in working together or seeing a deeper dive of my work, I'd love to connect.

Contact

Contact

Linkedin

derek.glazier@gmail.com

+1.651.925.7542

Thanks for stopping by! If you're interested in working together or seeing a deeper dive of my work, I'd love to connect.

Contact

Contact

Linkedin

derek.glazier@gmail.com

+1.651.925.7542

Thanks for stopping by! If you're interested in working together or seeing a deeper dive of my work, I'd love
to connect.

Contact

Linkedin

derek.glazier@gmail.com

+1.651.925.7542

Thanks for stopping by!
If you're interested in working together or seeing a deeper dive of my work, I'd love to connect.

Contact

Contact

Linkedin

derek.glazier@gmail.com

+1.651.925.7542

Derek Glazier

Derek Glazier