Destiny 2 - Season Pass (Episodes / 3-Act model)

Overview For The Final Shape release, the Season Pass pivoted to a time-gated Act structure and expanded from 100 to 200 rewards. The update introduced recurring engram accrual as XP was earned and added new navigation patterns so players could move through a much larger track quickly and confidently. User problem - A larger reward track needed to stay understandable and easy to navigate - Time-gated Acts required clear progression and unlock timing without confusing players - Players needed reasons to return throughout the season as narrative beats unlocked Success criteria - Deliver a scalable Season Pass experience that supports a larger track and Act-based gating - Introduce new visual definitions and navigation that make the expanded track feel manageable - Establish a foundation for future Season Pass evolution (even if this specific model was short-lived) My scope I focused on the navigation and content-driven logic that powered the Act structure. The goal was flexibility: the system needed to handle variable reward counts and up to three (or fewer) Acts without requiring constant engineering intervention. Key challenges - Act navigation had to work even as reward counts changed late in development - The solution needed to be authored in content (not hard-coded), while still being predictable and easy for creators to control - Navigation had to remain intuitive across multiple inputs (left/right navigation, Act buttons, and pagination) Key decisions - Identified early that Act buttons needed to “jump” to variable locations as the track changed, and that existing navigation wasn’t sufficient - Wrote a spec + feature brief proposing a “jump to” addition to the navigation system - Designed the “jump to” behavior to accept expressions (dynamic destinations) or explicit hierarchy points, simplifying creator control while keeping the system flexible Outcome / impact - Shipped a major overhaul by building cleanly on top of existing architecture, enabling later pivots (including removing the Act structure) without rework-heavy rewrites - Thorough documentation enabled a clean handoff to the next Tech UX Designer for the following Season Pass iteration Skills / tools - Product-minded systems thinking, UX navigation design, content-driven logic, spec writing, cross-discipline alignment, documentation