Steam is the world's largest PC gaming platform. Yet its developer tool, known as SteamWorks, is buried and poorly seen within the app of Steam. Aspiring indie developers who want to publish a game on Steam face an unintuitive and difficult process, an overwhelming registration experience, and documentation that prioritizes density over clarity. The platform assumes prior knowledge that most new developers may not have. 

Participant Recruiting 

Defined four participant profiles representing the target user: current Steam members aged 18–25, ranging from casual players to students with some game development experience. None had previously used SteamWorks.

Usability Study Design 

Designed a moderated usability test with three core tasks that mirrored a real developer's onboarding journey, finding Steamworks within the Steam app, signing up as a new partner, and locating documentation to upload a trailer to the store page. Participants were asked to think aloud throughout the process.

Moderated Testing Sessions 

Facilitated in person sessions with four participants, guiding them through each task while observing navigation patterns, points of confusion, and emotional reactions without intervening or leading.

Synthesizing Findings 

Analyzed session recordings and think aloud responses across all three tasks to identify recurring pain points, map where users got stuck, and surface patterns in how they recovered.

We found that 100% of participants struggled to locate SteamWorks within the Steam desktop app, most searched the top navigation and account settings before eventually finding a small undescribed link buried at the bottom of the store page.

The sign up for a new account flow was considered intuitive once found, but the "Sign In vs. Join" distinction created confusion. As users felt it wasnt clear that SteamWorks uses their existing Steam account or creating a new one.

The documentation page was described as intimidating on first glance due to dense walls of text and minimal visuals, though users found it useful once they read through it.

Give SteamWorks its own clearly labeled tab or page within Steam, with a plain language description of what it is and who it's for.

Clarify at the login screen that users sign in with their existing Steam credentials, no new account creation needed.

Break up the registration text into contextually relevant stages rather than front loading all information at once.

Add visual walkthroughs and short tutorial videos to the documentation to support visual learners and reduce cognitive load.