Usability of the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man App

As a UX designer and video game enthusiast, I found it interesting when an in-game app called “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” (FNSM) was introduced in Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales (2020). This feature was not included in Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018), and serves as an interesting plot device as well as a way to keep track of activities, crimes, and side missions. Although useful, the app’s lack of information and inclusion of side missions complicate what could be a simple and efficient piece of UI.

Miles’ friend Ganke designs the app shortly into the game in efforts to build a connection between Miles and his community. Defining Miles as a “friendly neighborhood spiderman” contrasts him with Peter Parker by making Miles’ version a more accessible superhero of the people. It also reinforces a new, youthful take on what it means to be a hero.

The app itself is accessed by swiping left on the DualShock touchpad. Although the act of swiping is reminiscent of how a user would interact with a real mobile app, it also hides this functionality by separating it from the game menu. When conducting research on the reception of this new UI, I found that most of the suggested results were along the lines of “how do I access the app?” which is indicative of a usability issue.

When accessed, a small page appears on the right side of the screen. This interface is rectangular/phone-shaped and even includes a bar at the top which shows the device’s charge and reception. While FNSM is up on the screen, game time slows down but doesn’t stop. This paired with the small footprint of the app and its semi-transparency allows the gamer to remain immersed during use. This is the benefit of separating FNSM from the game menu, which when accessed pauses the game and takes up the whole screen.

The app has two tabs: activities and crimes, which can be switched between using L1 and R1.

Activities
When an activity is highlighted, a corresponding image appears at the top of the app screen along with a short description. The activities are sorted by closest to furthest away, with the distance displayed in meters. When an activity is selected, the app disappears and sets a waypoint to the destination of the activity.

Crimes
Crimes are listed similarly to activities, but allow the user to replay them in order to earn more tokens. While all tokens are earned upon completion of an activity, crimes have bonus objectives that must be fulfilled in order to earn all tokens.

When revisiting a completed crime in which not all tokens were earned, the user cannot use the app to see what objectives they have yet to complete. Instead they can select the crime and travel to the waypoint, at which time a menu will appear that displays the objectives.

By only displaying the objectives once Spider-Man arrives in the area of the crime, it’s inevitable that the user will be too distracted by combat to read and absorb the information. I think it’s a missed opportunity to not include this information in the app so that a user can brief themself before pursuing a crime.

Side Missions
Side missions are also available on the activities page, and appear at the top of the list regardless of the distance. Though not clearly labeled, side missions are represented by a blue triangle icon, as opposed to the Spider-Man head icon for activities.

Unlike activities, side missions are also displayed as points on the game map using the blue triangle icon. This is because side missions are more involved and relevant to the plot than activities.

Since they are already displayed on the map along with collectibles, enemy hideouts, and other important destinations, I think the inclusion of side missions in the FNSM app is confusing and redundant. The app’s purpose is to keep track of activities that are not viewable to the user otherwise.

By listing side missions alongside activities, the app conflates the two instead of establishing a clear hierarchy. Further, by including side missions when they are already viewable on the map, the app confuses its purpose.

The Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app in Marvel’s Spider-Man Miles Morales helps differentiate Miles’ Spider-Man from that of Peter Parker. Serving as a direct line to the community, the app simultaneously establishes Miles as a more accessible hero while underlining the need for him to prove himself as a capable “second” Spider-Man.

The app’s unobtrusive design allows the user to remain immersed in the game while exploring various activities and crimes without having to pull up the map. However, I believe its efficiency could be improved by the removal of side missions and addition of crime information. Overall, I think the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man app is a clever way to separate and store information while representing Miles’ fresh take on the hero himself.