From Web UI to Game UI: How Gaming & Creativity Reshaped María Vargas’ Career

Heya! I’m María Vargas, an Argentinian UI designer based in Madrid, Spain. Web UI and digital experiences were part of my career for over 10 years… until PlayStation knocked at my freelancer’s door.

For some, it might be curious to read about an industry transition from a fellow web UI designer… so I’m giving my Spotlight a twist! I will tell this “story” through my designs and key moments related to this shift. And how I think the synergy between game UI and creativity in my work led me to where I am today.

Thanks for being here! Let’s go:

1_How it Started – Creativity Appreciation

As a child, people used to think of me as a “creative girl” because I liked drawing. The honest truth is that girl wasn’t very good, but I believe that choosing to study Graphic Design as my major was directly influenced by that love of craft.

It wasn’t until the beginning of my university period that something clicked, though. Thanks to my professors and fellow students at F.A.D.U., I started valuing stepping outside of my comfort zone, embracing exploration, thinking outside the box; all related to the creative process. I wanted all of that to be part of my future work.

Before and after graduation, I was lucky enough to have worked at two agencies that were aligned with this vision: inTacto and Media.Monks. Over those 9+ years, I was able to properly develop my creative design skills, grow professionally, and learn from the best (during this period I met some of the most inspiring people I’ve known).

2_The Bridge – Riot Games Websites

During my stay at Media.Monks, Riot Games approached them with a website request. As a long-time League player and casual gamer since childhood, I was overly excited and really wanted to be part of it.

Long story short… ~~my wish came true~~ we ended up working on five projects with Riot: Legends of Runeterra, Valorant, Wild Rift, Arcane + a last one that never went live. I felt privileged to have been involved in not just one, but all of them. Both as UI designer and UI design lead.

Each website was a challenge, but the passion and joy that I felt while working on these projects was 100% steady.

A personal highlight among them is the Valorant website, since there was no branding or style guide when we got to work on it. In a way, we helped them identify what worked and what didn’t through our design explorations. Seeing its evolution since then (in my opinion, one of the coolest brandings in gaming) is mind-blowing.

As designers, we usually have a “favourite industry to work in”. Thanks to Riot, I learned that my personal favourite was the Gaming industry.

3_ Freelancing + Focusing on Game Sites

When I moved to Madrid and started my freelance “adventure”, two things were clear:

I needed to make money;
I wanted my work to focus on the field I enjoyed the most.

But first… I needed to create an appropriate portfolio to make myself visible, and my priorities clear:

As a flexible designer, I wanted to show variety (though not too much, just enough).
As I wanted to work on game sites, I needed to make that statement.

After the portfolio launch, a couple of agencies and recruiters reached out. My first project in this new era was a campaign website for Final Fantasy XI’s 20th anniversary, and I couldn’t have been happier. I made it work!

Of course, not all the collabs afterwards were video game related, but most of them were creative and that’s enough fuel for me.

4_ The move to Game-UI: PlayStation & Naughty Dog

In 2023 (one year after I started freelancing), I got contacted for a contractor role at SONY PlayStation. They were looking for a “Creative UI designer”, so I was very excited to work on any first-party game website. Or so I thought… as the role was for game UI.

W o a h – this was a whole new and thrilling experience, so I trusted their judgement and just did my best.* I think they liked me* because we joined forces a couple more times after this.

Fast-forward to 2026: for the past year, I’ve been working on Naught Dog’s “Intergalactic: the Heretic Prophet” as a UI designer/artist. Big shout out to my teammates on both the PlayStation and Naughty Dog teams <3*

For obvious reasons, I cannot show any work, but I can say that the design gap between web UI and game UI is not as big as I originally thought (if you like playing games).

Intergalactic is going to be dope. So I hope you enjoy our work when it gets released!

*Creators of my favourite game ever: The Last of Us.

Final thoughts + Contact

I don’t think this is a goodbye to my web UI career. I’m enjoying game UI a lot and want to make the best of it.

It might sound cheesy, but at the end of the day I will follow the Creativity flow wherever it takes me.

Big thanks to Codrops for having me and constantly spreading inspiration in the industry!

Also, thank YOU for reading this far. Feel free to get in touch through social media, I’m always open to having a chat 🙂

Instagram / LinkedIn / Portfolio

PLUS_ Fun fact

Last year, I played taiko (Japanese drums) in the LoL EMEA Championship finals happening in Madrid. League of Legends keeps coming to me in astonishing ways. kkkbye!