2026 © Nejc Prezelj
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Uno Scoring App
iOS Application
Year:
2026
Type:
Personal
Focus:
Development
Collaboration:
-
The Challange
During Uno card sessions with friends, scorekeeping was handled manually on paper by one of my frends. After each round, we calculated our remaining cards in hand and one of the friends (Thanks Erika!) made a spreadsheet on a piece of paper and summed the scores. While the game itself moved quickly, this scoring process consistently slowed everything down.
Everyone paused while calculations were made. The scorekeeper carried the cognitive load, often stepping out of the conversation and occasionally making human mistakes. Over 30–40 rounds per session, this repeated interruption became a structural point of friction affecting both pace and group dynamics.
The Challange
This project began as a personal initiative and became my first iOS application. With no prior experience in Xcode, I designed the interaction and structure in Figma before moving into development and learning the platform from scratch.
The app was built exclusively for iOS, as all my friends use iPhones and this allowing me to work directly within my native ecosystem. Visually, the app avoids Uno’s playful tone and instead adopts a minimal aesthetic inspired by the contemporary iOS liquid glass language.
What started as an experiment evolved into a working beta application that has since been used repeatedly during real game sessions, allowing the design to develop through actual use rather than assumption.
Design Thinking & Decisions
The primary design principle was clarity at a glance. The app needed to make the leaderboard changes immediately visible while keeping score entry fast and unobtrusive.
The initial version placed creating new players, adding them to the session and score entry on a single screen, which resulted in too many competing actions and weak hierarchy. Separating these actions into individual screens introduced additional navigation but reduced cognitive overload and improved task clarity. The leaderboard arranges players in descending order, displays their position prominently, and calculates the score gap between each player, eliminating the need for mental comparison.
To preserve flow between rounds, a custom numeric keypad was introduced. It allows sequential score entry based on seating order of the players and includes dedicated navigation controls. This streamlined the input process and helped maintain the rhythm of the game.
Iteration & System Expansion
Early testing revealed that while the interface felt intuitive to me, other players struggled when handed the app. This led to refining button labels, clarifying the copy, and simplifying the leaderboard.
The leaderboard was stripped of secondary statistics to prioritise position and total score. Visual hierarchy was strengthened through typography scale and colour adjustments, improving readability and reducing distraction during active play.
As friends were interested in their playing history, session history and player statistics were introduced. Detailed statistics were placed in a sheet accessible from the leaderboard, allowing the app to expand without overcomplicating the primary gameplay screen.
Design Thinking & Decisions
The app noticeably increased the pace of the game. Score entry became almost invisible between the rounds, allowing conversations and gameplay to continue without interruption.
Beyond efficiency, the visible leaderboard and dynamic updates strengthened the competitive aspect of the game. Players became more aware of their performance and more engaged in improving their position, increasing the game’s intensity.
If revisited, improvements would focus on infrastructure rather than interface. Currently, all data is stored locally on a single device. Expanding the backend to support persistent player profiles across devices would extend the system and strengthen continuity between sessions.