Shaping Better Experience for AMD Software
3 Team Members
May - October 2025
I'll Finalize the UI Guy
Overview
Overhauling AMD Software to provide a smoother, more modern, and user-centric experience.
AMD Software is a widely used platform for performance tuning, graphics management, and driver updates. Throughout my internship at AMD, I contributed to the redesign initiative for AMD Software, focusing on creating a cleaner, more accessible and more personalized experience. I worked closely with other designers, product managers, and engineers to refine interaction patterns, and prototype a more intuitive interface.
Context
A new direction for AMD Software.
We realized that AMD Software had the potential to reach far more people than just gamers. Since it ships pre-installed on many AMD-powered devices used for everyday work, the audience naturally includes office and general-purpose users as well. This sparked an essential question:
How do we design an experience that works for both casual and advanced users?
PROBLEM SPACE
A little bit of chaos in the interface.
It’s important to recognize the main issues of the product. As the platform grew, inconsistencies emerged across the interface, and some workflows no longer aligned with modern UX standards.
Problem space 1.1 - outdated interface
PaiN POINTS
Navigation challenges.
To validate our assumptions, we ran usability testing on the current AMD Software to observe how users navigated key settings. We noticed repeated moments of confusion where users often struggled to locate features, and understand where to go next.
Pain points 1.1 - navigation challenges
When features aren't clear.
Users also had trouble understanding certain features. Many settings used technical terminology or required knowledge that casual users didn’t have, which made it hard for them to know what each option did or how it would affect their system.
Pain points 1.2 - a pile of technical terms
Opportunity for imporvement
In-context overlay mode.
Existing overlay mode had strong potential but wasn’t fully utilized or easily discoverable. Many users wanted quick, in-context access to system insights without leaving their app or game, highlighting a clear opportunity to improve its visibility and usability.
Opportunity 1.1 - overlay mode
Smarter AI-Assistant to guide users
Around this time, the team introduced AMD Chat, a local AI assistant that helped users understand settings and troubleshoot issues. Seeing how easily people relied on it showed a clear opportunity to integrate AI more deeply, allowing AMD Chat to support feature discovery and provide faster access to the tools users need.
Opportunity 1.2 - improving AI-assistant
Opportunity for imporvement
Beyond modernization: what users truly need.
Through our exploration, we saw that users not only need a more modern and intuitive interface, but also a quick, and in-context access to their system information & settings. We also found that improving AMD Chat could help guide users more effectively, especially when dealing with complex settings.
These insights led us to define two complementary views:
Full View (Default View)
Full navigation for complete control.
Overlay View
Instant, on, screen access to key tools.
Phase a
Overlay view gets the priority.
The Overlay View became our main focus because it introduces a completely new interaction model with features not yet available in AMD Software. Since it required the most foundational design and engineering work, establishing it first was essential before expanding into the Full View.
Phase a: Structure
AMD Chat as the main interaction.
The new overlay sits as a lightweight layer over the user’s current screen, with a darkened background that reduces distractions while keeping the app or game visible. AMD Chat appears as the main interaction surface, and a side panel provides space for widgets and pinned content, giving users quick access to key information and actions.
Structure 1.1 - overlay mode layout
Phase a: AMD CHat rework
Widget as an output.
AI responses can appear in different forms depending on what the user needs. In most cases, the assistant provides a simple text-based LLM output, such as explanations or recommendations. However, when users request a specific feature, the assistant generates a pinnable widget.
AMD Chat rework 1.1 - widget output
Suggested prompts .
Suggested prompts appear as follow-up options based on the user’s question, letting them quickly ask related things and generate additional, context-aware answers without starting from scratch.
AMD Chat rework 1.2 - suggested prompts
Slash command for quick shortcuts.
Slash commands are quick shortcuts that start with “/” and trigger specific actions or requests to make common tasks faster and more predictable.
AMD Chat rework 1.3 - slash command
Phase a: Widgets panel
Panel for pinned output & notification.
The widgets panel allows users to keep important information on screen. When a chat response includes useful guidance or actions, it can be pinned as a widget so it stays visible whenever the overlay is opened. The panel also includes a notification page that displays any important software updates.
Widgets panel 1.1 - introduction
Manually add widgets.
Aside from pinning the chat output, users can add widgets manually to tailor the overlay to their needs.
Widgets panel 1.2 - manually adding widgets
Collapsible panel.
The panel is also collapsible, allowing users to hide or reveal their widgets depending on what they’re doing. This keeps the overlay flexible and prevents it from feeling cluttered.
Widgets panel 1.3 - collapsible
Phase a: iMPROVING KEY FEATURES
Recording made easy.
Instead of navigating through the full application, users can start and stop recordings directly from the overlay. This is especially helpful since screen recording is one of the most frequently used features in current AMD Software.
Key experience improvement 1.1 - screen recording
Quick access to graphics settings while in-game.
We also proposed a dedicated in-game widget that appears when users open the overlay while playing. This widget provides quick access to all essential graphics settings, making it easier to adjust performance and visual quality without switching out of the game.
Key experience improvement 1.2 - now playing widget
Phase B
The big dog aka full view - coming soon…
The Overlay View design has been "semi- approved" and is currently in testing & development, making it the first major step in modernizing AMD Software. With that foundation in place, the team is now shifting focus toward building the Full View.
coming soon….
Usability Testing
Getting approval from others.
While the construction of the overlay view is underway, the team is also testing the design with internal users. This step is essential to ensure the concepts hold up in real scenarios, uncover usability issues early, and validate that the experience meets both user expectations and technical constraints.