Website UX · Lessons from game design
Game Design and Law Firm UX: Guides by SBD Marketing
Game designers build interfaces for people under pressure. These guides use what they know to help criminal defense firms make websites that a frightened visitor can find their way around on a phone.
Start here: game UX lessons for defense firm websites
Website UX and Navigation Guides
What Video Game UX Design Can Teach Law Firms About Website Navigation
Our main guide shows how ideas from video game design, such as a heads-up display, shallow menus, signposts, instant feedback and accessibility settings, apply to the navigation of a criminal defense website, and why points and badges should stay in the game.
At a glance
- Who it’s for: Defense firms planning a new site or a redesign
- Covers: Menus, contact buttons, breadcrumbs, forms, speed, accessibility
- Time to read: About 9 minutes
- Updated: October 2026
For criminal defense firms
How SBD Marketing builds defense websites people can use
SBD Marketing works only with criminal defense law firms, and only with one firm per city. We design sites for the person reading on a phone a few hours after an arrest.
- Defense-firm web design
Sites built around a visible call button, short menus and clear charge and court sections, tested on real phones before launch. - Charge pages that lead somewhere
Each charge page ranks for the searches people make and ends with a clear next step, so visitors are never left at a dead end. - SEO audits that include usability
Audits that check speed, Core Web Vitals, accessibility basics and navigation alongside rankings, with a plain list of fixes.
Talk to SBD Marketing about your firm’s website
Run a criminal defense practice and want a second opinion on how easy your site is to use? Here’s how to reach the team.
BUSINESS
SBD Marketing
info@sbdmarketing.agency
BOOK A CALL
sbdmarketing.agency/scheduling
SERVING
Criminal defense firms, USA
WEB
sbdmarketing.agency
Five navigation checks you can run on your phone
Each one takes a few minutes. Try them on your own site, then ask someone outside the firm to do the same.
Find the call button
Scroll through three pages on your phone and check that a tap-to-call button stays in view the whole time.
Count your menu items
If the top menu has more than about six items or a long list of charges, group them into a few clear sections.
Send a test form
Fill in your contact form on a phone and check that you see a clear confirmation and receive the message.
Look for dead ends
Open each charge page and confirm it ends with a next step and a way to contact the firm.
Run Search Console
Check the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console and note which pages respond slowly to taps.
Guides in this series
We’re building this series one topic at a time.
Designing a mobile header for a defense firm
Coming soon
Contact forms that frightened visitors actually finish
Coming soon
An accessibility checklist for law firm websites
Coming soon
How we put these guides together
Each guide draws on Google’s Search Central documentation, the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published game design practice and what SBD Marketing sees working with defense firms day to day. Standards and tools change, so every guide notes when it was last updated. Game Design and Law Firm UX is researched and published by SBD Marketing.
Explore the SBD Marketing network
Game Design and Law Firm UX is one of 28 guides published by SBD Marketing. Each one looks at a different side of marketing a criminal defense law firm.
Criminal Defense Visual Branding · Criminal Defense Firm Growth · DUI Attorney Marketing · Technical SEO for Law Firms · Legal Marketing Analytics · Law Firm Website Design · How Families Find Defense Lawyers · Attorney Image and Personal Branding · Law Firm Marketing Budgets · Local SEO Lessons from Fitness Businesses · Local SEO Lessons from Restaurants · Healthcare Fraud Defense Content · Local SEO Lessons from Home Services · Criminal Defense SEO · Courtroom Storytelling and Legal Branding · Music Industry Branding Lessons for Law Firms · Legal SEO News · Photography for Law Firm Websites · Legal Copywriting and Storytelling · Criminal Justice Policy and Search Trends · Criminal Defense SEO 101 · Law Firm Conversion Science · Defense Marketing for Athlete Cases · AI and Legal Marketing Technology · Out-of-State DUI and Location Search · Video Marketing for Defense Attorneys · Environmental Crime Defense Content
