ELEVATE
A social platform in the EA desktop app designed for gamers and content creators seeking a harassment-free space to connect, play games, and build communities in a safe and inclusive environment.
Elevate is an additional platform to the Electronic Arts (EA) Desktop Application that provides a heavily moderated community area for EA content creators and their players to safely interact.
This project won the Best Design Intervention award during the BrainStation x Electronic Arts industry project at the end of my UX Design Diploma course.
EA posed the question:
"How Might We support gaming content creators in growing their careers?"
Project overview
Project type: Academic and Cross-functional case study in collaboration with Electronic Arts
Roles:
Isabella (myself): UX Researcher and Designer
Kristin: UX Researcher and Designer
Miki: UX and Market Researcher
Chase: UX Designer and Copywriter
Leo: Web Developer
Duration: March 2 - 9, 2023
Tools: UX Research: FigJam, Google doc for Documentation, UX Design: Figma
Details
Gaming has become an outlet for people from reality.
Harassment and ridicule is prevalent in the gaming industry, affecting content creators.
Female gaming content creators face gender-based discrimination.
Discrimination can take the form of being ignored, belittled, and mistreated and has a significant impact on their personal and professional lives.
83% of women, Black, Asian American and LGBTQ gamers said they hide their identities while gaming.
74% of adults surveyed experienced harassment in the online multiplayer games. (2021 report from the Anti-Defamation League)
There is a need to create a product to support content creators' career growth from the perspective of a gaming company.
Problem
Research
To identify opportunities for female identifying individuals in the gaming space, it is important to first understand their pain points and behaviours.
💡Research Goal
Discrimination based on gender is a major obstacle for female content creators to advance in their careers.
Creating a safe community for players can help content creators increase their audience more effectively.
💡Assumptions
🏹 Participant Criteria
In-person remote 30-60 minute interviews were conducted with four participants.
21 - 40 years old
Gaming content creator
Identifies as Female
🏹 Method
Research Artifacts
🗒 Affinity Mapping
We analysed key interview data, and grouped responses by pain points, motivations, and behaviours.
🗒 Key Themes
Community
Participants feel like there is a lack of community and support, particularly for female creators, and the need for better representation of minorities and females.
Information
There is a lack of information on how to get started as a content creator, and finding specific female mentors
Finance
There is a lack of sponsorships and commission for new content creators
Players’ Manners
Lack of moderators controlling toxic gaming behaviour within servers.
Existing Creators Programs
The high bar for emerging creators and lack of discoverability in gaming company's programs make it difficult to navigate algorithm changes.
Using these learnings and insights we created a "how might we" statement to focus on.
How might we nurture safe and inclusive communities, so that content creators can grow their career?
Problem Statement
Persona + Experience Map
Based on our research findings, we created a persona to represent my target users. This persona helped us make better design decisions.
🚹 Persona
🚹 Experience Map
We created an experience map that visualizes how our target audience currently experiences the problem space.
User Stories + Task Flow
🚴🏻♀️ User Stories
Then, Kristin and I created user stories for our solution, grouping them into epics. We focused on the "Community building" epic.
I chose the user story "As a content creator, I want to watch a live stream in a safe environment so that I don’t get harassed.”
🚴🏻♀️ Task Flow
This led to the Task flow scenario:
Amanda, a returning EA user and community builder, wants to connect with her gaming community in a safe space. She opens her EA desktop app, goes to her account, selects the Elevate page, signs an agreement to abide by the rules, and is taken to the Elevate home page. She clicks on her notifications, accepts to watch a live stream, and is taken to the tournament page.
Designs
Based on the task flow, we developed a prototype, from sketching then greyscale wireframes.
Sketches
Greyscale Wireframe
We were unable to conduct any testing due to the given time frame. However, given more time, we would have conducted two rounds of testing with five individuals each to gather feedback. Based on a prioritisation matrix, we would have iterated on the designs to improve them.
Testing + Iterations
Final Results
Elevate provides a safe space for gamers and community builders to play games, build community, and have fun without the worry or stress of being harassed.
Users must register and agree to abide by rules that prohibit harassment, particularly targeting women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and personal attacks, among others, to join Elevate.
Elevate offers features such as group joining, co-ed tournaments, messaging, posting content, and gaming while feeling supported by peers.
Heavy moderation ensures that users can interact without harassment or hate speech, enabling inspiration and collaboration.
KPIs + Reflection
🎯Performance Indicators
To strategize the impact Elevate will have for it’s users, we need to track the following metrics:
Revenue generated through marketing, advertising, and sponsorships
Focus on organizations aligned with promoting environmental awareness and changes in local communities
Bounce rate
Retention rate
Customer satisfaction
LTV (lifetime value)
User alerting others and officials
Tracking these metrics will give us valuable insights and allow us to make data-driven decisions.
It was enlightening to work with a web developer and on a tight deadline. I learned new ways of approaching tasks and collaborating with my team members, and the project challenged me to develop creative solutions to problems. Overall, this experience helped me grow as a professional and gain a deeper understanding of the development process.