METHODS

INITIAL FINDINGS

The concept of gaming is based on three main principles: interaction, immersion, and identity. We discovered that gamers search for experiences that involve at least one of these factors.

CONNECTING THE WORLD OF GAMING

Since gaming is such a large and broad concept, we constructed a concept map to connect recurring themes to gaming motivations and mechanisms. Observing how everything is connected, de-mystifies aspects of gaming to people who are new to this world.

WHICH TYPES OF GAMERS SHOULD WE TARGET?

Our research revealed six main user groups that we represented using personas. Based on our findings, the team resonated most with the New Gamer and Discouraged gamer personas, and felt there was most potential for impact for these user groups.

KEY INSIGHTS

We extrapolated four key insights from our research. The four insights below are the main takeaways from the first half of this project and inform us in identifying opportunity spaces and generating concepts.

CHOOSING A PROBLEM SPACE

We analyzed several opportunity spaces within gaming to find potential areas we could generate concepts for the ideation phase. We selected an opportunity space based on what our research supported most, and what our clients were naturally attracted to.

We identified the five problem spaces below.

From these problem spaces and our research insights, we refined our HMW statement:

HMW encourage conversations that ultimately lead to friendship and community beyond the game?

GENERATING IDEAS…ROUND 1

To generate concepts, the team performed a brainwriting exercise. Each consultant generated ~10 concepts and then passed them to the next consultant to either refine, develop, or change them. By the end, there were around 60 total unique concepts.

To select concepts, we combined similar ideas and used a weighted matrix with defined criteria to calculate which concepts align with the desired direction for the project.

Our first round of ideation resulted in two main concepts:

INITIAL APPROACHES

We settled on designing a more personalized, easily-consumable, social media-like feed for community finding, with an emphasis on smaller communities.

I worked on designing the mid-fi onboarding experience for both of our preliminary concepts.

GAMERS . . . DON’T REALLY VIBE WITH THE CONCEPTS

Using our low to mid fidelity frames, we conducted concept testing. Our target audience seemed largely uninterested in the idea we proposed. We collected the feedback in an affinity map, and isolated a few main issues.

Gamers do not see themselves using our concepts often enough to create a well-trafficked social media rating platform. This poses a lack of opportunity to monetize our ideas for Logitech. Additionally, these concepts lack a promotion of gaming identity and do not offer incentives to continuously return back to the platform.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

At this point, I was leading the prototyping phase of the project. Since concept testing did not validate our initial ideas, we were severely behind. I suggested several courses of action, and as a team, we decided to revisit the concept map in hopes of finding new inspiration to guide another round of ideation.

We focused on finding an idea that would truly form permanence within gaming communities.

REVISITING OUR GAMERS

We revisited our research and synthesis to direct our project pivot, taking a deep dive into our users’ journey. We realized a major pain point when new gamers download a new game and try to find community to get better at that game.

This pain point is illustrated with the storyboard below

After ideating for this particular user problem, we landed on a new, slightly futuristic, product idea…

What if we converted the intimidating, never-ending discord server into a 3D world where new and discouraged gamers can easily walk up to others and form connections like they would in real life?

INTRODUCING NEIGHBORHOOD

Neighborhood is a metaverse with a Discord integration. By introducing the limitations of the physical world into a digital space, communities interact in fresh, immersive, playful ways. Whether it's jamming out at public concerts, designing interior spaces, or just chilling out in a friend's private room, there's an opportunity to bond in every pixel of Neighborhood.

CONCEPTUALIZING THE METAVERSE

DISCORD INTEGRATION

A salient button by the server channels will launch Neighbourhood and convert Discord’s regular interface into a 3D world.

Discord is the central form of communication for gamers. Leveraging the Discord community’s existing user base saves us the worry of designing a new community platform, and attracting users to it.

PUBLIC VIRTUAL SPACES

Mingle with other people in #general. Meet those you otherwise wouldn’t in a more natural environment for socializing.

Most new gamers are not familiar with gaming etiquette, slang, and norms. Walking up to another gamer and starting a conversation offers new gamers a virtual interaction grounded in reality.

PRIVATE VIRTUAL SPACE

Build your gaming identity by customizing your personal space’s appearance, safety settings, and more.

Private virtual spaces are owned by the user, they do not change from server to server. Gamers can invite people they meet in various Discord servers to their private room to showcase their personal identity and have a private place to chat about themselves.

GAMING LAUNCHPAD

Streamline the process of playing with friends by easily launching games from Neighborhood

One of the best ways to form relationships virtually is to play games together - to experience the highs and lows of experiencing an amazing story or playing a competitive match. The gaming launchpad aims to cut the time it takes to get situated in a game together and simply start gaming with one’s new-formed connections.

A NEW WORLD MAP

Find your next squad by exploring Discord servers like a map, rather than a list.

By providing an intuitive world map, new and discouraged gamers can quickly explore avenues of community they are interested in, and increase the chances of finding a genuine connection.

COMMUNITY EVENTS

From concerts to museum exhibits, shared experiences are more convenient and have lower stakes.

On the left, you can see a Discord user listening to Travis Scott being visualized as Travis Scott performing on stage. You would hear the music by approaching the stage.

Using visual metaphors heightens the realism aspect of Neighborhood, an important component of gaming supported by our research.

Hi-FIDELITY RECOMMENDATIONS

RE-IMAGINING PUBLIC SPACES

We analyzed modern gaming art styles and trends to conceptualize a hi-fidelity metaverse where Neighborhood will take place. The block-style architecture offers an intuitive experience when customizing a server.

PERSONAL HUBS

We followed the same design style to conceptualize a hi-fidelity personalized private room within Neighborhood. Elements from real-world hobbies, such as Pokemon, give the player full creative autonomy to make this space their own.

Wishes

With more time, we would have liked to perform further synthesis methods to illustrate our learnings better to be used in the future.

Additional user testing to solidify important interactions (e.g. navigating the map) would be useful as well.

Takeaways

• Concept testing early on ensures a more effective final deliverable

• Focusing on a few personas can help narrow the problem scope

• User stories are key to creating a helpful, enjoyable product

• Comprehensive research allows you to pivot concepts efficiently

Thanks

Working on this project was an amazing opportunity. We learned a lot from the Logitech G team, who gave us valuable feedback every step of the way. Kudos to Matt Pugmire and Tania Alvarez for all your help and advice throughout the project!