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Tackle cyberbullying for LGBTQ+ gamers
through a matchmaking system on Discord
2020.10 - 2021.1
Context
In November 2020, I conducted a passion project to tackle cyberbullying in gaming with a team of 5. This is a project integrating research and design. I worked as a UX researcher and also participated in some design work (user flow and landing page design). This is a 3-month project.
We found that LGBTQ+ players feel unsafe in multiplayer games and having someone on their side would upgrade their gaming experience and make them feel less stressed.
Objectives
Phase 1. Narrow down user segment and context
Phase 2. Explore problem space
Phase 3. Test solution concept
Methodologies
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Secondary research
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User interviews
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Affinity diagraming
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Empathy maps
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Competitive analysis
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User journey map
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Storyboard
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Concept testing
Process
Phase 1: Discover user scope
Research questions:
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What is the gaming experience like as a POC, woman, and LGBTQ+
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Which group (POC, women, LGBTQ+ gamers) have more negative experience in gaming?
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What non-technical problems/frustrations do they have in gaming?
Methods: Secondary research, Interviews, Affinity Diagraming
1. Steps
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We used the keywords “cyberbullying” and “gaming” to conduct secondary research and focused on three primary groups: women, people of color and the LGBTQ+.
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Based on the first round of research, we formed a hypothesis that gaming as a minority can be unwelcoming/unsafe
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Then we conducted interviews with 9 players (3 from each group) to investigate their gaming experience and used affinity diagraming for data analysis.
2. Secondary research highlights
3. Interviews
We recruited players through friends and family and also on different Facebook groups. Then we conducted 1:1 interview with each one of them for 60 minutes. Some of the questions we asked include:
What are the primary ways you game?
How long have you played games?
What is your favorite/least favorite thing about gaming?
What games do you like to play? and why?
What games do you tend to avoid? and why?
What's the last time you encountered a negative experience
4. Colour-coded affinity map:
We use different colors to highlight insights from different groups. We found that while most users had negative gaming experiences related to cyberbullying, LGBTQ+ (colored in blue) encountered more issues than other groups.
colour-coded affinity diagraming from the team's Miro board
5. Quotes from LGBTQ+ gamers
Phase 2: Explore problem space (3 weeks)
Research Questions:
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What matters to a LGBTQ+ player?
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What is the cause of unpleasant/cyberbullying experience?
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How can the negative experiences be reduced?
Methodologies: 1:1 interviews, Empathy mapping
1. Steps
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At this stage, we focused on our primary user segment – LGBTQ+ players. We recruited more LGBTQ+ players and conducted semi-scripted interviews.
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Then we used affinity diagraming to get insights from interviews and an empathy map to discover insights and gaps.
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We also conducted a competitive analysis on major game studios’ current solutions to explore opportunities. The insights of this stage's study is a problem statement for this project.
2. Research plan and scope
3. Semi-script interviews
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We recruited interviewers based on the first round of interviews. We also approached administrators in the LGBTQ+ social media community.
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Each interview lasted for 1 hour, and the conversation focused on the problems they have and their needs/desire/value from solving the problems.
Interview highlights from affinity diagramming
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When playing with strangers, LGBTQ+ players feel unsafe
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LGBTQ+ players feel unable to control who enters their gaming experience
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There's a gap between their feelings about those aggressions and their reaction in response to those aggressions.
4. Uncover the gap
In order to reveal the gaps between their feelings and actions, I created an empathy map to analyse the data we collected.
Based on our research, though feeling unsafe is the primary pain for our users when it comes to cyberbullying in gaming, their primary goal in gaming is to enjoy the game and have fun.
We heard most from our users that their positive/negative experiences are always related to the other players. So we began to think that the other players play critical roles in our users' gaming journey. That's the start of our users' problem and also key to the solution.
5. Competitive analysis
Our users feel unsafe in gaming, and we know it's because of other people's aggression. But we also want to know why the current solutions in the market don't work for them. So we conducted a competitive analysis on different in-game solutions. The solutions we analyzed were:
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Queer Discord communities
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Users avoid super-competitive spaces
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Peeking in the chats
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Dota - Low Priority Matchmaking
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League of LEGENDS - Tribunal and AI
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Amazon - Grouping toxic players together online
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Bully Hunters - Team up to target in-game misogynists and trolls
We found that many gaming studios' current anti-cyberbullying approaches don't focus on the affected parties. Instead, they "feed the trolls" by validating their actions/words with criticism. In comparison to those solutions, the safe spaces that queer players created provide more help and a sense of safety.
6. Problem statement
LGBTQ+ players want to enjoy playing games, but other people's normalized verbal aggressions make them feel unsafe and ruin their gaming experience. How might we help them take back control over whom they play with? How might we make them feel positive enough to ignore the negative?
Phase 3: Impact
1. Steps
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Before we started our design process, we created user journey maps on users' current gaming state and future gaming state based on the data we collected. We built this because we wanted to figure out where would be the right time to implement a solution that could make a difference.
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That leads to different solutions through crazy 8s brainstorming session and selected one solution with the most relevant value proposition we wanted to provide.
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Then we created storyboards to visually communicate our solution in the context.
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We used the storyboards to conduct concept tests with our users.
2. User journey maps
* Screenshot of user journey map in our team Miro board workspace
As shown in the journey map, the change point is when they began to play with others. That's why we decided that the best time to make a difference is before they begin to play.
3. Select a solution
After a Crazy 8s session, we voted the top 4 solutions based on which would best solve our users' problems:
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Discord bot: Connect players to play a game together
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Campaign: Promote the idea of #safeplayer
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Human up wall: A visible productivity check-in notification
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Office hour: A system showing which players are online playing the same game
Goal
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Enjoy playing games
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Connect with others
Right channel at right time
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Most users use discord to communicate before starting to play
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No involvement of gaming studios
Reduce the pain
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Already "approved" users in gate kept LGBTQ+ servers
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Extensive library of Discord bots - coding template on Github
Final solution: A cross-server matchmaking Discord bot.
Value Proposition: We help LGBTQ+ players take back control over whom they play with by matching them with positive players.
4. Test with a storyboard
Before we created user flow and wireframes, we wanted to make sure we were on the right direction. So we used a storyboard to test our users. We walked through the process with users who joined our primary interviews and we validated the importance of "matching a co-player" with new users. We got positive feedback from both groups.
* The storyboard was created by Rita Friendly (designer in the team)
5. Highlights from user feedbacks that we used in design process:
1. Matching criteria
We use "time" and "game choice" as our main matching criteria because they were the most important elements when our users made decisions according to the concept tests.
2. Matched in a separate chat
This decision was primarily made because of limitations in the use of Discord. But this is also a good way to create a private space for players.
3. Bot name
We use the name "Affirminator" because the word "affirm" is very important in the LGBTQ+ community. Also, our users need to feel that the other play is on their side.
Final solution
The 3-minute demo video showed the whole process of our solution - Affirminator. It basically has two steps: add the bot to a server and cross-server matchmaking. In addition to the bot, users can also visit our landing page on Notion to learn more about the solution.
Reflection
next step
This project gave me an opportunity to get a closer look at the challenges minority groups are facing and a deep understanding of their journey in gaming. There are also few things I've learned as a UX Researcher:
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The assumption is very important for research studies. We only generated one assumption about our users at phase 1, and that might have influenced the scope of our research plan.
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A good recruiting strategy is key to get good data. We recruited interview participants through our personal networks at first and conducted screener by ourselves due to limited time and resources. But after this study, I become very cautious about the recruiting strategy, as I want to ensure the validity of research starting from finding the right participants to talk.
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Calibrate note-taking strategy could help the team to get more insightful data. We didn't calibrate our note-taking strategy during the phase 1 interview, so we spent extra more time analyzing the data and form themes. After this project, I learned about the importance of calibrating note taking strategy in a qualitative research project.
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