Investigating negative experiences in online gaming communities
How might we create a safer online gaming environment?
UX Research, User Research Methods
2023
Process at a glance
The Research
We first observed 8 gamers as they navigated tools and communities to protect themselves from harassment. In the second round, we interviewed 9 gamers about their positive and negative experiences in online multiplayer games, playing on their own and with their peers.
The Outcome
We identified 4 key opportunity areas:
Company regulations and enforcement
Tools
Defensive user behaviors
Advocacy and awareness
Our findings inspired our final concept: Mellon, a community building platform aimed at reducing negative online experiences by forming inclusive communities and empowering members.
Stage 1 - Define
Toxic environments in online video games are "normal"
I started this project as the sole ux researcher. From the start, I knew that solving toxic behavior in online gaming would be a complex problem, and that industry efforts hadn’t fully addressed the negative experiences many players face. To begin, I conducted preliminary research, completing both a literature review and a competitor analysis to understand the problem space from a broader perspective.
I synthesized the findings into three key insights that laid the foundation for my group’s user research. This phase reinforced the idea that solid early research is critical for guiding effective user research and later design decisions, and I learned how to quickly identify the most relevant insights to guide the project without getting lost in the abundance of data.
Strengths
Companies actively moderate toxic behaviors
Software tools to moderate negative behavior (e.g., muting, blocking, reporting)
Tools provide reactive measures for players to manage harassment
Weaknesses
Solutions focus mainly on responding to harassment, not preventing it
Do not address anticipatory anxiety players feel before engaging with others
Existing tools fall short in supporting players’ emotional safety during social interactions
Stage 2 - User Research
Round 1 - Observation Study
What do players need in order to feel safe?
Since we thought it might be unethical to observe real toxic encounters, I proposed an alternative scenario to my team where participants helped a friend cope with toxicity. I designed the protocol, wrote follow-up interview questions, and conducted 2 of the 8 sessions while coordinating the rest of the team.
Players wanted to feel in control of what happens to them
In our analysis, I noticed that players wanted to feel like they had more control over their online experiences through features like mute, report, and chat tools. I strongly pushed for this as a key insight, which eventually shaped our next research phase.
Stage 2 - User Research
Round 2 - Interview Study
How do social environments shape the way players navigate toxic experiences?
To understand how gamers feel during toxic encounters, I helped design an interview guide, created the recruitment criteria and screener, and conducted user interviews with 3 of our 9 participants. I guided our team in shaping the script and made sure we captured both positive and negative social experiences with friends and with strangers.
Positive interactions matter
During analysis, I noted the importance of positive social interactions. Our research suggested that trying to fix toxic players’ behavior when it happens would only be a reactive measure and would be difficult to implement.
However, the joy participants experienced in positive interactions pointed to a proactive opportunity: fostering more positive experiences could reduce toxic situations before they even start. I strongly advocated for this insight as a critical consideration in shaping our design strategy.
Stage 3 - Analysis
What we learned
We analyzed our data between both observations and interviews. I led my team, helping us identify four key themes: company regulations and enforcement, tools, defensive behaviors, and advocacy and awareness.
Our strongest insight remained that positive social interactions matter, which I emphasized during analysis. These themes directly shaped our design strategy, guiding decisions about design-decisions that would both reduce toxicity and cultivate positive online experiences and friendships.
Stage 4 - Synthesis
Turning insights into action
The key highlight from our research was that while players expressed the need to have control over their social experiences when faced with negative behavior, players reacted overwhelmingly positive when recalling good experiences with their friends or fun players they met online.
We consolidated research findings into personas, a user journey map, a priority matrix, and our four themes to guide design recommendations. I designed the visuals for our design artifacts, collaborated with the team to ensure alignment, and facilitated discussions that solidified our four guiding principles.
With our research concluded, we were able to develop a well-defined design strategy for a product that would help players create safer online gaming environments.
Reflection
Takeaways
This project challenged me to work through an open-ended, ambiguous problem. By methodically breaking it down through multiple research methods I was able to define a clear direction forward. It reinforced my ability to create structure in uncertainty, which I now see as one of my core strengths as a researcher and designer.
Navigating ambiguity through iterative research testing
The biggest success we had was following an iterative multi-step research approach, multiple rounds of research helped us methodically understand the problem, understand our users, and arrive at defined design strategy for a future product.
Dealing with limitations in scenario-based observations
Ethical constraints led us to study how players research defensive behaviors. This meant our findings mostly reflected preferences more than real-time actions.
If we were to run another study, I would like to develop scenarios to help focus on observable participant behaviors when encountering simulated negative behavior online.
Focusing future tests on positive gaming experiences
Our biggest insight was that we noticed participants were very excited talking about fun experiences they had online with other players.
I'd want to explore further into this positive relationship and community building within these gaming communities.