Valorant
Project Background
Context
During my free time, I passionately play a team-based video game called Valorant, aiming to rank within the top 1%. Given that goal, I've also had the opportunity to play with numerous players of different mindsets and approaches to the game. With that though, there came to be times when I preferred to play alone or play with certain players over others. These could be due to competitive differences, skill differences, or even just times when I did not feel social. This had me thinking:
"Why am I feeling like this? I must not be the only one, right?"
What is Valorant? What can we improve?
Valorant is a free-to-play first-person shooter game developed by Riot Games. It's a game that requires exceptional team communication where you can team up with up to 4 of your friends. For all the importance it places on playing with friends and teammates, there can be changes made to the design of the game's interface to improve social interactions and overall player experience.
Problems
Problem #1
Players don’t always want to interact with friends when they play games.
Problem #2
Players experience anxiety when rejecting invitations from others
Problem #3
Players have trouble finding other players with a similar mindset
Problem #4
Playing with players with different mindsets can result in a negative in-game experience
Solution
Redesigned Player Cards to Express "Player Type" and Intention to Play
Framing the Social Experience With Research
Players Have Been Requesting an "Appear Offline" Mode
Since the release of the game, players have been asking for an "offline mode" which would allow them to appear offline to all their friends. This has been a recurring feature request for over 3 years but yet, it has not been implemented.
Highly voted feature requests from Reddit
But Why This Feature?
Why Would Players Want an Appear Offline Mode?
Players are requesting an offline mode for a number of reasons, but most of them boil down to the same reason: they don't always want to play with their friends.
Redditor's reasonings for wanting an appear offline mode
Players Don't Always Want to Play With Their Friends
But Why?
While online research provided me with a preliminary understanding of why players don't want to play with their friends, I needed to dig deeper to understand the player experience. To understand this, I conducted user interviews with five active players across the Valorant ranking spectrum where I focused on questions regarding their experiences playing with others, why they play with others and why they may reject invitations to play with others.
From those interviews, I drew the following insights:
💡
Players want to play with others that have a similar casual or competitive mindset
💡
If players play with others with a different mindset, this can cause friction and negative communication in-game
💡
Players experience social anxiety when having to deny invitations from others due to not wanting to say "no"
💡
Players sometimes simply want to play alone versus playing with others
Have you ever played a game with someone who takes it much more seriously while you're just playing casually? Well, this accompanying image might illustrate what that feels like for Valorant players.
When a casual and competitive player play together
Ideating to Improve the Social Experience
How Might I Help?
To frame a way to approach the solution, I created the following statements to guide the ideation process:
🤔
How might we help players minimize the amount of unwanted interaction with friends?
🤔
How might we help players find others with a similar casual/competitive mindset?
Adjusting the Friend List Player Card
Valorant has a built-in way of viewing the status and activity of everyone on your friend list through player cards. However, the current player card is quite minimal - it does not tell us anything about what kind of player a user is, nor does it show what their intent to play is. Knowing this, I decided to iterate on the current player card to display both of those things
Key Player Card Changes
1. Added a flow that would allow you to edit your own player card
2. Added “Player Type” line to indicate mindset to all other player
3. Added additional context to your status instead of just “Available”. This way, other players can understand your intent to play
Before
After
Flow to change your own player card
How Would This Solve Our User's Problems?
Initial Problems and Accompanying Solutions
🔒
Players don’t always want to interact with friends when they play games
🔑
Users would be able to appear offline to outright remove the possibility for interaction
🔒
Players experience anxiety when rejecting others
🔑
Declaring your intent to play “solo” disincentivizes others from inviting you. Alternatively, you can also just appear offline to remove the situation of rejection entirely.
🔒
Players have trouble finding other players with a similar mindset as them
🔑
By having “Player Type” visible, users can find other players who approach the game in the same way they do.
🔒
Playing with players with different mindsets can result in a negative in-game experience
🔑
By having “Player Type” visible, players can have a more positive experience by playing with those with the same competitive energy
Usability Testing
Testing Details
Once I had a prototype done for my first iteration of the player card, I needed to test it to ensure its usability. I tested with five other players across the Valorant ranking spectrum in remote moderated sessions. The major findings of the result were the following:
Usability Testing Results
👍
The majority of participants quickly found the start of the flow
👍
5/5 players understood what each setting in the player details window does
👍
5/5 participants were able to identify appearance and statuses in player cards
👍
5/5 participants would invite players according to their intent to play and if they matched their own player type
🔨
There was minor confusion regarding the wording of some settings, which was addressed in the final iteration
Ending Notes and Conclusions
Ending Notes
While the usability test is a great way of understanding the usability of the feature, the way users actually use it in a live setting may not reflect the way they use it in a moderated setting. In the case of my design, players should theoretically only invite players who have matching player types and if they're available/looking for a party. However, there are no stopping players from inviting those who are "planning to solo" or those who do not match their player type. Community feedback in a live setting would be useful in this situation.
Additionally, while all participants in my usability test were able to identify the intended differences between the player types, a larger sample size across the entire Valorant player base may be useful to perception test the meaning of each player type. Using that perception test results would allow us to fine-tune the description of each player type.
Conclusion
The problems these players experience are not unique to Valorant, but very human problems that are present across all hobbies and activities. As gamers, we all want to have a positive experience especially if it serves as an escape from our day-to-day problems. With this solution, I hope to bring a positive experience to all players by creating a more positive community where users can find other likeminded players.
