A Gaming Passion Project
TLDR: Redesigned the remake vote in Valorant for fun. My main is Fade, hbu?
Teams
Product, Support, Development, Implementation
Role
Product Designer
Year
2023
A UX Design Sprint
Valorant
Valorant is a 5v5 character-based, tactical first-person shooter game. It’s one of my favorite games because of its diverse set of characters (Agents) and addicting gameplay, so I decided to blend my passion for gaming with my design skillset.
OVERVIEWThis personal exploration takes a look at the remake process and how to make it a better experience for players. A remake is when a match ends in a draw due to a disconnected player.
UnderstandSynthesizeUser Profiles, How Might We
Initial Insights, Competitor Review, Problem Statement
DesignUser Profiles, How Might We
IdeateCrazy 8s, Solution Sketch, Hypothesis
User FeedbackIterate Design
Valorant is a 5v5 character-based, tactical first-person shooter game. It’s one of my favorite games because of its diverse set of characters (Agents) and addicting gameplay, so I decided to blend my passion for gaming with my design skillset.
Is the remake experience even a problem for players?Yes. I fervently read several Reddit threads, all posted within the past year, expressing negative feelings toward the remake itself and the process.
View the Figma file here.
This entire sprint was laid out in Figma using a modified version of a Remote Design Spring Template shared by Alexandria Goree, a Senior Product Designer at Spotify.
No one has nailed down the Remake.Most of these games don’t have the option to remake, only to surrender (which Valorant also has).There is very little information from the developers of these games about what happens when players surrender and how it affects their gameplay (with the exception of League of Legends).Exploitation of remakes and surrenders is acknowledged by players, not just the game developers.
I researched 4 first-person shooter games that stand as Valorant’s biggest competitors, as well as League of Legends.
League of Legends
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
Rainbow Six Seige
Apex Legends
Dota 2
WHAT I LEARNED
After fervently reading Valorant reddit threads and online forums, I identified the problems with the current remake user experience and stated my proposed solution.
DYLAN WIDELLEDylan is in his mid-twenties and plays Valorant after work when he has time. He’s able to play a couple games a night to relax and have fun.
ScenarioDylan wants to leave a match due to the fact that his team has one less player than his opponents.
Who are we solving for? Who’s behind the screen? Who’s insta-locked a duelist only to make their Sage move on to site first?
A How Might We question is a way to frame the challenge we’re trying to solve in a way that will help us spark new ideas. These questions helped guide initial ideation and early design decisions.
Crazy 8s is a quick sketching exercise that challenges people to generate ideas in eight minutes.
The eight sketches I did pose solutions for a couple of problems identified. One solution is the remake UI (mostly sketched on the left column). The second is letting people join in-progress games (mostly sketched on the right column).
SOLUTION
SKETCH
Solution Sketches are menat to articulate a particular idea (sometimes more than one) further.
The Solution Sketch I did depicts an end-to-end solution for when players disconnect.
There are two main exercises I utilized in the ideation phase: Crazy 8s and a Solution Sketch.
CRAZY 8s
After doing research, ideating, and narrowing down key concepts I thought were worth pursuing, I got to prototyping! The following redesigns were created in Adobe Photoshop.
Feedback From UsersI asked players in the Valorant subreddit for feedback. There were several constructive comments, but the following sums up the responses.
WHAT THEY LIKED
The design
The number of votes needed for the votes to pass
That the vote is not anonymous
Since much of my initial research was scouring Reddit threads and reading tons of comments made about the remake process, I went back to Reddit and this demographic to get feedback.
To get feedback from players, I posted my remake redesign on the Valorant subreddit. My post can be found here.
In 12 hours, I received 201 upvotes, a 97% upvote rate and 7 total shares.
WHAT THEY DIDN’T
A bit too verbose
Window of time to remake is too short
That the vote is not anonymous
In the next iteration, I would 1) reword pieces to see if it could be more concise, 2) expand the remake window time, and 3) revisit the anonymous vote to weight its pros and cons.
POSTING ON REDDIT
Yes.
Success metrics at the beginning of the sprint:
Primary: 200 upvotes for the redesign(s) on RedditUpdated count: 5 days after posting, my redesign received 235 upvotes and 8 shares
Secondary: Positive comments
