World of Warcraft In-Game Support Research
Overview
In 2018, the World of Warcraft (WoW) in-game support experience had been relatively untouched since its inception in one of the original expansions. With the game and our ability to support its players having gone through a number of significant changes, we wanted to make sure the in-game experience reflected those changes. WoW players seeking support also represented a significant portion of the website traffic and customer service contacts. The game team’s priority is on the actual game, so we took it upon ourselves to find ways to improve this experience for the players, game, and business.
My Role & Responsibilities
Usability testing, data analysis, information architecture
Outcomes
Research findings was a catalyst in a future effort to create a support platform for other titles to leverage across mobile and desktop.
Buy-in from game team to allow our team to control more of the content for the in-game experience.
Reinforced our relationship with game teams to build in support early on in a game’s lifecycle.
Observing How Players Used In-Game Support
We recruited several testers who had varying degrees of experience with playing WoW to get a sense of how someone new to the game vs. a veteran might navigate the in-game support experience. We were primarily looking at how players handled:
Navigation
Article browsing
Support ticket submission
Restoring lost items
Removing starter editions
Viewing recent purchases
We honed in on these specific tasks based on web analytics, player feedback, and knowing the top contact drivers for players who were coming from the in-game support experience.
Our findings showed that tasks could be completed, but often took a number of steps more than what might be needed. Players were also being asked to leave the game and use a desktop browser more than what should be required—one of the primary goals of the in-game browser is to keep players in the game.
Content and Contact Audits
Looking at what content players were commonly interacting with, what they were contacting us about, and how they described their problem shined a light on some gaps in the in-game support experience. Looking at the common themes and deltas between those metrics, allowed me to better understand the types of issues players faced while in-game.
Auditing the content that was built into the in-game browser UI vs. on the website, it was clear the in-game browser didn’t match the website’s information architecture. The website had gone through a number of iterations to keep up with game and player expectations, but the in-game UI had remained the same over the years. With the game team’s primary focus being on the actual gameplay experience, this was understandable.
As an example, the account security information baked into the game wasn’t keeping up with how quickly the web content would get updated with new information.
Partnering With the Game Team for Design Improvements
After presenting our findings to the game team, we knew the game team’s time was incredibly limited. I, along with my team’s web UI designer, partnered with one of the lead game UI designers to find ways we could solve for these problems without needing them to commit to large amounts of work. This partnership led us to develop concepts that put more of the heavy lifting on our web team, and kept the in-game UI minimal to the point where it was more or less a typical desktop browser.
This new approach also included heavily theming our website based on the in-game typography, color schemes, and overall tone.
Removing all the hardcoded navigational UI on the left would allow for the in-game support experience to quickly change and create a more seamless experience.
Improved Analytics Capabilities
A side effect of this new approach would be easier access to analytics on how players were interacting with support content. Previously, we had very limited insight into what players were doing with the hardcoded content. With all that moved into the website itself, we’d be able to much more accurately track player behavior and make adjustments accordingly.
Leveraging this Research for Future Work
With the nature of game development, we put some of these changes on hold until a future date. However, this research served as the baseline for a future effort where we turned the in-game support experience into more of a platform that is being replicated across a number of game teams.