Reimagining game distribution to connect employees to the games they create.
It should be easy for a game company to let employees play the games they make.
And yet the existing solution required days, even weeks of administrative work to distribute game keys to employees. Furthermore, employees found it hard to locate their games, and often received game keys for the wrong country or region.
This resulted in wasted time and frequent support requests, making the benefit too costly to continue with the current solution.
How could we distribute games efficiently, and help employees easily find & claim their game keys?
My Role
I was the design lead, user researcher, and content strategist, delivering solutions from the system architecture level down to the pixels.
I partnered with engineers and a product manager to create a responsive web app for managing millions of dollars of game inventory, distributed to 10,000+ global employees.
What I Did
User Research, Testing, & Analysis
IA, Interaction Design, & Content Strategy
Partnered with visual designer to execute on brand and design system
Launch strategy, comms, and QA
Beta & Post-Launch analysis for design-led improvement plans
One system, two audiences
Keymasters need a way to give keys to employees, and employees need a way to claim them. When designing for two audiences, it’s important to identify their unique needs and relationships between them.
Jobs to be Done
Employee
When a new game is released I want to easily get my key so I can play it right away.
When I have keys I won’t use, I want to give them away so others can enjoy the games.
In my first week at Blizzard, I want to feel excited and comforted during the stress of onboarding.
Keymaster
When managing Keyring, I want to add & distribute keys quickly because it isn’t my highest priority job task.
When keys are low I want to be informed, so I can replenish the inventory to avoid support tickets.
When I add content, I want it to look good so I give employees a great experience.
Determining where to begin
To meet these needs we envisioned an inventory/content management system with 2 parts:
Employee UI
to view, claim, and manage collection of game keys
Keymaster UI
to manage & distribute game keys and content to employees
It was imperative to begin with the employee UI experience, since everything employees see would be created and curated by keymasters.
Identifying employee needs first
Employee interviews and analysis of usage data provided insights into different employee archetypes and opportunities to provide a great experience.
Employee Archetypes
Collectors
Claims new keys immediately even if they don’t intend to use them.
Loves seeing everything they have been given, sees the collection as a history of their Blizzard tenure.
Casuals
Has a few go-to franchises or games, and claims keys at the moment they intend to use them.
Often gives keys away to friends and family living in various regions.
Newbies
Will first encounter Keyring as part of the new hire experience benefits package.
Is excited to learn about everything the company has to offer them.
Conceptualizing the ideal
Insights from this primary research inspired my design direction, which was based on these assumed principles, some of which were derived directly from Blizzard’s core values:
Think globally
Wherever possible, let employees choose platforms & regions for keys.
Play nice, play fair
Distinguish items, games, and franchises without favoring any one over another.
A treasure trove of content
Be more than a key repository. Present as a big collection that grows over time.
They’re not all gamers
Don’t assume users are familiar with all the games. Provide ample descriptions.
Showcase game art
Leverage game art to identify items and celebrate Blizzard culture.
Franchise fans
Employees prefer to see content organized around franchises.
Testing my assumptions
Testing with low-fidelity prototypes allowed me to quickly try out ideas. Showing the full collection with an emphasis on game art resonated with users, but I had to rethink how items were labeled and how keys were claimed.
Incorporating this feedback into the design gave us a great foundation to inform content requirements for the administrative UI, such as franchise tagging, high res game art, and changing terms like “generate & use” to “claim & redeem”.
Keymasters have needs, too.
There is no employee experience without a way to efficiently administrate it. I observed and analyzed keymaster workflows to find opportunities to reduce the administrative burden.
Eliminate repetitive tasks
Simplifying distribution and management would save time, reduce errors, and give agency to employees.
Provide actionable info
Keymasters need to know when inventory is low to expedite key requests and reduce support tickets.
Easy-to-manage content
Keymasters need tools that make it easy to produce great content in the employee UI.
Designing how it works
The existing data model was complex and repetitive, taking days to set up and was filled with errors. We greatly simplified it while making it more flexible.
Before
The existing model put all the burden on keymasters, requiring a survey to identify what employees wanted, then create separate products for each, and then distribute them in separate promotions.
After
Our new model greatly simplified this process, allowing keymasters to create 1 product and 1 promotion for everyone, and let employees choose their preferred key.
Architecting an app from scratch
Taking inspiration from inventory management systems and working directly with keymasters, I created the information architecture for the app, defined page types and workflows, and highlighted opportunities to streamline steps.
Designing for needs, not wants
Collaborating directly with users makes it easy to find out what they wanted, but I didn’t stop there. Iterating on those concepts allowed me to create solutions for what they needed, leading to a more scalable, intuitive, and efficient UI.
The Blizzard polish
We wanted an exciting visual style that lived up to Blizzard’s high standard of quality. I partnered with a visual designer and dev team to create a full design system from the ground up.
Let them play
The final design solution gave Keymasters everything they needed to efficiently manage and distribute keys, while providing a beautiful and exciting game collection experience to all employees.
Immediate impact
4.8 SUS, higher than any other Blizzard application.
“I can actually find the games I care about.”
“Seeing a full library of games on my first day was so awesome!”
“I feel lucky to work at a place that gives us these kinds of tools.”
New games could be given out in minutes instead of days.
Keyring support and dev requests decreased by 70%.
Scalable impact
Great products solve user problems and scale for other uses. The thought and craft we put into this product provided business value well beyond the original charter.
Internal game testing
Keyring was adopted by game teams to manage employee game alphas and betas, eliminating several redundant tools.
Employee benefits
The success of this project led Activision and King to adopt the platform and extend the benefit to all employees.
Global design system
The design system we created is now being expanded and in use by all internal applications across the company.
