Toxicity in Valorant
Timeline2023-2024
DeliverablesUser Survey
Infographic Design
UI/UX
DescriptionA case study in Riot Games’ popular 5v5 competitive shooter game that explores possible solutions to create a safer and transparent community for their players.
Goal
Goal
THE PROBLEMThe Valorant community is experiencing a deficiency in both action and transparency when it comes to effectively addressing toxic behaviour. This situation creates an unsafe environment and permits negative behaviour to persist unchecked within the community.
THE GOALBy utilizing player perspectives and feedback, I can make well-informed decisions to develop a solution that prioritizes transparency and improve safety amongst Valorant players. Particularly, in addressing toxic and negative behaviour with an overall objective of promoting good behaviour and discouraging negative actions.
Discover
• Identify problem
• Brainstorm
• Research
• Survey
Plan
• Hypothesis
• Draft / Sketch
• CTA (Social media)
Define
• Review survey data
• Extract relevant data
Design
• Infographic
• UI/UX
Call-to-Action
A social media post was designed to share the survey and collect player perspectives. I referred to Valorant’s branding and style to maintain consistency in the visual presentation.
INFOGRAPHIC
The infographic is a visualization of the data collected from the survey.
My purpose as a designer was to gather insights from individuals and
convey the data in a manner consistent with Riot’s visual identity.
SOLUTION
The solution was designed in Figma with minimal edits in Photoshop. Taking into account the necessary data from participants, I crafted a possible solution. My emphasis was on transparency and fostering greater accountability for toxic behaviour through increased action and consequences.
Although addressing issues within online communities may not reach perfection or complete resolution, this strategy of enforcing more transparency and proactive measures represents a positive effort towards a more tolerable and safer Valorant community.Try out the prototype below!
A look into what some players had to say…
At the end of the survey, players were asked to review Riot Games’ article on their progress towards voice and chat toxicity. They were asked to share their opinions on the matter.
Anonymous
I feel like Riot Games are trying to strike a balance within their community. They know that they want to punish bad behaviors and toxic players, but they also realize that they are still their customers and a big part of their revenue stream. This is why I feel like their consequences aren't as harsh or have many ways a player can bypass it (ex. create another account and continue the toxicity) because they still want to keep these players around but still try to advocate for a safe community. I respect their business decisions to do so but this makes it so that toxicity will remain within the community. I don't see how toxicity can be improved without improving on their consequences to be more harsh so players are more cognizant of their behaviors online.
Anonymous
Managing toxic players is getting better, but the root of the problem persists. Toxic gamer culture has been around for ages, and women, and queer folks still feel anxious about using their mics, so I wish there was more support towards these groups of people from Riot themselves to push against misogynistic and homophobic cultures in gaming. In my opinion, companies love ambiguity in showing support — there’s a lot of “we support everyone!”, and not enough “respect queers or else”.
Anonymous
Valorant tries their best and I think there are a lot of improvements to the platform I find that people have gotten less toxic, and with the support of many online communities on Twitch, tik tok, youtube and other platforms it has improved significantly. Although I don't think we will ever fully eliminate the problem, I think being able to see changes and knowing that Valorant has been listening to the people and is trying to put in the effort to eliminate the issue of toxic players.