Disney
Club Penguin’s Chat Interface
THE PROJECT
Create a chat interface for Club Penguin, the #1 SaaS virtual world for kids.
The PROBLEM
Bullying happens on the playground and it also happens online. Additionally, by observing site data and in person play-testing, we discovered that kids have lower typing dexterity than adults - therefore limiting their engagement. As such, making self expression easy while also ensuring it was a safe space for all participants was paramount.
“How might we create a chat interface that mitigates bullying and makes expression nimble and easy, so that the state of play is uninhibited?”
MY ROLE
I had previously been working on Disney.com’s games portal building game sites for TRON, Phineas & Ferb and Disney XD. I was then chosen by Club Penguin’s CEO to lead the UX/UI on this project where some code and linguistic data structure had been developed, but the UX/UI had not been visualized.
I lead the design effort with the development and linguistics teams in Los Angeles and the product team in Canada to create the virtual world core chat interface called “Phrase Chat.”
THE DESIGN
To address a the lower typing dexterity, the child would only need to type a letter or two to get a list of suggestions that would pop-up on the chat bar; whether on a keyboard or tablet. This “Phrase Chat” would allow for greater participation and engagement through just a few letters and simple clicks.
The suggested words were also ‘bully-proof’ safe words. By clicking or tapping on the suggested words the child was allowed quicker self-expression while directing them toward kinder communication.
RESULTS
Decreased bullying as a result of stronger mitigations.
Increased engagement with more total phrases completed.
The team and I earned a US Patent: #US9176947B2, Dynamically Generated Phrase-Based Assisted Input.