Console Integrations
Joining Discord calls directly from Xbox & Playstation
TL:DR
Joining a Discord call on Xbox required using the Xbox mobile app to initiate a call.
During a week long onsite with the Xbox team I led a series of sessions focused on streamlining the join flow. In collaboration with Microsoft engineers I designed and shipped a join call experience inside the Xbox platform, removing the need to join through the Xbox app.
The update resulted in a 92% reduction in time to get into calls. It also showed a significant (exact numbers confidential) increase in active calls on Xbox, especially for first time users.
The Opportunity
In July of 2022 we shipped Discord on Xbox, allowing players to join a Discord call from their Xbox and chat with friends on a platform they'd previously not had access to.
The integration received a positive reception from players but the largest piece of feedback was the friction of needing to go through the Xbox mobile app every time you join a call. This requirement had come from the Xbox team and was a non-negotiable item for our V1. After gathering feedback from the public launch I felt comfortable pushing back on the mobile requirement and proposing a "direct join" approach.
This projects focus was allowing new users to join Discord calls directly on their Xbox without the use of the Xbox mobile app.
Brainstorming
My team flew in for a week long onsite with the Xbox squad, focused on discussing the learnings from the launch and identifying major areas of opportunity for the next year of collaboration.
On day 1 I facilitated a brainstorming session for our 14 person group, broken up into reflections, concepting and digging into our most promising directions. The most consistent insight from the session was that users and both teams were unhappy with needing to join a call through the Xbox mobile app.
Working in a figjam file we quickly iterated through a few very rough directions and I came back the next day with a clear direction.
Solutioning Across Companies
Working in another companies design system adds a ton of complexity, not just visually but in navigating the core of how they structure experiences. In this case, building for a console environment has some really unique interactions and behaviors that we had to accomidate while still maintaining the standard Xbox experience.
I presented a series of mocks and a rough prototype, following the standard Xbox page overlay structure that adapted our V0 to allow for joining and leaving of calls directly in the console experience. No phones required.
Their engineering team took it from here, tweaking designs as needed to match small details of their UI standards that I didn't have access to in Figma.
Discords Hub
Discord has a permanent home in the Xbox Party & Chat panel
Users trained behavior to start a party won't need to change
Browsing Servers
View a list of all servers the user is a member of
Highlights servers that have active calls
Profile photos let you identify calls with friends in them
Joining Call
Once in a server you can view joinable voice calls
Accessible from the Xbox button on players controllers
*Xbox users aren't able to start a call, only join them
Call Settings
Giving players as much control over their Discord audio as possible
Integrating Krisp with Xbox calls for cleaner audio
Quick switching between game & discord audio