Customer service for millions of players

Overview

When millions of players need help, clarity is everything

Help.EA.com is the central customer support portal for Electronic Arts — one of the largest game publishers in the world. It supports hundreds of game titles, multiple platforms, and millions of players globally. The existing experience was functional but showing its age, and when customer contacts can end up costing into the millions, it was time for a refresh using a new pattern library rolled out company wide. My team was the first to field test the system.

As lead visual designer on the full redesign, I worked closely with product managers, engineers, EA branding team and content strategists to utilize the new pattern library, simplify navigation, and build a system that could scale across EA's enormous catalog.

Design Work

Tickets, please

If a customer's issue went beyond the article knowledge base, we guided them to the case workflow for intake into the customer service work stream. Given the complexity of the many games and problems a player might have, we use a progressive ticket creation system which allowed the user to build their case and make changes all on one screen. It tested exceptionally well in extensive usability sessions, with participants calling out ease of use and clarity as the high points.

EA Help Ticket creation flow

Process

Getting in touch

If the player needed immediate help with their issue, it was important to get them to a channel that was quick, and set expectation on how long they might be waiting. This moment had many different dynamic states to help the customer get to what they needed while balancing what was most cost effective for the business. I thought it was important to bring along some of the key art from the game they were having an issue with, to keep that personalized feeling present in what was a moment of friction.

Getting timely help on the contact screen