MW: FGDs w/ Creators

Background

🏅 Creators Invitational 2021 (CI 2021)

The product team organized a contest called the Creators Invitational 2021, open to creators and aspiring developers. The selected contestants were tasked with creating and publishing content on MapleStory Worlds.

🛠 Creator Experience

To make MapleStory Worlds more appealing to creators, the product team broadened its focus to the creator experience, moving away from the general user and player experience. Their goal is to provide a developer-friendly environment for creators.

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Objectives

1️⃣ Understand the expert creators’ mental models

We aimed to understand the expert creators’ mental models so we can inform design decisions.

2️⃣ Identify opportunities through the experts’ lens

We aimed to identify new opportunities with the experts through collaborative discussions.

3️⃣ Understand the root causes of their pain points

Our last objective was to understand their pain points across the development and publishing stages.

Methods

Focus Group Discussions

We wanted to facilitate collaborative discussions with experts, including creators and influencers by hosting focus groups. Focus groups with experts can be useful when the goal is to identify opportunities and generate ideas in a collaborative setting.

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1️⃣ Understanding the expert creators’ mental models

Experts are known for their strong mental models. We wanted to get hints by asking questions.

2️⃣ Identifying opportunities through the experts’ lens

Our goal was to identify new opportunities with the experts through collaborative discussions.

A) We used “How Might We” questions to ideate on improving the content creation experience.

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B) We used “How Might We” questions to ideate on improving the publishing experience.

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3️⃣ Understanding the root causes of their pain points

Our last objective was to understand their pain points across the development and publishing stages.

A) We asked “Why” questions to truly understand their pain points in content creation.

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B) We asked “Why” questions to truly understand their pain points in publishing.

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👤 Participants

8 creators of various skill levels were recruited as participants. They were then divided into three groups. We wanted to see MapleStory Worlds’ creating environment works for group A · C, while the publishing environment works for group B.

• Group A. Creators (Developers)
• Group B. Streamers (Influencers)
• Group C. Creators (Non-Developers)

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Reporting

1️⃣ Understand the expert creators’ mental models

Q. In your opinion, what constitutes a well-designed content creation / publishing platform?

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Q. When creating / publishing content, which of the following factors do you consider the most important?

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Research Impact

👩‍🏫 Post-Project Research Readouts

• • Engaged the product team in conducting additional studies:
    • Further in-depth studies about the creator experience
    • Further studies about new features such as ‘Cocreation’
    • More studies about the players (spanning from the creators)

📌 Product Impact

• • Scripting has been improved:
    • Related features, e.g., ‘Script Editor’, ‘Property Editor’, etc., have been improved.
  • Social features have been updated:
    • The development of new out-game social features, such as ‘My Home’ is in progress.
    • Social features, e.g., friends’ online status, adding friends, etc., have been improved.
  • Others:
    • Avatar customization features, e.g., ‘Closet’, ‘Shop’, etc., have been improved.
    • The concept of the ‘Cocreation’ features has been conceived.
    • The improvement plan for the onboarding guide has been defined.

📌 Strategic & Cultural Impact

• • Research findings were shared in a WIP meeting.
  • Research findings were presented in the management report.
  • Task forces were formed with a focus on feature improvements.
  • Encouraged the product team’s cultural buy-in about UXR.
  • Helped define strategic priorities for development.

📌 Internal Impact

• • Established the first case for implementing long-term collaboration with the product team.

My Role

In the beginning, MapleStory Worlds was merely an idea. I took the lead in research, identifying key needs and opportunities, laying the groundwork for its early stages, and fostering long-term collaboration with stakeholders.

1️⃣ Leading Strategic · Tactical Research

I managed a small team of researchers over a two-year collaboration with the product team. Our efforts encompassed diverse areas, including gameplay experience, content creation, and publishing, utilizing generative research and co-creation methodologies.

2️⃣ Uncovering Needs and Opportunities

In the early stages, we explored user needs and opportunities in first-mover metaverse and social platforms like Roblox, Minecraft, and TikTok. As the project evolved, we expanded our focus to include diverse user types—regular players, creators, and streamers.

Conclusion

📌 Early Stage · Long-Term Collaboration: How it all went

Wrapping up this long-term collaboration, I gave a speech at MCI22 (MapleStory Worlds’ Creators Invitational 2022) on the topic of ‘Co-Creating MapleStory Worlds with the User’. I highlighted our extensive co-creation and collaboration with diverse stakeholders and users, sharing various studies and insights gained from them.

Research Impact

📌 Cultural Impact

Initiated during the ideation phase, the early stage collaboration defined target users through personas, uncovering their needs and opportunity areas. This collaborative design thinking process, involving designers, developers, and users—including creators and streamers—helped shape the product’s go-to-market strategy.

📌 Product Impact

This approach demonstrated how early collaboration can drive long-term product success. MapleStory World achieved a successful launch and has since become a beloved service, now with 60K+ active players, continuing to thrive.

At the conclusion of the collaboration, user needs-based heuristics were provided as a lasting KPI for the product team.

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