Recruitment Roadmap

Project Description

A two-month long design challenge and part of a larger capstone project our class worked on with Activision. We were tasked with developing a concept and pitch video. The focus was to promote player engagement through the creation of social features for the Call of Duty (COD) companion app. The project was a collaborative two-person effort with my teammate Chase Nguyen. We planned the pitch video together and then I used Adobe After Effects to edit the video, for which Chase created many of the visual assets. The Companion App Design Team approved our concept for further development with a larger student team.

Problem

Activision’s Call of Duty (COD) is a challenging game for beginners, but learning COD is easier for new players when they do so with friends. In fact, COD is more fun to play with friends regardless of skill level, but finding new ones can be difficult, and compatibility is a major pain point when matching with strangers.

Insights

While existing friends may lack Call of Duty (COD) game skills, those with proven compatibility makes for an untapped opportunity. There isn’t a procedure in place for active players to recruit their friends as new COD players, and even though the COD companion app contains tutorials and a guide for new users, it is designed for experienced players. So we needed to repackage the onboarding experience to be shared with new players. Activision’s research pointed out that successful matches with random players are rare enough to be described as like “finding a unicorn”. Not only did our interviews with players reinforce this finding, but I also found a research paper that highlights the value of loyal teammates when playing online games.

Solutions

We conceptualized a Recruitment Roadmap feature for the Call of Duty companion app and created a pitch video for the Activision team. Our concept provides a prescribed series of steps for active players to follow when recruiting new players from their existing network of friends, with the companion app providing the pathway and toolset. Our pitch highlighted a Welcome Kit and a Weekly Plan.