Case Study: LEGO Universe
Years Active: 2008 - 2011 | Role: UI Artist & Designer
How do you create a robust & functional online chat system that will keep children safe from internet predators?
Collaborators Cami Dodson, UI Designer | Cassie Brubaker, UI Art Lead | Nic Foster, Software Development Engineer | Brian Johnson, Product Manager
This was the crux of the problem presented in the player chat system for the online video game LEGO Universe. As massively multiplayer online games began shifting towards younger demographics, the issue of online security became increasingly present in the mind of game developers. LEGO has a long standing tradition of creating highly safe and secure environments for the young audience they serve. This commitment to safety extends to every corner of their company and LEGO Universe would be no different.
I worked alongside fellow interface designer Camille Dodson (Cami) to review our options and figure out the best approach to creating a safe and functioning chat. While Cami would only be part of the initial research and ideation phase, her input would prove invaluable to the success of the project.
The Blacklist* Approach
My and Cami’s initial thought was to implement a blacklist system to block the use of explicit terms in player chat. LEGO had an existing partnership with a 3rd party research firm who were able to provide a dictionary of known explicit words and phrases which could be used to filter out undesired language.
Initial sketches
Version a) If the player attempted to send a message with a blacklist word a tooltip would appear informing the player that they must first change or remove the word to send their message. The blacklist word(s) would be highlighted in red.
Version b) This second version would also be in response to the player typing and attempting to send a blacklist word, but would use a gentle box shake and an in-chat moderation message to inform the player that they had typed a word that was not allowed in chat.
Synthesis
Ultimately, version a) felt overly authoritative and punitive. Many of LEGO Universe’s players were new to typing and would be more likely to write a blacklist word on accident than on purpose. I did not want the children to feel like they had done something wrong or were in trouble in any way. In version b), I invited the omnipresent spiritual guide of LEGO Universe (named “Bob”) to intervene on decency’s behalf. In this version the player is casually told to change the highlighted colors before attempting to send the message. With the assistance of Camille Dodson and Nic Foster an early build of the chat system was implemented into the LEGO Universe Alpha build and tested in the next usability session.
Motion previsualization created by me to help direct implementation
Pictures from the LEGO Universe Germany usability test
A Catastrophic Failure
The chat system proved almost completely unusable in our small sample test of 6 participants. None of the children noticed the in-chat blacklist notifications and every participant eventually abandoned the chat, even when prompted to engage it by the moderator.
The problem was glaringly obvious, the blacklist dictionary was much more expansive than we had originally realized and any typographical error was immediately flagged. A review of the blacklist document with Cami revealed hundreds of words and phrases —many of which we didn’t even realize were explicit— were preventing the players from communicating effectively.
As an example, one of the blacklisted phrases, “blast off”, was especially difficult considering that the first major task the player had to undertake was to build a rocket that would transport them to the first game world. Equally problematic was the fact children were not allowed to type numbers or common words associated with home addresses or physical locations (e.g. “street”, “home”, country/state abbreviations).
The next iteration of chat would need to better guide the player through their available word options. Based off of the strong feedback from the usability tests it would need to be overwhelmingly obvious to players when a word or phrase is not allowed. With this in mind I began brainstorming ideas on how to create a new chat that would include a typing assist feature.
Chat assist explorations To help players better understand their options when chatting, I started experimenting with an assistive chat feature that would give them suggested words and phrases when using the chat. While useful in implementing the blacklist chat system, it would become invaluable in the next iteration of chat.
Life Finds a Way
Reports from the friends and family alpha revealed that our chat system was already being subverted in some interesting ways. It seemed that the more clever players had devised a secret code of words to represent numbers.
Won = One
Too = Two
Tree = Three
For = Four
It appeared our players were operating with the stealthy efficiency that one would expect to see in a maximum security prison, using a coded language to arrange item trades and share personal information. Cami and I discussed the problem together and with LEGO. We determined that our only option for a safe chat system was to switch over to a whitelist of approved words.
We were walking a razor’s edge. Too much freedom of speech and we would put our most vulnerable users at risk, but too much restriction and the chat would become an unusable form of communication. This is where I must give Cami a tremendous amount of credit. She worked tirelessly with LEGO to compile a list of words and phrases that would both be useful to the players but also ensure the highest level of protection for our youngest players.
Additional reading: The LEGO Universe Dictionary of Player Slang
Final player chat flow 1) The player receives a message from a player who is already on their friend’s list. 2) The player accepts showing the received message along with a text input box. 3) The player types a word that is not whitelisted. 4) The player mouses over the send button while in it is in the alert state causing a tooltip message to be displayed. 5) The player corrects their message and presses the send button, the chat expands vertically as more messages are sent. 5) The chat reaches its maximum height and a scrollbar appears. 6) A menu of suggested terms appear if the player lingers for more than 2 seconds after typing a word.
Quest Complete
I am proud to have been part of an organization that consistently obsessed over the safety of its players and gave its designers the space to make decisions to this end. In LEGO Universe’s entire life the game was never criticized for creating an unsafe player environment. While it can be very uncomfortable to think about the worst case scenarios, online game platforms bear responsibility in the protection of their audience. A protection that LEGO still holds the gold standard (in my esteem).
You can read more about the LEGO Universe chat system as well as additional safeguards enacted by the development team in this article: Building the LEGO Universe Online
* The word “blacklist” dates back to 17th century England when Charles II published a list of nobles who he accused of betraying his father. At this time the prefix “black” was used to invoke the color’s relationship to the church’s imagery of evil (the Latin word for “black” is ater which literally means “evil”).