Secondary Research
To best understand eSports culture, the team began by immersing ourselves in the world of eSports by joining popular platforms, studying popular games, and following elite players on social media and game streaming platforms such as Twitch.
This online immersion provided early fluency in the cultural codes, hierarchies, and social dynamics of competitive gaming, allowing us to track existing trends and identify channels where we could connect directly with players to arrange in-person visits for 1-1 interviews and have them introduce us to their local scenes.
Field Ethnographic Research
We identified Stockholm, Paris, Seoul, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles as cities with strong gaming cultures and communities. We then planned research trips to these locations, during which we learned firsthand what it means to be an eSports athlete.
I conducted 5 in-depth 1-1 interviews with individual players, observed team training sessions, and explored the broader social ecosystems of competitive gaming, including visiting tournaments and gaming cafes in Stockholm, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas.
Research Findings & Synthesis
Trends observed amongst gamers across all five markets:
Opportunity Map
Key design principles and recommendations for product and communication design were developed based on insights from primary and secondary research. This framework was used as the basis for product and campaign concepting and ideation.
We turned the insights from field research into a map of opportunities and design principles to guide innovation in the eSports world. These were printed out on poster-sized paper for their teams to reference.
Highlighted Opportunities:
- Support female gamers
- Empower local gaming communities
- Support the mind-body eSports gaming lifestyle
- Support gamers' expression through fashion choices
Concept Ideation
I co-led a series of concepting sessions that included members of Puma's design innovation team as well as product design professionals.
A collaborative workshop with our design team, external innovation consultants, and the Puma innovation team generated product concepts and creative ideas for supporting both professional eSports gamers and enthusiasts. An opportunity map with design principles that was created during the research phases was used as a design framework for this workshop.
Ideas were refined and elaborated upon before being compiled into an “idea catalog” to serve as seed ideas for the Puma marketing and innovation teams. A compendium of seed product concepts was compiled, including idea sketches, detailed descriptions, and target audiences.
