In 2022, Roblox experienced tremendous growth and recognized the opportunity to overhaul social communication, so that it could evolve with its users.
Roblox Connect is a calling feature that enables users to converse with friends in a shared, immersive space. Behind the scenes, it serves as a tech showcase for new tools and API’s for developers.
The Role
I was part of the Social Communications team and responsible for the experience strategy and design of Roblox Connect across mobile, desktop, and web since January 2023.
I led the UX work, producing major deliverables, presenting them to stakeholders, and obtaining alignment biweekly until the launch in November 2023.
The CHALLENGE
Roblox lacks a dedicated, private voice communication system that meets the needs of its users. This absence forces users to rely on external tools, disrupting the experience and co-play on the platform.
To maintain its user base and competitive edge, our challenge was to evolve with users and developers to build competitive communication solutions that supported seamless interaction and enhanced overall engagement.
The Discovery
Lasagna uncovers social gap
A Chicago mom used Roblox to remind her daughter to take lasagna out of the freezer. While this incident was viewed positively from a marketing perspective, internally, it highlighted a significant gap in our product's private communication capabilities.
This viral news sparked a significant movement within Roblox to prioritize social communications as a core pillar. The plan was seen as beneficial for its millions of users and relatively low-risk. The underlying assumption was that building meaningful connections through social communications would enhance co-play and time spent on Roblox.
The VISION
Be your true self
The Solution
Roblox Connect makes it easy to connect and socialize with friends wherever they are. Users can call a friend on mobile, desktop, or web and directly interact with each other in an immersive experience.
a call from anywhere
Users can call their friends from anywhere within Roblox, whether on the platform or in an experience. They can also receive calls from outside the Roblox app.
Lights, Camera, Action!
Choose from face-to-face conversations, Free Camera Mode for total control, or Cinematic Mode for the best camera angles between all participants.
Camera to Virtual World Immersion
Roblox is all about self-expression. If you want to show off your avatar's new haircut, you can now do so by simply turning your head.
Express yourself
You can express yourself fully with full-body emotes.
The Framework
The most significant challenge I encountered during this project was advancing the designs while collaborating with the broader team. Since the project impacted every aspect of communication across Roblox, I had to coordinate with and gain buy-in from various internal and external cross-functional teams.
Another challenge was working parallel to the new Chrome system framework. Chrome was a framework that unified platform and in-experience elements into a single omnipresent system, and we were the first team in the company to adopt it. We spent countless hours debating design decisions, often without hard data to support our choices.
This process was grueling. It often felt like I was taking one step forward and two steps back, I gained valuable insights and learned a great deal about alignment and driving decision-making. I learned to rely heavily on principles. By aligning my project principles with my immediate team, I was able to get their support for my design decisions. This alignment also made it easier to present my approach to executives and back it up with UXR data. Furthermore, using these principles helped me collaborate with cross-functional teams to blend our goals, creating a unified north star vision for everyone to follow and establishing a clear path forward.
Principles
Extensibility over Rigidity.
Prioritize a flexible system that can adapt with user needs, rather than a rigid one-size-fits-all approach.
Expressive over Realistic.
Allow users to express their personalities and emotions through avatars, rather than a hyper-realistic representations.
Delightful over Utilitarian.
Provide an enjoyable experience making interactions fun and memorable, rather than solely functional.
Seamless over Stand-alone.
Prioritize a flexible system that can adapt and grow with user needs, rather than a rigid one-size-fits-all approach.
UXR
I teamed with UXR to run 6 rounds of biweekly surveys and developer/user interviews. I partnered with the internal teams product manager and the UXR team to build out questionnaires for these 6 rounds of surveys, which were sent out to developers and users. I partnered with UXR to conduct interviews with both developers and users.
One of the primary goals of Roblox Connect was to enable developers to create communication apps and experiences on the Roblox platform. We positioned ourselves uniquely—not just as a first-party team but also as if we were developers building a communication experience ourselves.
I engaged with a diverse group of Roblox developers bi-weekly to understand their experiences on the platform and gather their unbiased feedback on the communication APIs they needed.
calling into roblox
One of my earliest design challenges was how to propose and integrate a calling framework into Roblox. Roblox itself presented a unique challenge as it consisted of two different systems co-existing: the platform, which handles app-level navigation and functionality, and in-experience, which is developer-owned.
Questions I asked myself:
How do you build a seamless design product that satisfies both Roblox design systems and developer owned experiences?
How do you communicate to developers about your design patterns for calling framework?
At first glance, it seemed logical to model our calling framework after what most Roblox users were already familiar with, such as FaceTime, mobile phone calls, and Discord audio channels. However, the deeper we delved, the more technical it became, as we were building our calling framework with APIs in mind to allow developers to create their own communication experiences. Our proposal was to develop the calling framework as a core calling API along with a broad set of optional tools. Developers would need to commit to the core APIs, such as the call framework, but could optionally integrate the other APIs based on their needs.
The next challenge was to educate developers about the available APIs for calling.
Call Bar and Developer Experiences
The Call Bar is a platform-enabled Dev UI. However, integrating the Call Bar into the platform can create conflicts when developers try to place their Dev UI in overlapping areas, such as where the Call Bar is located.
To address this, we implemented No UI zones that activate when a call is in progress, ensuring that the Call Bar doesn’t interfere with other UI elements.
EMotes
Developers can enable pre-assembled set of emotes that work with all Roblox avatars and can add there own custom ones as well.
Cinamatic Camera
Roblox experiences feature user-controlled free camera movement. The Cinematic Camera is an out-of-the-box API that developers can use to track multiple actors in a 3D space. The goal was to help developers create dynamic cinematic shots or highly immersive experiences between two actors. It allowed developers to speed development without having to build out custom code to achieve the same effect.
GyrO CAMERA
I have to confess a deep secret: while the camera did track facial motion, the lead technical engineer had to simulate “gyro tracking” as the camera panned around the body. The representation of true camera tracking was even further simulated on desktop/web.
I worked closely with the lead engineer to bring our vision of camera tracking to avatar animations to life. This was one of those rare moments where innovative design requests and technical challenges came together, inspiring the team to create a more immersive experience. I’m deeply grateful for the lead engineer's patience and expertise in achieving both facial motion tracking and “camera rotations.”
The result is seamless and immersive, allowing me to translate real-world body and camera movements into the avatar world. Enabling users to take greater control of their experience and immersion in the metaverse.
Dog Fooding
Long Game, Fast Lane
One of Roblox's core principles is to always take the long view, a value that is fiercely upheld throughout the company.
Our team was given a fixed launch date to headline RDC 2023. With an aggressive scope and strict engineering milestone check-ins, one way we tackled the challenge of "taking the long view" was by running open company-wide dogfooding and usability testing. Bi-weekly, we conducted dogfooding and user testing of the build and design prototypes with anyone in the company. Our team was one of the first to implement such a high cadence of open testing for our feature.
The first few months were met with intense criticism and feedback. Despite this, we continued to openly invite the company to test bi-weekly. The combination of frequent, open invitations to test and actively listening to everyone’s input allowed us to navigate "taking the long view" within a short, aggressive timeframe. What started as a period of harsh criticism transformed into one of enthusiasm and support. Feedback shifted from difficult critiques to praise, with colleagues asking how they could help and be a part of the process.
Prototypes
Prototypes were the most effective way to quickly gather meaningful feedback from the team. They also played a crucial role in clearly communicating my designs to executives during presentations. I iterated through numerous prototypes to align with cross-functional partners, allowing us to stay ahead of engineering as much as possible.
In the later stages of development, prototypes remained highly effective, but their purpose shifted. They were primarily used to help engineers and team members understand detailed interactions and user flows.
The EXecution
Gallery of Roblox Connect.
THe Launch
Robolox connect debut
On September 23, 2023, the Roblox Developer Conference went live, we shared the spotlight with Roblox PlayStation as the headliners to RDC. The reveal went off without a hitch.
Seeing Results
We launched in November 2023 on iOS/Android, Desktop PC, and Web.
16.4M
VISITS
250k
DAILY ACTIVE USERS
107k
ROBLOX FAVORITES
137
EXPERIENCES USING CALL API
4M
AVERAGE CALL LENGTH
1.5m
TOTAL CALL MINUTES
Featured
We had a tremendous amount of buzz and preparation leading up to our marketing blast. I worked tirelessly with the marketing team, coordinating approved assets and messaging to ensure everything was aligned and ready to go.
Project Learnings
Building Bridges
Developers are very forthcoming with their feedback and needs. This was one of the first times I had to build for an audience that knew exactly what they wanted and had a highly technical mindset. Keeping an open mind when working with developers helped me align our goals effectively.
It came as no surprise that some developers were unhappy with our APIs. Their dissatisfaction wasn’t with the APIs themselves but with the direction Roblox was taking—prioritizing social and communication APIs over quality-of-life or game-specific development features. Developers voiced their concerns loudly on social media.
We weren’t surprised by this reaction, as we had interviewed developers throughout the process. In response, we quickly followed up by posting documentation and educational resources for the Roblox Connect APIs and opened channels for developers to submit feedback. These discussions are ongoing as we explore ways to improve our relationship and communication with developers.
Long term Vision
Roblox Connect was a crucial stepping stone toward our larger vision. It laid out the technical groundwork and foundation for what would eventually become "Roblox Party"; enabling users to group up with friends, message, and voice chat across the multiverse.
