Roblox Dynamic Avatars
Bringing Avatars to life with real-time facial expressions, head customizations.
Role
Principal Product Designer
Drive end-to-end feature design, define strategy, collaborate with Product & Engineering leadership on roadmaps, and ensure high-quality implementation.
Design Leader
Champion best practices and User insights on Avatar Expression and Communication across Roblox.
Develop and share design principles, methodologies,
and tools to elevate product design thinking and processes
Challenge
Static Avatar heads
Legacy avatar heads are static, making it hard for users to connect without real-time facial expressions or movement.
Many rely on third-party video apps to stay connected with friends while on the platform.
Goal
Higher engagement
Enabling real-time facial animations enhances expression and interaction, creating more engaging connections between Users.
Approach
Design Opportunities
Educate users on dynamic heads
Encourage users to update
Provide guidance on how to use it
Create engaging ways to connect through facial expressions
Product
Launch dynamic head assets that support real-time facial animation through camera
Drive adoption among developers and users
User Research
To uncover valuable insights,
I defined research objectives, crafted key questions, and collaborated with a researcher to conduct user interviews.
User Insights
Uniqueness
Change avatar’s face frequently, users gravitate to colorful, unique and expressive avatars
Entertainment
Be funny with their friends, “Fun to see friends reactions”
Connection
Start conversation with people through expressions, “to connect without words”
Immersive
Communicate through facial expressions as opposed to typing through chat
Solutions
Enabling Facial expressions
While engineering advanced facial mapping technology, I focused on the seamless end-to-end product user experience for integrating the tech.
User Journey
The solutions I designed span various stages of the user experience.
Discover
Explore
Dynamic Heads
Users discovered new animation enabled heads in Marketplace through Homepage component, Notification system, enhanced Navigation and Asset labeling system.
Guiding Principles:
Effortless Discovery
Engaging Previews
Scalable Solution
Shop
Easy Try-On experience
The addition of camera lets users preview their Avatars and items.
Guiding Principles:
Seamless Camera Usability
Fun, engaging
Scalable
Edit
Personalized customization
Users can refine eyes, eyebrows, face shape, and add accessories like glasses, masks, and makeup.
Guiding Principles:
Effortless Discovery
Quick, intuitive
Diverse, inclusive
Edit
Delightful embodiment
‘Animations’ and ‘Emotes’ are now equipped with facial animations. Users can purchase, equip, and use them in experiences.
Guided Principles:
Invite Exploration
Meaningful Motion
Connect
Immersive chat
With dynamic heads equipped, users can enable camera in experience to animate their avatar’s expressions in real time.
Guided Principles:
Guide with clarity
Consistency across platform
Safety & Privacy
Process
Envisioning
I transformed user insights into visualized solutions to align with my partners.
Prototyping
Once aligned on high level direction, I created prototypes to illustrate the user experience and drive progress.
Design Documentation
I documented user experience workflows and specs for Engineering
Learnings
Developer Feedback
The mic, camera toggles and floating window received developer feedbacks, prompting
a design update to address key issues.
Component Redesign
Based on developer feedbacks, I refined the UI styles, state rules, and crafted the design configuration for the APIs.
Defining Success
Adoption rate
Users are equipping new avatar heads
Bookings
Users are spending on Avatars both in platform and experiences
Time in experience
Users are spending time in games and experiences
Social Interactions
Users chatting and sending friend requests
Results
Developer and Player Adoption
of Dynamic Heads
113 K
Experiences opted-in
4.3 M
Players opted-in
Learnings
Developer and Community Feedback
Dynamic Heads have received mixed reactions - some developers and users appreciate their realism for storytelling, while others dislike the aesthetic shift from classic static faces.
Concerns also arise about phasing out classic faces and compatibility with existing accessories.
Marketplace Impact
Dynamic Heads have influenced the avatar marketplace, with a surge in 2D face adaptations for 3D models.
This has sparked debates on market saturation, content quality, and the need for stricter moderation and better animation previews.
User Adoption & Preferences
Adoption varies—some users embrace the expressiveness, while others prefer static faces, citing an uncanny look in some animations.
This divide highlights the need to support both styles for Roblox’s diverse community.
Impact
Developer & Community Creations
Developers and Creators are crafting unique experiences with Dynamic Heads, enhancing player engagement.
