UX Case Study · Double Diamond Process

You Are Tilted!

A team-based tabletop game co-designed with youth esports players to help teams recognize, talk about, and manage tilt — intense frustration that spreads through a team and damages trust, performance, and mental well-being.

My Role

Lead Researcher · UX Designer · Facilitator

Timeline

8 months co-design + 4 months user testing

Team

15 youth players · 7 collegiate coaches · librarians · coordinators · 5 researchers

Fig 1. Introduction of “Tilted” Tabletop Game Materials

Problem Statement

Background

Competitive esports teams experience tilt — spikes of frustration and blame that ripple across the team. Tilt harms communication and can shatter cohesion mid-match.

Most “solutions” (mute, block, report) assume tilt is an individual behavior problem. Players described it instead as a shared emotional event the team should navigate together.

Design Challenge

How might we design a playful, psychologically safe activity that helps teammates surface frustration, reset together, and build empathy — without shaming anyone for being emotional?

Research Questions

How does open communication, facilitated by a team-based game, enhance team cohesion?
Which tilt-management strategies can players actually practice together (not just be told to do)?
What design opportunities — and constraints — appear when we build an emotional support tool specifically for teams?

Fig 2. Youth players visualized moments of blame, silence, and self-blame during high-pressure matches during the gameplay.

Process: Double Diamond

I organized the work using the Double Diamond UX framework. Each phase shows: (1) what we did with players/coaches, (2) what we learned, and (3) how that moved the design.

Fig 3. Participatory design + playtest sessions in the Double Diamond Design Process.

Phase 1 · Discover Understand the emotional problem space

Goal: Learn how players actually experience tilt, stress, and conflict. We weren’t just asking “what features do you want?” — we were asking “what does it feel like to be you in that moment?”

Participatory Sessions (1.1–1.8)

We ran 8 remote workshops with youth esports players (14–15), collegiate players, coaches, librarians, and coordinators.

Players drew comics of “worst moments” in matches.
We mapped sources of frustration and blame inside teams.
We compared “healthy teammate” vs “unhealthy teammate.”

What we heard

Tilt = shame + anger + fear of letting down the team + expecting to be blamed.

Key insight

Tilt is contagious. One person’s frustration spreads emotionally to everyone. Teams had no safe format to talk about tilt without it sounding like accusation.

Fig 4. Demonstration of healthy and unhealthy player.”

Fig 5. Participatory design sessions to understand teenager players' mental wellbeing.

Discover · Takeaways

Players wanted empathy, but didn’t know how to ask without looking “weak.”
Everyone agreed they needed a structured way to say “I’m tilted and here’s how to help me.”
This reframed tilt from a personal flaw → a team communication problem.

Phase 2 · Define Frame the design challenge

Goal: Move from “there’s a problem” to “this is the specific thing we’re designing, and for whom.”

Tilt Scenario & Coping Workshops (2.1–2.2)

Players walked us through real “tilt moments,” minute by minute: the trigger, body reaction, what they said, how teammates reacted, and what happened after.

We collected real coping moves (“I crack a dumb joke,” “I ask for a reset,” “I need 30 seconds alone”).
We also surfaced harmful defaults (“I shut down,” “I blame first so I don’t get blamed”).

Insight

Players already have regulation strategies — but teammates don’t know them. The core issue is disclosure and safety, not “teaching coping skills from zero.”

Design Goal

Build a social space where teammates can safely say: “Here’s how I want you to support me when I’m tilted.”

Fig 6. Narrowing down to Tilt from toxicity problem

Fig 7. Conducted Comic book methods to understand situation,emotiona, interventions from teenager participants.

Defined Problem Statement

We will design a cooperative, low-stakes game that helps esports teams practice talking about frustration, resetting together, and supporting each other — so tilt becomes a shared challenge instead of a personal failure.

Co-Created Design Principles

Make it playful, not preachy.
Use humor to lower defensiveness.
Make emotional safety part of the rules.
Focus on “how can we help each other next time?”

Phase 3 · Develop Co-design, prototype, iterate

Goal: Build a playable thing. Test tone, rules, pacing, safety, and usefulness.

Prototype Creation (2.3–2.8)

Together with players, we created a physical + digital tabletop card game called You Are Tilted!

Situation Cards: real tilt triggers (teammate flames you in voice chat).
Heal Cards: “what helps me reset” (breathe, joke, music, short break).
Provoke Cards: raise the stakes (“you’re on tournament point now…”).

Why cards?

Cards create emotional distance. You can react to “the card” instead of accusing a real teammate.

Fig 8. Draft card set exploring tone and readability.

Fig 9. Creating three categories: sitaution, heal, provoke cards

Iteration & Refinement (3.1–3.5)

We refined the game with esports coaches, librarians, and a pro designer. Focus: clarity, pacing, access, and social safety.

Simplified rules so teams could start playing in minutes.
Added end-of-game reflection prompts (“What did you learn about each other?”).
Introduced collaborative win conditions (“we got through this together”).
Improved typography / contrast for readability.

Key UX move

We shifted the tone from “fix yourself” to “support each other.”

Fig 10. Rule Making and Simulation for Pilot Test.

Develop · Takeaways

The game acted like a translator. Players could finally say “Here’s how to support me when I’m tilted.”
Humor (“roasting the card,” not each other) lowered defensiveness and built trust fast.
Teams asked for customizable blank cards to add their own coping strategies / inside jokes.

Phase 4 · Deliver Test with real teams · Measure impact

Goal: See how competitive teams actually use the game. What changes in communication? What sticks afterward?

User Testing (4 Rounds)

We ran 4 sessions with collegiate esports teams (17 players, ages 19–29): 50 minutes gameplay → survey → 15-minute team debrief.

“Ah-Ha” Moments: “I didn’t know you calm down by petting your cat.”
Shared Humor: Jokes around “Provoke” cards defused tension instead of escalating it.
Reset Strategy: Teams practiced saying “let’s reset” as a group move, not silent blame.
Empathy: Players reframed tilt as “our situation,” not “your problem.”

Player quote

“It’s helpful just knowing how you want to be helped. I didn’t know that before.”

Fig 11. Finding on Shared Mental Model.

Impact

The game acted as an emotional safety tool, not just “team bonding.”
Players felt more comfortable naming stress out loud in front of each other.
Teams adopted phrases like “zero-zero mindset” (treat the next round as fresh).

Next Iterations

Add blank cards so each team can add their own coping strategies / inside language.
Shift scoring away from “who won” toward “did we regulate together.”
Consider a lightweight digital companion to capture team-defined “reset rules.”

Fig 12. Final physical deck used in in-person testing.

Fig 13. Remote-friendly playtesting setup for online collegiate teams.