Some of the finalized shape pickers above, they were made in light mode, dark mode, for mobile, web and VR.

At Meta, I helped streamline the Avatar creation experience from Q4 2023 - Q3 2024. While users selected their Avatar features, we found two main problems: choices were difficult to tell apart and it was taking too long to load leading to high drop-off rates.

To the left is an example of before shape pickers were implemented. It’s impossible to immediately tell which nose to select and each avatar thumbnail had to be generated with a different nose which caused lag.

I collaborated with the Creative Director and the Product Designer to research character/avatar creation flows to come up with our own set of illustrated shape pickers. We experimented with icons with just outlines as well as icons with more 3D shading.

Some of the more detailed, 3D-leaning explorations which, although pretty, weren’t simple enough to match the UI.

Same example re-iterated: Flattened, simpler, both light mode and dark mode.

The final iteration that launched in early 2024 were much simpler and clearer while the load time was fixed. The full list of Avatar features that switched to shape pickers were: Eyes, Nose, Lips, Eyebrows, Face Shape, Lipstick, Eyeliner, Eyelashes, Blush, Eyeliner, Bindi. This update was a step towards the right direction for user retention and overall, Avatar UX.