Outfit7: player support

Talking Tom players asked for help through one free-text form. I redesigned in-game support as a ticket inbox with proper request forms.

Role
Solo Designer
Client
Outfit7 Talking Tom games
Screens
18 All approved
Status
Approved Build in backlog

The problem

Help lived inside the game as a plain list of topics. A player could search it, open an answer, or type into one message box and hit submit.

After that, nothing. There was no place to see what you had sent, no sign that anyone had read it, and no way to add a screenshot of the purchase that went wrong. That is a lot of waiting in the dark.

Original support: a loading screen with a spinner
Original support: a plain list of topics
Original support: one message box and a submit button
The original support: a spinner, a topic list and one message box.

Before and after

The home screen shows the whole idea. The old one was a bare list. The new one puts the characters on top, search right under them, and the four help areas as cards with a line that says what is inside.

New support home: characters, search and four help cards
Original support home: topic list with search
BeforeAfter

Process

I went through every original screen first, then designed the help centre and the contact system as two parts of one flow. Outfit7 reviewed and approved each screen.

  1. Audit

    Five original screens: loader, home, topics, help and the contact form.

    Original

  2. Help centre

    Home with search, topics grouped by area and help articles with illustrated steps.

    Design

  3. Tickets

    An inbox, a request form and a thread for every ticket, with empty and fallback states.

    Design

  4. Approval

    Every screen reviewed and approved by the Outfit7 team.

    Outfit7

Help that looks like the game

Search is the first thing under the characters, and it answers as you type. Topics open into short questions grouped by area, so a player looking for coins does not wade through video settings. Answers use the game’s own art for each step and end with a simple “Was this helpful?”.

Search results appearing while typing
Gameplay topic with questions grouped by area
Help article with illustrated steps

Tickets you can follow

Contacting support now creates a ticket. The inbox lists every request with its status, open or resolved, and an empty inbox says so with Tom instead of a blank screen. The form asks for a request type and a description, and takes up to three attachments, so a screenshot of a failed purchase goes along with the message.

Ticket inbox with open and resolved requests
Contact form filled in with a payment issue
Contact form with two screenshots attached

After you hit submit

Sending a request confirms it right away and says support usually answers within 48 hours. The thread keeps the whole conversation in one place, limits a player to three replies until support answers, and asks for a quick rating once the ticket is resolved.

Confirmation that the message was sent
Ticket thread with a reply from Outfit7 Support
Resolved ticket asking for a star rating
New loading screen in the game style
Empty inbox with Tom and a short message
The loader and the empty inbox, both drawn from the game.

Takeaways

Support is part of the game

Players meet support when something already went wrong. Keeping the game’s characters and colour there makes it feel like the same place, not a form someone bolted on.

Show where the request is

Most of the anxiety in the old flow came from not knowing if anyone saw the message. An inbox with a status answers that without a single extra email.

Design the quiet states

Empty inboxes, missing art and the reply limit took as much thought as the main screens, and they are where a flow usually feels unfinished.