Innovating Player Interaction
Poker is traditionally a slow, low-expression experience.
While gameplay is strategic, there are limited ways for players to react, celebrate, or interact with others at the table.
This creates a gap between real-life poker, where players use body language and reactions, and online poker, which lacks emotional expression.
My role
My role focused on defining how players would interact with throwables, ensuring they were intuitive, expressive, and did not disrupt gameplay.
I contributed to both the interaction design and visual direction of the feature.
Player behaviour and social interaction
Players don’t just play poker to win. They play for interaction.
Observing gameplay showed that players often want to:
• Celebrate wins
• React to opponents
• Create moments of humour or tension
Without these interactions, the experience can feel flat and transactional.
Throwables were designed to reintroduce these social behaviours into the digital experience.
Team Dynamics
Working in sync with the innovation team, and in consultation with UI/UX designers and stakeholders, we focused on creating a feature that could bring a new level of excitement to online poker. This led to the conception of 'Throwables' - a playful and interactive way for players to communicate during games.
Creative Process
The challenge was to introduce expressive interactions without disrupting gameplay.
Each throwable needed to:
• Be quick to use
• Clearly communicate intent
• Avoid interfering with core gameplay
• Fit within the visual language of PokerStars
This required balancing humour and clarity while ensuring the feature felt integrated, not distracting.
Constraints and considerations
The feature needed to work within a live poker environment, meaning:
• It could not interrupt gameplay
• It had to be lightweight and performant
• It needed to scale across different table types
• It had to avoid becoming disruptive or abusive
These constraints shaped both the design and behaviour of the throwables system.
Not all players want additional interaction during gameplay.
To support different preferences, we introduced the ability to disable throwables within settings.
This allowed players to opt out of the feature, maintaining a more traditional experience while giving others the option to engage.
Outcome
Throwables introduced a new layer of interaction at the table, allowing players to express reactions in real time.
The feature increased perceived social presence, making games feel more dynamic and less transactional.
It also opened the door for further gamification and engagement features within the product.
