As the project lead for the new avatars design I lead a team with illustrators and UX/UI designers, our goal was to update the avatar project for partypoker's advanced poker platform. Initially, we focused on fixing the issues with our existing designs which lacked user testing and were based solely on internal assumptions. The cartoonish style of avatars we had did not resonate with players, which damaged the platform's credibility for real-money betting. To address this, I developed a strategic shift to a more user-centric approach, aligning our design process closely with player preferences. This involved a comprehensive user research to adopt modern and mature design principles, which aimed to increase user engagement. Overall, our commitment to understanding user needs and preferences was further emphasized by this transformative shift in our design process.