nfl discovery & conceptS
OVERVIEW
Apply Digital partnered with the National Football League for a Discovery and Concept engagement. The goals of the engagement were to assess the design opportunities and problem space fans encounter when watching live games. Subsequently, we would use our knowledge to conceptualize future app concepts and design directions
TIMELINE
- 5 Week Discovery
- 6 Week Concepting/RFP Response
TEAM
- Head of Experience, UX Lead, UX (me)
- Head of UI, UI Lead, UI + Motion, Copywriting
- Head of Strategy, Strategists
- Senior Product Specialist
- Senior SE
- Senior Project Manager
- NFL teams
ACTIVITIES
- Stakeholder interviews
- Customer experience and ideation workshop
- Competitive analysis
- Summary of findings presentation
- UX flow and concept design
DELIVERABLES
- Stakeholder Interview Guide
- Competitive Analysis
- Workshop Materials (screeners, slides, activities, etc.)
- UX flows and concept prototypes
- Summary of Findings slide deck
- RFP response
STORY/PROCESS [BLURRED]
OPPORTUNITY SPACE
The goals for our engagement with the NFL were to:
- Assess the design opportunities and problem space fans encounter when watching live games. This would include a Customer Experience workshop and explorations on how to better improve the game watching experience.
- Subsequently, use our knowledge to conceptualize future app concepts and design directions
WORKSHOP DESIGN
To better understand the diverse NFL fan base and dive deeper into opportunity spaces, we created and conducted a Customer Experience workshop. Working with the NFL, we defined and recruited fans across 4 key user segments - Emerging Gen Z Fans, Live Game Fans, Team Loyalists, and Utility Heavy Fans. Each of these segments represent a different core motivation and need for watching NFL games.
For our workshop, we created a steady flow of exercises that help participants map out their game watching experience. The sequence of exercises starts small with Stakeholder and Empathy Mapping and ladders up into a larger User Journey Mapping exercise. From there, we run a rapid ideation and prioritization activity to solution for their frustrations/needs along their game watching journey.
GAMEFINDER UX
In addition to our Customer Experience workshop, we began to explore the core user problem of finding an NFL game to watch. Between geo-blackout policies, various broadcast agreements, the multitude of streaming services, and the NFL’s own DTC offerings, viewing NFL games have become more complicated than ever.
We took two approaches to explore different flows for a Game Finder concept that would help connect fans with games that are available for them to watch. One set of flows explored "How do I watch a specific game" for our Team Loyalists persronas, while another set of flows focused on "What games can I watch with my services" for our Utility Heavy personas.
FLOWS & CONCEPTS
Following our Customer Experience workshop and Game Finder UX explorations, I wireframed a series of flows that captured a variety of desired experiences from the workshop as well as the Game Finder.
Afterwards, working closely with our UI team, we recreated these flows (as well as some additional future concept features) in high fidelity to explore different visual design directions the NFL could take.