MLB Ballpark
MLB Ballpark app redesign concept
Project
Our capstone project at NYU Tandon School of Engineering was presented by Major League Baseball. Their goal was to give fans a cross-platform, personalized, and deeply immersive experience that increases the excitement of baseball and evolves the future of sports engagement.
Challenge
How might we increase engagement for fans that are watching baseball whether at the stadium or at home?
Solution
Since MLB has an app called Ballpark, we decided that we would redesign the current "MLB Ballpark" app to obtain the current users and integrate augmented reality to enhance the baseball experience.
My Role
Research
UX Design
Prototyping
Testing
UI Design
Timeline
6 weeks
Design Process
Empathy
Research
To gain an understanding of fan engagement at games, we began with a survey with seven users and created an affinity map to discover what were users' pain points. We found that users were less interested in how the game was played and more interested in the experience. There was also a lack of incentives for fans and the general audience to attend in-person games. When asked what they enjoyed most at a game, most users enjoyed hanging out with their friends and family, while complaints were about the weather, cost, and their lack of interest in baseball.
User Interviews
Results of what users enjoyed most about attending baseball games.
Affinity Map
Competitive Analysis
To gain insight on what product we should design, we evaluated multiple AR apps. Two apps that stood out were ARound and Coachellaverse. Both had the advantage of having experience in AR app development on a large scale, however, lacked the possibility for continued usage due to content creation and immersive experiences being based on one location.
Definition
MLB attendance has been on a downward spiral for the past several years. This has been exacerbated by the lingering effects of the pandemic and economic fears. The length of the game, combined with travel time has fans debating whether or not to attend a game. This trend has been particularly large among the younger audience and baseball has been marketed for an older audience, with not many incentives to attract the younger audience. To increase footfall at MLB games and viewership, we need to incentivize attendance across several audience groups and increase the digital engagement of MLB with fans by offering more personalization and interactivity.
Our redesign of MLB Ballpark would be a new mode of digital entertainment for MLB fans using augmented reality. The original app provides ticketing and general info about the stadium, however, lacks social engagement. Utilizing AR technology would help solve problems for fans such as wayfinding and allow users to participate in AR experiences that reward them for their loyalty.
User Persona
Ideation
Feature Prioritization
To figure out what new features should be offered, we performed a Crazy Eights brainstorming exercise to challenge our creative thinking to help clarify the goal of will enhance the game of baseball. AR offers an endless list of possibilities and it was challenging to eliminate ideas however, we wanted to consider cost, content creation, and the users' knowledge of utilizing AR.
We were able to categorize features into three main categories:
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Team Branded Content
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Mini Social Games
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Stadium Navigation
To gain further knowledge of how these features would work, we created storyboards and performed a SWOT Analysis and a Pre-Mortem analysis to identify potential risks and opportunities.
Prototype
Wireframing & Testing
To begin the interaction design process, we created lo-fi frames with pencil and paper to Figma, which allowed us to test and iterate interactions. As we designed lo-fi to hi-fidelity frames, we continually tested features with users to ensure quality usability.
One important aspect we focused on was that users are unfamiliar with AR. It was important to focus on onboarding and understanding how users with interact with different features. We tested 2D features through Figma, and AR features through SparkAR and Adobe Aero to gain a better understanding of users’ knowledge of AR features and what is required for onboarding.
One feature that went through many iterations was stadium navigation. We surveyed users on how, why, and when they use stadium navigation. This was helpful in eliminating less popular search categories and analyzing if AR would actually enhance the experience. We found that AR navigation would allow the camera to identify where the user is based on position, providing an exact location, along with location tracking. In addition, AR could provide additional information by overlaying the actual environment.
Another important focus when adding AR to navigation was the visual design of UI components. When a user is viewing navigation on their phone, it was important to design icons that were visible yet not obstructing the view of the real scene. Color, opacity, and simple animations were key to providing safety and clear instructions for the user.
AR Stadium Navigation
UI Design
Conclusion
One challenge to this project was just getting started. We had a short timeline and multiple students that were interested in working within a team. To help, I started group meetings with classmates that were interested in working together so we could brainstorm ideas and learn what tech interests us. From there, we were able to further communicate our interests with potential partners and confirm our teammates. By organizing these group meets, we were able to discuss the progress of our projects, learn new insights, and how AR/VR could improve the baseball experience.
We still have hi-fidelity frames that are still under construction but are moving along. We would like to continue to refine the gamification of our rewards program that allows users to unlock games and AR experiences. This would allow users to continuously access new content and perks throughout the season and reward them for their loyalty.
Being able to dive deeper into the functionality of AR on mobile was a great learning experience. It added new perspectives on the design process. There were many challenges in designing tutorials and providing clear UI components for AR. One important question we always asked was, "Is AR really needed?". When designing for mobile, it was important for us to not overload the user with AR features that weren't needed. We understood that no one wanted to hold their phone up to see stats in AR, but were open to challenging another fan, pitching baseballs around the stadium. Overall, I'm excited to see what creative XR technologies can be done to help improve our experiences.