Clippers Fan Zone
A centralized hub for fan interaction during the quarantine bubble in Orlando
A centralized hub for fan interaction during the quarantine bubble in Orlando
As the NBA descended upon Orlando to salvage the remainder of the 2019-20 season by creating a quarantine bubble, The Clippers business operations team looked for opportunities within this non traditional format, to provide value for fans and corporate sponsors.
Manager, Web Strategy | LA Clippers
UX/UI, Interaction Design,
Mobile Strategy, Prototyping
June - July 2020
Home games are major events for the fans and the organization, especially during the playoffs. The absence of these games means an absence of large revenue opportunities.
Like many other teams, the Clippers were looking to mitigate impact to the business by activating their digital platforms to recapture fan engagement and service internal goals. In a time of so much uncertainty, the Clippers needed a quick and flexible solution that would excite fans and be a natural integration for partners.
As the lead for digital product strategy and design, I organized discovery sessions with key stakeholders to assess the problem, and establish initial scope and requirements. From these sessions we were able to identify three primary inputs and focus on three key questions that would guide the project plan.
Input
We have a small inventory of digital experiences such as games, polls and quizzes.
INSIGHT
How do we adapt our existing inventory into the mobile app?
Input
During the season game day app usage would spike 30% up to 2 hrs before the game.
INSIGHT
How can we leverage app activity trends to maximize lead generation?
Input
Games will be played almost every other day due to a condensed schedule.
INSIGHT
How do we sustain engagement throughout the playoffs?
To create and sustain fan engagement, we will provide fans a centralized hub of incentivized engagement activations, within the Clippers mobile app.
Using the insights gathered, I built out the user flow to help visualize the user journey and clarify project scope.
I began mapping out interactions using FlowMap, an online tool that made it easy for stakeholders to access the project and leave feedback. This process immediately highlighted the technical requirements and surfaced some important strategy questions for stakeholders. Once all variations of the user flow were approved we moved on to create the wireframes.
During the wire framing process I explored multiple card layouts and created interactive prototypes, which were helpful when presenting the benefits of each layout and getting feedback from stakeholders. With a tight timeline and the general uncertainty around the restart, requirements were constantly in flux and we were able to use these wireframes as a source of truth during review meetings.
I created templates from the wireframes for any components that required assets from the creative team, such as product imagery or splash screen graphics. Providing these assets gave the creative team helpful context and added efficiency to production.
The final concept introduced fans to the Fan Zone, a guided interactive experience hosted by Clippers personalities with multiple ways to engage and win prizes.
A dark interface with highlights of bright reds and blues was selected to match the excitement of the moment when the house lights dim in arena and lasers illuminate the darkness, as the starting lineup takes the court.
The guided experience in the Fan Zone revolved around the user, but it also served as a way to collect fan information.
Certain experiences required fans to login for access, giving the Clippers insight to how fans used the app and identify super fans.
I created a set of 10 icons with each icon representing a different activation. Designed using an 8 pixel grid these icons were formatted for use throughout the app, email and promotional collateral.
Some activations were designed to accompany the live broadcast or had specific entry/voting periods and were time gated to unlock at tip off. Fans that arrived early would see a locked state and were presented with active game options.
To appeal to different types of users the engagement strategy centered on ten interactive experiences with varying levels of user investment. Incentives existed at all levels but activations with a higher barrier to entry were accompanied by greater prize incentives.
We released an MVP build to test the concept from the beginning of the restart through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Overall we saw significant lift in engagement and conversion metrics.
Users were spending more time in the app and sustaining engagement levels across the testing period.
By downloading and registering in the Fan Zone, fans had already demonstrated a high level of brand affinity and we were able to score leads based on engagement.
In only one month we were able to generate over a fourth of total downloads for the entire season.
I hope you enjoyed this project. Feel free to reach out for collaborations or just a friendly hello.
Have a great day!
