Sports Roulette- Mobile Interface for Sports Wagering
A mobile experience to increase fan engagement watching online sports.
THE PROJECT
Sports Roulette was my Masters's final year project at Indiana University, Indianapolis in 2018-19. I did that project in collaboration with Max, Indianapolis.
THE USERS
Old fans, new fans, and “yet-to-be” fans range from 18 to 75 years old and represent all demographics who can use smartphones.
MY ROLE
Primary and Secondary Research, Competitive Analysis, Persona Creation, Concept Design, User Journey, Task Flow, Wireframes, User-Testing, and High Fidelity Prototype.
TEAM
Lawrence Walter, Avinash Mishra, Niranjan Kshirsagar
DURATION
Aug 2018- May 2019 (10 months)
REPORT
PRESENTATION
EXPLORING THE PROBLEM SPACE
I identified that fans are an essential component of the sports industry and proposed this project to conduct research to understand better Fan Experience in sports and then designed an innovative prototype solution.
THE CHALLENGE
Know your target: To design effective engagement application, our team must be clear and specific regarding the target audience or end-users
Make it personal: Programs designed to speak to everyone run the risk of speaking to no one
Think holistically about the experience: The live game experience is a focal point for fan interaction and franchisees alike
Engage year-round: Meaningful relationships don’t start and stop with the sports season
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
Make their fans happy, connected, and supported
A great way to get families and groups together, increase their social interactions
Make fans part of Sports Roulette ecosystem
Make fans part of Sports Roulette ecosystem
THE PROCESS
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
FANDUEL
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Incentive-based utilizing a ‘gambling’ like system without oversight from the State.
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Partnerships with the NBA, NFL, and MLB
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The research-based selection process of players on a team, not a game of ‘luck’
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Simple to enter the sport, with clear roster setup
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Lock-in roster allows for one to see the ownership percentage of players immediately
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Ability to view other opponents lineups before beginning gameplay
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Have become so large they are dealing with PR issues
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Many politicians are against the App because leading to unhealthy habits
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Considered gambling in many communities and facing the problem of underage gambling
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Unable to withdraw bonus money immediately
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What can be done to empower more phone usage for in-game settings?
DRAFT KINGS
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Ability to earn money without being considered gambling
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Incentive-based with high earning prizes
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416 million in investment funding
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Allows for the ability to double first deposit up to $600
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Offers eSports, MMA, PGA, and NASCAR
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NFL
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The higher salary cap for weeklong leagues at 10k more than FanDuel
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Can play a Flex Player
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Player pricing based on an algorithm of a matchup, weather, location, past performance, value compared to other players, player popularity
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VIP program; those with high gameplay volume gain unique
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An unnecessarily complex rewards system
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Can be difficult to win against expert players
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PR Issues
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Underage accessibility
FIELD RESEARCH
Direct Observation:
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In-game observation - Stadium
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Interaction with fans
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Understanding of game through screens
Informal Interview:
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The passive observation was followed up by an informal interview with the user to understand their experience throughout the game.
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Questions were derived from notes taken during game and general experience.
Reason fans were engaged:
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Key Events in the game trigger crowd engagement (especially when their team is winning, etc)
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When they are able to participate in trivia games in between games or during a time-out
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Intense moments such as when the game score is constantly changing and making it hard to predict which team will win
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When they can share the game experience on social media (Ex: Sharing game highlight on Snapchat)
Reason fans were not engaged:
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They get distracted by their phone (incoming text, games, taking selfies, etc)
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Engaging with other sport while they are at the game (fantasy sports games, etc)
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Their seat is too far from the court and also the screen (depending on where they sat in the stadium, fans experience can vary)
Key Insights from Field Research
LITERATURE REVIEW
Key Insights
Few Examples
USER PERSONAS
In-stadium game experience with family
I'm a huge sports fan so I enjoy watching sports games with my family. But my wife and daughter are always distracted by their phone. I want them to enjoy and engage in the game.
Goals:
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Be the part of Sports ecosystem by playing with them simultaneously
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A product with a simple reward system
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Wants to enjoy the game with family without any distraction
Frustrations:
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Complex product not allowing to win
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The food at the stadium is expensive
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His wife and daughter are always on the phone and not paying attention to the game
In-stadium game experience with friends
I'm not a sports fan but I'm here to just give company to my project partners. My main aim is to just relax so that I can get back to my assignments with a fresh mind.
Goals:
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Understand the game more and how it played
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Start with a fresh mind so that he can perform well in projects and finals
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Discover about players and team
Frustrations:
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A system that allows college students to participate
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The game moves really fast and it’s hard to keep up
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The terms his friends are using, he is not aware of that
CONCEPT DESIGN
Design Concept One: AR
Gamification using AR to compete as teams at the stadium during the breaks
AR replay/highlights where the user can pause the replay and manipulate the content in 3D.
AR in-stadium navigation
Geolocation beacons to push contextual content to the user
Key Elements
This solution addresses multiple user needs and satisfies goals defined during research. The augmented reality game is aimed at controlling the use of mobile phones by gamifying the break duration using an AR game to compete with opposite team fans in the stadium. This promotes user engagement during downtimes while building brand loyalty through rewards from sponsors. This benefits both the user and the sponsor.
Design Concept Two: Overall Stadium Visiting Experience
This design concept/sketches illustrate the overall experience of the sport user/fan. The main purpose of the concept is to enhance the overall experience.
Design Concept Three: Live Action Fan Engagement
The purpose of this design concept is to keep sport spectators engaged during the live basketball game.
Key Features
Provide an engaging interface to review historical basketball shot data
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Connects fans with players and teams
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Time bar feature allows a dynamic view of shot patterns over time
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Improves Fans ability to predict where the next shot will come from
Shot prediction interface allows Fans a fast way to make a prediction
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This enhances fan engagement throughout the entire game
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Even casual fans are able to make a simple guess
Selecting the number of points to stake on your selection improves fan excitement levels
The calculation of how close your guess is with the actual shot to generate Prize Points will enhance the excitement
Further incentives to risk points each round are generated through an elimination cutoff system. The lowest scoring players are eliminated from the competition
The use of a Fan Cam ensures losing players can still follow along and stay engaged with the system and sponsors have an opportunity to expose their brands in novel and fun ways.
Ideation Selection Process
During the design ideation phase of this project, new ideas were continuously generated, explored by the team and iterated upon. Naturally, there were many features that morphed into new concepts or merged with existing concepts.
The Live-Action Fan Design (Design Concept 3) was selected because it offered the most flexibility to integrate the best design elements from the other concepts.
TASK FLOW
LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
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USER TESTING OF LOW FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
We conduct User Testing with a total of 07 users
03
Passive Sports Fan
04
Active Sports Fan
The key insights were:
Next Design Iteration
After consideration of the User Feedbacks, a rapid new prototype was developed to address these issues (Direct Court Selection, Instant Rewards, Simplifies game, Choose by player or whole team). The significant changes made were also deemed necessary based on specific requirements from the product owner for the ability of sponsors to be able to engage with the fans.
HIGH FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
After fixing the issues suggested by our users during pilot testing helped me develop the high-fidelity prototype. The concept of our high-fidelity prototype was inspired by the idea of roulette.
USER TESTING AND RESULTS
TASK ONE: SIGN INTO APPLICATION
“Assume that you have just downloaded the application and want to start using it. You could create a new account but please use john as user name and iupui as password”
Sign in was conducted with high easability and did not have troubles. Concerns that were drawn from this task seemed to focus on the ability to work through the screen to type in individual names when they were reminded to use the provided username and password.
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Future direction may need to focus on the ability to type in individual user names, and then move to the hotspot for an easier testing experience.
TASK TWO: EXPERIENCE THE HOMEPAGE AND SELECT BASKETBALL GAME TO PLAY ROULETTE
“Congratulations you have reached the main home screen of the Sports Roulette application. This is where you can check your account profile, read the latest news and select a game to play. Please take some time to explore what is available on the screen” (Provide enough time to users to explore the application)
“Now select the Warriors vs Pacers game and proceed to play the Sports Roulette mobile game”
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The latest news was not directed to the user’s preference, which allows for the future design to provide a preference option in the user profile before reaching the home screen.
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Through the guidance of the user tasks, the user was able to complete the task in the given time, with a positive response demonstrating the ease of use to reach the basketball game followed by the sponsor's page.
TASK THREE: ENGAGE IN BASKETBALL GAME AND USE THE PROTOTYPE TO PLACE A BET
Step 1: “The game is already underway so please review all the sponsors available and use the prototype to select Adidas as the company that will provide clothing as prize options if you become eligible for prizes.”
Step 2: “Although the game has already started there is currently a time out on the court. Review the players then select player #2 from the Pacers, and select player #23 from the Warriors to place a wager on.
Step 3: “Choose player #2 from the Pacers, and player #23 from the Warriors and observe changes as you click through players available.”
Step 4: “There are the 30s left in the timeout so now select 600 of the Adidas tokens and lock in your bet for each player places them on the court where you think those players will shoot from next.”
The user tends to swipe through the players rather than using the arrow provided to reach the next player for selection. This can be improved through redesign of a swipe through function or potentially the use of voice integration (for the user’s that know the player they want to play immediately.
TASK FOUR: COLLECT YOUR PRIZE AND SHARE YOUR RESULTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
“The game resumes and you watch with your friends as the predictions you made are accurate. Collect your winnings from the game that just finished, and please share your results with friends on social media.”
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The user wanted to know which prizes would be available, which was not presented in the prototype due to the inability to connect with the sponsor.
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The user enjoys the fact that they have the ability to rejoin the game and continue playing, to gather up more points for future prize collection.
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The user had expressed that they would like to see the value of points collected on the collection prize screen, to determine if it was worthy to cash in.
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All users enjoyed the ability to share their results on social, as social media was one aspect that they did not know was existent.
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This demonstrates the need to show social earlier in the prototype.
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COMMENTS
-What user’s liked:
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Ability to “guess” where the next shot may come from
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Potential ability to play in real-time
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Learning about players by playing the game
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Viewing their news feed in the home page
-What user’s felt needed improvement:
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Data visualization of shot history
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Understanding the different shot zones
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More player history and background data on the team’s current status
Changes proposed for the next design iteration include:
● Integrate point history into the user profile screen.
● Develop a user-friendly chip-placement that considers accessibility issues.
● Improve the visibility of the shot clock and time left to place a bet.
POSTER DESIGN
LEARNINGS
