Enhancing the Game day Experience

Transforming the Dallas Mavericks app into the ultimate game day companion.

Website

Deliverables

UI/UX Design, Visual Design

Client

MAVS - Pumpjack Dataworks

Year

2021

Meet the Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks, or MAVS, are a major NBA team in Dallas, playing at the American Airlines Center. They’re known for their exciting games and vibrant fan base. But their app? It needed to be more than just a ticket-buying tool—it needed to be a game day companion!

My Role

I took on the role of a UI/UX designer, working alongside a Lead Product Designer. My job? To make the MAVS app not just functional, but fantastic. I tackled everything from product design and visual aesthetics to creating a smooth user experience.

The Problem

Fans only use the application for a specific purpose; to buy tickets, get latest news, and stay updated about the games. MAVS want this app to be their fan’s companion and provide a seamless and enjoyable experiences like finding seats, ordering food etc, when attending a Mavericks game.

To make the app truly helpful, I needed to understand a typical game day for MAVS fans. I created a research plan and interviewed seven fans from diverse backgrounds different ages, genders, spending habits, and levels of fandom. I wanted to learn about their whole game day experience, from home to the stadium.

Interviews

I sat down with fans to get the scoop on their game day routines. We talked about their experiences buying tickets, getting to the stadium, finding parking, grabbing food, and enjoying the game. These chats revealed where the app could step in to make things easier and more fun.

Defining the Problem

With insights from the interviews, I identified the main pain points:

• Difficulty navigating the stadium

• Finding the best parking spot

• Ordering food and keeping track of game stats

Empathy Maps

I crafted empathy maps to capture the emotions and challenges of different fan types. This helped me visualize their experiences and pinpoint areas for improvement.

User Personas and Stories

Next, I developed user personas to represent different fan groups. I also created user stories to cover various scenarios, ensuring our solutions would meet the real-life needs of fans.

Game Day Flow + User Journey Map

I mapped out the entire game day journey, focusing on key touchpoints where fans faced challenges. This helped us understand their thoughts and feelings during those critical moments, guiding us in enhancing their overall experience.

Ideation Phase

We brainstormed solutions and discovered that many problems were interconnected. This led to the creation of a cohesive "Game Day Experience" feature.

Game Day Experience

‍This Gameday experience was supposed to take the user through the journey that we established in the interview phase. The areas that our app help with are as follows:

• Buy Tickets if you haven’t and find the perfect seats for your friends or family

• Decide how you want to reach the stadium and get the optimized map

• Find the best parking spot that is closest to the entrance closest to your seat and also help remember where the car is parked

• Integration with DART and UBER to figure out the best drop-off location and entrance

• Order Food and watch real-time stats of the game and Participate in the activities

• Shop for MAVS Gear

Breaking It Down

I divided these features into use cases and designed user flows to address each problem while keeping the overall experience in mind.

Bringing it all together into a final User Flow

After solving individual problems I started bringing it together based on the research findings about the game day users go through.

Final Outcome

After a series of Design pattern explorations, Wireframes, Low Fidelity, High Fidelity Prototypes, and a number of Iterations I came up with the final prototype.