Project Name

Problem

As MLB moves to a fully digital ticketing experience (no more paper tickets), the need for the Ballpark app to be as adaptive, seamless, and relevant as other leading venue apps escalates. The previous version of Ballpark did not offer a contextual experience that takes the app - and the fan - beyond entry to the game.

Goal

With the overall goal of raising the number of identified fans in attendance, as well as raising the amount of people using the app and time spent within the app, the immediate goal at hand is to refine Major League Baseball’s ticketing app (Ballpark app) to contextually adapt to fans, and create a better venue experience before, during, and after a game.

Overview

Initial Steps:
To begin, we needed to map out all of the possible states that would lead to different homescreen views for a fan. Does the fan have tickets? Is the fan a season ticket holder? Is the fan near the stadium? Does the fan have a selected “Favorite Team”? Is the fan checked into the stadium?  - so on and so forth. Once we had the flow white-boarded, we then proceeded on to the “Check In” process

Wire-framing:
Very preliminary wire-frames were done to explore what might live on the new “Contextual Homescreen”.

Medium Fidelity & User Testing:
Once the designs became more fleshed out, it was now time to test them on users. One of our biggest challenges was figuring out how to deal with a fan’s Check In, as we now enable it automatically based on location but also allow for manual check in. How does the user know what comes next? I created rapid prototypes to launch with multiple user groups (Usertesting.com) to gauge whether the concept was intuitive and appealing to the masses. Multiple rounds of user testing and design revisions lead us to better clarity on the direction we were headed.

MVP:
With a shortened timeline, the biggest challenge was building the designs for production by the goal of Opening Day. As a compromise, Product and Engineering created an MVP that was ready by the start of the season. As such, the envisioned “Contextual Homescreen” is now evolving throughout the season, slowly working towards the more engaging, helpful, and relevant experience that we had hoped for; with every release the app improves.

Timeline

7 months, ongoing

Role

UX Designer, UI Designer, Researcher

Platform

Mobile app

Growth Opportunities