Eats delivered to your seat
Project
Bleacher Food, an iOS mobile application
Year
Summer 2018
My role
UX/UI Designer - Sole designer. Responsible for concept, discovery and ideation, user research and engagement, functional requirements, usability testing, information architecture, branding and visual design, prototypes
Tools
Sketch, Invision, Adobe CC, OptimalSort
Background
I am a huge NBA basketball fan. My hometown team is the Washington Wizards. They play at Capital One Arena, a sports and entertainment facility in downtown D.C. In addition to being home to the Washington Wizards, the arena features 220+ events a year - bringing in 3 million guests annually.
I had season tickets for the 2017-2018 season, so I went to about 15+ games at Capital One Arena.
Problem
At the games, my friends and I would always get a couple beers and some snacks like fries or nachos. The experience of getting food and drink was always a hassle, with long wait times and limited options.
Root causes:
An average of 17,900 fans in attendance per game
Games start during dinner time (7pm/8pm)
Different food and drink options are found on each of the three levels
Fans tend to get food/drink at the same time (during halftime or between quarters)
Solution
A better in-arena experience, happier fans and customers
Design a UI that makes it easy for users to order food and drinks directly to their seats so they can focus on enjoying the gameIncrease accessibility and options for customers
Users should be able to access all the food options on all levels, not just the limited few options available near them.Increase revenue for Capital One Arena
Determine the best solutions for delivering concessions quickly and efficiently so as to increase profits for restaurants
Research
I dove into user research to understand how other users felt about their overall experience of ordering food and drink at sports games. My goals were to:
Describe typical behaviors and habits during basketball games when purchasing food and drink
Identify user frustrations and pains when purchasing food and drink
Understand user goals, needs and wants when purchasing food and drink
I reached out to a variety of users, ranging in age, gender and frequency of game attendance. I conducted surveys with dozens of users, as well as one-on one interviews with four users. I wanted to be unbiased and open to understanding what the core motivations and needs were, so I asked open-ended questions such as “Why do you go to live sports games?” and “What are your frustrations in ordering and purchasing food and drinks at live sports games?”
Findings
I used affinity mapping to analyze the research, which revealed:
User pain points included a) long lines, b) not knowing all available food options and c) cost of food
73% of respondents said they always purchase food and drink, and 27% of respondents said they sometimes purchase food and drink, despite food cost being a major pain point to users
Users go to live games to cheer on their favorite teams with other fans, spend time with their family/friends, and for entertainment
Users like to stay in their seats during the game so they do not miss play action. They will wait until breaks to get out of their seats
Many users are familiar or comfortable with mobile food delivery apps and have them downloaded on their phones, regardless of frequency of use
User persona
I synthesized all the user research and data to create a user persona, Jeremy.
Competitive Analysis
FanFood is a direct competitor, but currently they only deliver concessions to a small number of mostly non-professional sports stadiums.
UberEats and GrubHub are two indirect competitors. They are food delivery apps but don’t deliver to arena seats.
I also analyzed the Washington Wizards app. They have an informational mobile app about the Wizards that includes news, schedules and standings, but nothing regarding the fan's live arena experience.
Updated Problem Statement
Basketball game attendees need a way to conveniently and comfortably get food and drink because they want to enjoy cheering on their team with other fans and spend time with their family/friends.
User Flows
After analyzing the user research, I created task flows that were intuitive and ideal for users.
Below is an example shows how a user might order food menu items to a specific seat in the arena.
Rapid Prototyping
I also used rapid paper prototyping to get immediate user feedback on the user flow.
The paper prototype revealed that a) users were confused by the navigation bar on the first screen, and b) users wanted a way to upload a photo of their ticket for seat information.
Information Architecture
I conducted open card sorts with 10 participants to help uncover an information architecture that would suit user expectations. I was curious about how users categorize restaurants and food items into cuisines or food type.
Results of open card sort from participant A
Results of open card sort from participant B
Wireframing
I drafted the wireframe sketches that I would move forward with for low fidelity and usability testing on paper. Then I used Sketch to create my low fidelity wireframes. I was constantly testing the frames and getting user feedback throughout this process.
Usability Testing
What needed to improve:
1. Some users had difficulty finding the “View Cart” icon
—> Moved the icon from the bottom of the screen to the top right
2. Missing screens that were critical to task flow
—> Added the “Add Options” screen
3. Spacing issues in fitting two cards on one row for the “Browse” page
—> Changed design to single list cards
LEssons
Research is a must.
The data from research should drive strategy and design decisions throughout the entire process. User research brought out unexpected information and squashed assumptions, which made it possible to eliminate pain points early on and create a product that meets users’ needs.
Building my “toolbox” of research methods.
There are endless activities and methods to conduct research, but identifying whether to employ qualitative or quantitative methods, or if I needed more exploratory or evaluative methods was something I enjoyed learning more about.
Next Steps
Expanding on the customer journey.
Conducting further user research to help prioritize and expand on key features and task flows such as delivery tracking, order history, merchandise sales, etc.
Consider the entire ecosystem.
I would create a service blueprint to capture all the different service components — people, props, and processes — that are directly tied to the customer journey. This means considering the needs, wants and tasks of restaurant managers, employees and delivery people. By identifying these different swim lanes, I would look for opportunities to optimize service, bridge gaps and increase business needs for service providers.
