Detroit Pistons pre-game experience
Project Details
My Role: UX Design, UX Research
Tools: Sketch, PowerPoint
Duration: 2 months
Teammates: UX Researchers, Account Managers
Overview
The Detroit Pistons approached us because they have an attendance problem. It started in Auburn Hills and followed them to Detroit. The Pistons’ marketing team invited us to a game to interview users during the pre-game festivities as well as the in-game experience. If we could understand how the fans felt about the game experience, then we could come up with solutions to convince them to attend more than one game per season.
Business Objective
Only 3% of attendees come to a 2nd Pistons games each season, so we had a lot of room for improvement. Our goal was find creative ways to increase that number to 25% by creating a more memorable in-game experience and making the ticket purchase process more accessible.
Contextual Inquiry
I organized a group of 10 Accenture employees to interview users during the pre-game as well as when they were in their seats during the game. I created a list of starter questions and themes and some general guidance to keep the conversations going. I floated between the groups, but primarily spent my time with the clients interviewing them about the new arena and what they thought the opportunities were.
Our Findings
The Red Wings won’t allow the Pistons to make any visual changes to the interior of the arena, so it feels like a basketball team playing in a hockey arena.
Even though the new arena is very nice, the wayfinding throughout the concourse and the seats is not user-friendly at all.
Users like the interactive experiences throughout the concourse, but they’d like a way to create and share content — on social media and inside the arena.
Our Recommendation
Considering all the constraints the Pistons have in their new home, we came up with the idea of a mobile, branded kiosk where fans could use an interactive map and could also create fun content that could be easily shared on social media or on the screens in the arena. The clients were very happy and invited us to pitch this idea to the executives for funding a prototype. Unfortunately, this was about 2 weeks before the initial coronavirus lockdown so it was put on hold for now.