Summary

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• Enhance NFL Experience
• Don’t change or “add layer” between fan and current experience
• Use Sports Marketing and Sports Management research to guide design
• Create a physical prototype that could be “experienced”

I started this project with the goal of enhancing the experience of the NFL. My early exploration of this project space included mapping out potential current experiences for NFL fans, breaking down the different types of fans, understanding where are when fans interacted with the sport and league, and trying to understand the relationship between a fan and a favorite player and team.

I spent time conducting primary research through a survey of known NFL fans, an interview and ethnographic analysis of a fan at a football game, an observation of a football game specifically focused on fans interactions with the team the game and each other, and multiple prototypes of a design concept.

My secondary research included a literary review of publications from both Sports Marketing and Sports Management to understand a foundation of fan and team and sport dynamics, an analysis of existing sports and NFL related experiences, and an exemplar study of similar design concepts in other non-related areas.

This project finished with the presentation of a functional design prototype of a jersey that reacts with the success of a player and team for a fan who is attending a football game in their home stadium. The prototype was built with Arduino Lilypad technology. I presented this concept in a 20 minute presentation with an accompanying poster on display.

Process

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• Concepts
• “Exemplars”
• Early Prototype
• Wearables
• Final Prototype

Starting this project I knew immediately I wanted to work on an Experience Design project, and as a huge fan of the NFL I was interested in the connection a fan has with a team.Knowing that I wanted to focus on the Experiences for a fan consuming the NFL I tried to identify the groups of people who provided the NFL experience, the people who consumed the NFL, and the places were the experiences occurred. I also jotted down a few quick design concepts I came up with doing some early brainstorming.

Concepts

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Crowd Noise Ball

The crowd noise ball was meant to bring the sounds of the game into the fans home. The football would sit near the fan watching the game and would play sounds from the stadium through a football with a speaker at a fan’s house.

Madden “Play” Ball

The Madden  ”Play” Ball was a football that would have a screen in the side. When you play pickup football it could show some offensive routes that kids could learn and run to be more like a real football offense. This ball could show 3 options similar to the play options presented in the popular Madden Football video game.

• 1 thing I decided early on in this project. I wanted to be sure NOT to interrupt, or add a mediator between (e.g. a screen or the lens of a camera), the fan and the game action. If the fan was watching an interface instead of the game action then the fan was changing the experience. I was interested in what made the experience what it currently is, and how that experience could be enhanced.
• I later narrowed my focus to enhancing the experience of a fan AT the game in the stadium, but early on I was exploring the experience of watching games at home as well as looking at examples of experiences that connected a fan and team but were not during the live game action.

Exemplars

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I spent some time researching what current products and interactions exist, finding many fit into 4 categories:

• Physical
• “Add-On’s”
• Branding
• Enhancing

Physical exemplars included designs that were meant to put the consumer in the role of a NFL player so they could feel the experience of playing in the NFL. One example of this is called the NFL Experience.

What I call Add-On experiences are those that accessorize the NFL or an aspect of the NFL to create a new experience that is tied into the action from the NFL. Fantasy Football and Madden Football games both fit into this category. One example (similar to an early brainstormed concept of mine) that the NFL introduced during this project is called the RedZone Re-Cutter. This design allows fans to edit together their own highlight clips from previous NFL games.

Branding experiences are items that try to use the brand of the NFL to draw people to their products or services. Campbell’s soup Chunky Click for Cans program is one example.

Last, and what I was most interested in, were Enhancing designs. These are designs that are meant to not change the experience of the NFL but instead enhance the current Experience. One design that attempts to Enhance the experience (and in my opinion fails to do so) is an “infotainment” app concept called the E-Stadium: Wireless Football Infotainment Applications.

This concept does exactly what I didn’t want to do, it adds a layer between the action on the field and the fan. Though having an application that tells you where the Food on the Field is located, I am a little confused about the term infotainment as I am not sure I am sold on the entertainment of viewing raw information though it is a handy companion for extra statistics about the current game, and it is an attempt to enhance the fan’s knowledge of a game DURING the game action.

This leads me to a second major idea I became interested in. I decided I wanted to create a design that enhanced the experience during a game as the action happened. I still was not sure however where I would focus on the fan consuming the game action.

I knew my project had a constraint that was uncommon for a year long project in that the NFL season did not continue throughout the whole project so when I was presented the opportunity to attend an NFL game I knew it was not only an opportunity to observe NFL fans in attendance, it was also an opportunity to do a hands on user test of a concept I could prototype.

Prototyping

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I had the opportunity to go to the Bengals vs. Texans game in Cincinnati on October 18th, 2009. I was able to also bring along a previous roommate Doug who I knew was not only a football fan, but a fan of the Bengals. I decided to prototype a concept I had come up with of a Jersey that vibrated in response to the success of the player who’s jersey was worn.

This prototype was built by sewing two pockets onto the chest of a white undershirt to be worn under the jersey. In the pockets were placed 2 um… vibrating motors. These vibrations were both controlled by a hand-held controller that I was able to turn on and and I was able to control the intensity of the vibration depending on the amount of success for the individual player.
     

Along with testing my prototype I was able to observe Bengals fans as they experienced the game in the stadium. I was also able to take pictures which were used later to calculate a sample of fans and how many were wearing merchandise related to the Bengals.

Doug provided insights into the experience of wearing the vibrating jersey and his experience of attending the game, a loss for the Bengals.

Returning from the game I dove into literature from both Sports Marketing and Sports Management journals to try to understand more about Professional Sports, the NFL, different classifications of fans, and what foundation already existed about how fans experience the NFL.

Wearables

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I also spent a lot of time looking into some examples of wearable technology that already existed. I found examples of wearables for many purposes including those for

• healthcare
• gaming
• information delivery
• emotional connections
• and many others.

 

Final Prototype

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I continued iterating on the original design concept trying to find the best way to deliver feedback to the fan through vibration by testing locations for vibration feedback, but one concept that really stuck out through my research was the idea of “Basking-In-Reflected-Glory” (BIRGing) and the response I got from people who thought the concept should not just be an internal response for the player and teams success but a visual response also that brought celebratory attention to the fan in the stands from fellow fans.

My final prototype was constructed by sewing Arduino Lilypad hardware into an existing jersey (my favorite player, Robert Mathis, Indianapolis Colts #98). Due to the constraints of power and time I was only able to sew the lights and vibration motors into the back of the jersey. I had never worked with Arduino or Lilypad hardware before so it was quite an experience in itself.

 

With help I diagramed the layout of the electronics, sewed the Arduino pieces into the Jersey, tested the conductive thread, and programmed the flashing lights and vibrations.

Reflection

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This concept would be exciting to continue to develop, but I am glad that it was able to culminate with a physical prototype that can physically and visually show my concept. Moving forward it would be interesting to test this prototype at an NFL game, and already I have many ideas for iterations. If I knew that I would only be able to prototype one side of the jersey I would have picked the front so the reaction of fellow fans would be seen by the fan wearing the jersey who could then celebrate the success of the player and team together. I would also be interested in exploring more about the Arduino bluetooth capabilities to trigger the jerseys reaction wirelessly, tied to the change in the statistics as a successful play occurs. I would also like to explore the different ways the jersey could react based on the players success vs. the success of the team.Reflecting back on the project and the process there are always things I would do different if I could do it all over, but I was very glad that I decided to prototype my concept early on. Even though I learned so many things through my research after the initial prototype I was able to put the pieces together, and the concept developed, so much better due to the insights gained working with a physical prototype.

Users were able to respond to something real instead of just responding to a concept or idea. The concreteness of my prototypes has helped myself and others to develop critiques and insights based on the idea but also on the physical pieces they could touch and feel.