THE CLIENT
The National Football League, NFL, founded in Canton, Ohio in 1920 is America's highest revenue sports league. Comprised of two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), the NFL houses 32 teams spanning from coast to coast. Their mission is to "unite people and inspire communities in the joy of the game by delivering the world's most exciting sporots and entertainment experience".
THE CHALLENGE
The NFL Mobile App continues to grow in 2024 with over 130 million consumers, but lack of personalization for the user is evident.
I posit that increasing customization for users would be beneficial for customers as they could personalize and tailor make their experience, thus increasing site retention as they have more options and freedom to peruse exactly what they desire. This would aid in business objectives as the higher site retention is the higher customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales typically are as well. This enhancement to the user experience can aid in the constant maturation and popularity of the NFL's mobile app while upholding its mission of providing an "exciting entertainment experience".
The Assignment:
📝Conduct research and propose recommendations based in data/results that provide probability for the NFL to increase site retention and customer satisfaction.
RESEARCH & PLANNING
Competitive Analysis
To begin, I wanted to see what experience other sport leagues were giving to their users. I began to look at the mobile apps of Major League Baseball (MLB), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Soccer (MLS), and Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Each of these app's experiences regarding personalization followed clear trends, but also had room for opportunity. Let me show you.
⚾️ Major League Baseball (MLB)Analysis
Prompted the user to pick their favorite team(s) in the league. Once completed with all prompts there was only one team showcased at the top of the user's home screen feed (the first team the user selected). The other teams were 3 clicks away under "Followed Teams".
Screen prompting user to follow favorite teams.
Screen showing user what selections were made.
Screen within app showing "favorite team" and "followed teams".
Home screen within app showcasing favorite team.
⛹🏿🏀National Basketball Association (NBA) Analysis
NBA - Prompted the user to pick their favorite team(s) and player(s) to follow around the league. Once all prompts were completed players and teams were showcased at the top of the feed in a horizontal scroll (like Instagram) behind a few trending or latest topics.
Screen allowing user to select and follow favorite teams
Screen with "favorite" team selected along with option of "No Favorite".
Screen allowing user to select and follow favorite players.
"For You" screen displaying highlight of favorite team selected previously.
"For You" Screen displaying the look when no favorite team is selected from previous picked teams.
⚽️Major League Soccer (MLS) Analysis
MLS - Prompted the user to only pick 1 favorite team in the league. It then prompted the user to select subjects they were interested in seeing on their feed. Once all prompts were done the team selected was located on the top header along with a downward caret which then showed the other teams that could be viewed. The topics that were previously selected were located in the bottom navigation under more.
Screen allowing user to pick favorite club.
Screen allowing user to select topics that interest them.
Screen allowing user to allow particular alerts.
Home screen showcasing favorite team at top of feed.
⛹🏾♀️🏀Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Analysis
WNBA - This was the first app I encountered that did not prompt the user to pick a favorite team or player. The homepage was filled with "Top Stories" and "Must-See Moments". Players and Teams were accessible in the bottom nave under "More".
Home screen displaying latest trending topics.
"More" screen allowing users to explore what else the app offers.
🏈National Football League (NFL) Analysis
Like the other mobile apps the NFL followed some of the same trends and also had oom for opportunity to widen the gap it already has on other sport leagues.
NFL - The app prompted the user to pick only 1 favorite team, however, this was the only attempt in personalization the app provided. No prompts for selection of favorite players or what topics the user might be interested in seeing. Like the other apps, the user can edit their favorite team and look at other teams as well. In regards to players, users can only see what the app provides such as states and player information. The scarcity of personalization gives a plethora of space for expansion and evolution to customize the app for customers.
Screen prompting using to pick favorite team.
"Home" screen displaying favorite team at the top of page.
"Home" screen accompanied with news and trending topics around the NFL.
Empathy Map and Observation
It was important to pair my competitive analysis with my observation of how participants reacted to each mobile app. I needed to see the responses to the likes and dislikes of each app to be able to categorize positive and trends as well as opportunities for the NFL mobile app. In order to do this I observed users interacting with each app and logged an empathy map during each session.
MLB empathy map
NBA empathy map
MLS empathy map
WNBA empathy map
NFL empathy map
Positive Observations:
➕Ability to select favorite team
➕Ability to select favorite player
➕Ability to select multiple favorite teams and players
➕Ability to handpick certain topics to see on home screen
➕Ability to change favorite team
➕Ability to find favorite teams and players with 1 click.
Negative Observations:
➖Selecting multiple favorite teams in onboarding, but they are not all displayed on user's home screen.
➖No search bar
➖Unable to select multiple teams
➖Unable to select players
➖Assumption that user wants to see certain subjects instead of asking what they would like to see.
How Might We?
Derived from the observation and empathy maps, I was able to construct how might we questions that generate creative ideas and solutions while keeping me focused on the scope of the challenge
"How might we give more autonomy to the user regarding what they want to see?"
"How might we design a positive experience for the user that is curate for and by them?
Keeping in mind "good, better, best", I was sure to ask myself questions that ranged from plausible to questions that undoubtedly would push the envelope. That's the fun of these questions, it gets the creative juices flowing to always think of what could be better for the user next time.
Affinity Mapping
Clear trends began to emerge from the how might we questions and previous observations. Thus, I was able to categorize objectives that needed to be addressed in further research such as personalization, autonomy, tracking, unmet needs, desires, accessibility, and look & feel.
The NFL Mobile App by no means wants nor needs to be like the other sport league apps. However, given how there are similar target users and audiences with all the apps, I began to think about the customization features of the other apps and how they could be elevated within the NFL app to positively set them apart even more.
Survey
The myriad of questions curated was substantial and it was necessary to get as many of these questions answered by actual NFL customers. I created a survey asking questions on topics of level of participation in all things NFL, description of said participation, desires for the app, pain points within the app, topics they enjoyed, favorite team(s), favorite player(s), and personalization. Data analytics from the survey revealed great feedback. A few of the findings can be found below.
This data simply displays just how popular the NFL is across races, genders, age, etc. All participants answered that they engage in NFL in some capacity.
This is important because it can be assumed that although people engage for the primary reason of football there are many arenas within said realm that people seek.
The previous questions was, "Do you use the NFL Mobile App?". Those who said yes, fortunately do not air on the negative side.
However, the majority do not feel overwhelmingly satisfied and this suggest changes or additions need to be made.
Most participants have a favorite player they enjoy following, but this enjoyment takes place outside the NFL app as that is not a feature within the app.
I ask, "why make users travel to a different app when this app is supposedly all things NFL and that includes players?".
The data demonstrates that most NFL consumers enjoy following more than one team.
Unfortunately, users can only follow one team on the app. This data presents great opportunity to allow customers to pick more than one team possibly increasing app satisfaction.
This data follows suits with that of above. Most users enjoy following more than one player.
Creating a feature for users to be able to do so proves beneficial for both the user and thus NFL business.
When it came to what people wanted to see answers varied. Below are some of the following responses.
💭Players involvement in civic duties
💭What the team is up to outside of games
💭Positive stories
💭Improvements
💭Defensive and offensive lineups
💭How players of a certain position stack up against each other
💭Games and wins
💭Type of plays team runs and exciting catches
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based off of the research, data, and results I was able to curate suggestions that target user personalization/customization inducing an increasing in site retention and customer satisfaction.
🔋Add a search bar or icon for users to look up exactly what they want.
🔋Allow for the selection of more than one favorite team.
🔋Allow for the selection of player(s).
🔋Showcase players and teams on the field as well as off.
🔋Ask user what they would like to see.
🔋Have selected favorites at top of home screen for easy access and fit mental models.
🔋Create a different icon for "teams" in bottom navigation. It is currently the favorited teams mascot, and causes confusion.
🔋Ask permission to track or use location of user to better fit thier likes.