FANTOWNS

Enhancing the NFL off-season fan experience with a focus on out-of-market fans.

Project Summary

With exciting features like fan levels, fan rankings, daily trivia, a learning center, and much more, Fantowns, a new social networking platform, seeks to enhance the NFL off-season fan experience by strengthening existing fandom, improving “Football IQ”, growing fanbases, and supporting local fan communities.

As the sole designer, I completed all aspects of this project, from initial research, through concept development, and all the way to the final pitch delivery.

Team: Solo Project

Time: 15 Weeks

My Role: Service Designer

I conducted a survey, user interviews, a diary study, and secondary market research. I also performed data synthesis and analysis, sketched, wire-framed, prototyped, and administered user testing of my proposed solution, and finally, developed a pitch for potential investors.

Tools Used: Figma, Google Suite, Pen & Paper, Autodesk Sketchbook

Research

I started with a survey to gather information about potential users/user groups and confirm this problem affected enough people to be worth solving.

Here we can see responses to one question in the survey indicating both hometown and out-of-market fans are eager for more off-season engagement, with out-of-market fans trending more eager than hometown fans.

I was also able to find 6 participants from the initial survey who were willing to complete a diary study, answering the same set of questions over 10 days, which provided a deeper understanding of daily, off-season fan engagement with their team or the NFL in general.

Then, I conducted secondary research and created service ecosystem and value exchange maps to get a better understanding of the marketplace.

Analysis

Through anffinitization and analysis of all the data collected in my research I was able to identify 4 goals for my new service offering and extract insights that would guide solution ideation.

I analyzed each insight utilizing the SWOT method and measured each insight against the 4 goals I identified for the new service to make sure ideation would be properly focused.

As I was trying to find a place for my new service among the current offerings in the market, I realized that gaining access to the content fans were seeking (from NFL players, coaches, teams, and behind the scenes footage), would be cost-prohibitive.

I would have to find other ways to increase engagement, provide meaningful content, and improve the experience for NFL fans throughout the offseason.

Ideation

Equipped with an understanding of where the new service needed to sit in the marketplace and the “How might we…” questions I developed from the insights extracted from my research data, I enlisted the help of a couple of friends and Chat GPT to ideate around solution ideas utilizing the 10-in-10 method (10 ideas in 10 minutes).

I affinitized the almost 200 potential solution ideas and distilled the set down to 20 potential solution avenues.

Next, I utilized an impact/effort matrix, plotting out each solution idea measured on how much time, effort, and money it might take to produce against each solution’s potential effect on the user experience or how critical it would be to the overall service offering. This helped to prioritize which solutions to focus on and which to save for later or leave behind altogether.

The Solution

Fantowns is a new social networking platform dedicated to and designed specifically for NFL fans.

With Fantowns, fans can find and stay connected with local fan communities, more easily navigate those communities with a proprietary Fan Level system, and access a library of information to help them learn more about the sport they love during a time of year where little to no meaningful content is produced about their team, all on a platform that encourages continual, year-round interaction.

With an initial placement exam to test incoming fans’ football knowledge, Fan Levels sort fans into rookie, veteran, all-pro, and H.o.F. levels based on how well they know the NFL.

These Fan Levels will be integrated throughout the platform, helping distinguish FanTowns from its competitors by allowing fans to navigate communities more easily.  Fans can use this system to find other fans on their level or find fans on a different level to learn more about football or help bring a new fan into the fold.

Fans are encouraged to engage with the platform through a set of daily questions designed to help fans learn more about the game of football and the history of the NFL and that offer opportunities for fans to earn Fan Points and progress along the path towards becoming a Hall of Fame level fan.

These Fan Points also fuel the Fan Rankings, allowing fans to see where they stack up individually among other fans - filterable by team, group, and location - as well as where the Fan Groups they have joined stack up against other team’s Fan Groups in their area, and eventually other fan groups of their team around the country or the world!

Finally, for new fans or fans who just want to learn the basics or more seasoned fans who want to brush up on their football knowledge, the Learning Center provides a great resource for information about the rules and strategy of NFL football.

Testing

I utilized the Testing Table and Test Cards from Strategyzer to set up and organize the prototype testing and results. This brought focus to the testing methods and helped me establish which metrics I would use to determine whether this service concept might be a success.

I ran participants through a Wizard-of-Oz style placement exam to give them an initial Fan Level placement before moving the users through the rest of the prototype and collecting their feedback.

Testing results indicated a high level of trust in the initial placement exam to sort fans appropriately, a willingness to spend $5/month on a service like this, and an eagerness to engage at least 1x/day.

Next Steps

Based on feedback from concept testing, a larger emphasis is needed on player, team, and league history. Including player, team, and league history in the initial placement exam, daily questions, and the learning center will allow a broader array of fandoms to be taken into account throughout the service.

As the service is developed, the focus should start with the initial offering, which should include the Fan Levels system, daily trivia questions, fan and fan community rankings, the Learning Center, user profiles, fan community pages, event pages and planning, and discussion threads. This initial offering would be launched in major cities with NFL teams to establish a strong user base.

As the user base grows, the service can develop more features like learning modules, an AI “assistant coach”, and fan challenges. We can also establish partnerships with industry professionals and local venues to host fan events and challenges. Down the road, as the service gains market leverage, we can look to partner with the NFL and NFL teams, establish virtual meet and greets with fans, players and personnel, and fan “bar takeovers” for fan community watch parties.