ARound Stadium
Enhanced augmented reality sports experience
ARound is creating a specialized shared, mobile augmented reality experience for sports that brings audiences together with effects, games, and player stats. The events to start with were major sports games for the MLB, NFL, and NBA. I was brought in to improve the user experiences of onboarding, introducing more fun and accessible UI, and new creative ideas and features. The first teams I worked with were Minnesota Twins Baseball, Los Angeles Rams Football, Kansas City Royals Baseball, and Cleveland Cavaliers Basketball.
Cohesive User Experience
After auditing the onboarding experience I noticed we were making it harder than we needed for a fan to understand what they should do next and where we wanted them to focus their attention. I got the team to collectively agree we should land a user in AR and then give them options from there to check out new features like stats and games. Start tossing balls into the field ASAP!
Before
After
AR is a struggle
Setting up a Unity app that loads in hundreds of megabytes of 3D content, asks for phone permissions, syncs with your team's stadium, tracks the field properly, and expresses its value and entertainment in an elegant way is certainly a challenge. It took the whole team to collectively decide when content should load. It also took several iterations before I got the onboarding flows to successfully get important permissions from the user while also expressing the value of the app. I had the idea to have our excellent 3D animator create color branded animations for each step of the way!
Making data fun
One of the coolest features, in my opinion, is real-time data! Not only can you see instant replays through AR in case you miss a play, you can also see historical data from past games of the whole team! I got to create some particle effects and work closely with a developer friend to get the UI looking fantastic.
Twins, Royals, Rams, and Cavs, oh my!
ARound is an all-in-one app that detects which stadium you're in when you use it, meaning the UI should be branded and have unique games based on what team you're there for. Without a design system or components in Unity, how could we possibly scale the styles up for many versions of an app?! Well, with short timelines, the best solution was to keep the differences simple.
Extreme, yet casual gaming experiences
What's better than watching a game at a ballpark or stadium? Participating in the game yourself (if you want to)! The challenge here is people may not know what to expect with all the other AR effects happening. And they may not know how to play the games.
I designed a way to introduce players to live games like the classic Hot Dog Race, as well as join game lobbies to play on-demand games like Batter Up!, Monster Mow, and Fishing Frenzy. I even got to create the illustrations.
Finale
✔️ We simplified navigation in the app so more people would give it a chance
✔️ Helped improve people's setup and sync their phone with the field and stadium
✔️ We introduced new games, UI, and controls to create more interactivity
✔️ We increased awareness amongst the sports teams and audiences by strengthening our branding in the product
✔️ ARound won more contracts for more events and teams going forward and continue to maintain their success
Fan unity
What sets ARound apart from the rest is the idea of getting the most people ever in one space to interact with each other using augmented 3D space. Whether it be a sporting event, or any other event, this is the goal. Similar to Pokemon Go, crafting digital experiences that include tens of thousands of people who can all participate easily, is an exciting opportunity. I can't wait to see what happens next!
This app was created in Unity, but they've since moved on to using web. Check out what ARound is up to now!
