The NHL Bot
The conversation UI aiming to improve fan engagement
Overview
As the NHL looked to increase fan base and improve fan engagement, I created an NHL bot to engage fans with informative and contextual conversation.
The initial outcome was a bot that satisfies a few use cases including personalized daily briefing, ticket purchasing, and etc.
Role & Duration
Product Designer
UX Strategy, User Research, Workshop Moderation
Concepting, Interaction, Testing
Team of 3 designers, 1 IT person
Aug - Nov 2017
Problem
How might we improve NHL fan engagement?
Business Goal: Integrate SAP conversational UI technology
Stakeholder Workshop
A 4-day workshop was conducted with the NHL stakeholders from the departments of Digital Business, Products, Marketing and Social. There were also sports writers and the NHL fans.
My research encompassed
• Understanding NHL business strategy and mission for fan experience
• Identifying use cases for conversational experiences in the NHL ecosystem
• Generating sample conversations through design thinking exercises
Idea cards of possible use cases and sample bot convesations
Qualitative Research With Fans
30
Fans
10
Interviews
3
Focus Groups
User research essential. The needs and pain points of the multiple fan types needed to be laid out in detail. In order to achieve that, I gathered as much as I could from the different types of fans to understand the challenges they face and the opportunities to increase their engagement.
Types of Fans Based on Level of Interest
Insights
After conducting a variety of user interviews, focus groups and analyzing the gathered data, I was able to identify a few important key use cases that help achieve the NHL's business goals as well as the fan's needs of enablement.
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Ideation
I started simulating conversation and creating low-fi concepts for primary use cases. After having a go-ahead from Stakeholders and developers on the mockups, we began to conduct usability tests with the low-fidelity mockups. Once we had confidence in the design, we began digitalizing designs.
The Designs
Provide on-demand information
The NHL bot provides contextual and on-demand information regarding player and team information, statistic education, player milestone, game highlights including articles and video content.
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Gather Fan Preference Through a Quick Survey
To set a foundation for personalized editorial content, such as daily briefing, ticket purchasing, the NHL bot asks a few simple questions when fans sign up for the website and the app, regarding their level of experience, preferred teams and player, and ownership of accessories.
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Personalized Daily Briefing
After user set up their personal profile and preferences for information, users can launch daily briefings, that is a daily dose of information about what happened, what’s happening, keys to the game via video and editorial content.
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It helps educate and deconstruct the complexities of the game.
Discover the Right Game To Attend
The NHL bot also helps fans to explore possible games to attend as well as to deliver opportunities to buy tickets directly through NHL Ticket Exchange. This feature will generate revenue, as well as answers the question of 'who goes to our games'.
Quick Ticket Purchasing
The NHL bot allows fans to purchase tickets directly inside the NHL sites instead downloading Ticketmaster or go to the website. This feature will generate revenue, as well as answers the question of 'who goes to our games'.
Sharable Ticket Options
The NHL bot allows fans to share their tickets to their friends very quickly so that it empowers fans to enjoy hockey as a group event.
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