UGA Emerging Media Alpha

Course JRMC7014

First Draft of Capstone Case Study

Role: Researcher and Ideation Team

Tools: QR code (for data collection) and Canva

Research, Ideation, and Pitch 🗣️

Upon our kickoff call with our client, we learned that the original project idea was completed by a different vendor, which caused my team and me to pivot into research mode from August to October. This pivot allowed us to shift gears from working towards a need for the client to doing hands on research to come up with new ideas and solutions for State Farm Arena.

The Solution

1. Site Visit: As part of our efforts to gain a better understanding of the needs many guests could benefit from at State Farm Arena, we attended the Jonas Brothers Concert.
2. Initial observations: Use of space within the arena was one aspect of the venue my team and I were on the look out for; however, we found more information beyond just how the venue was using existing spaces. We analyzed how guests were interacting with empty space. This gave us one idea that would be added to our pitch deck.
3. Guest Q&A: During the period before and after the show, our capstone team of 5 went around the venue asking users questions about their experiences and concert habits. Together, 68+ guests were able to provide us with insights into the concertgoers’ world and allow us to use that insight to understand how we could both improve the guest experience and increase revenue for the venue.

The Process

To gain a better understanding of the State Farm Arena’s consumers, we attended the Jonas Brothers concert where the team spoke with guests before and after the show to ask questions on spending habits, opinions of the stadium, and view guest interactions with the overall venue and amenities. After the show, we ended up speaking to over 68 guests and were provided with a firm understanding of potential solutions to help enhance the guest experience.

Ideation

As part of our ideation efforts, we kept the clients’ goals and graduation requirements in mind while crafting these ideas to ensure all stakeholders are taken care of with our final product. We ended up having four different ideas:

1. Under-utilized spaces in the arena
2. In-App Audit
3. Technology to provide a unique fan experience
4. Local business integration

Successful Pitch

Our team successfully pitched each idea and landed on a combination of both technologies to increase fan experience and underutilized spaces.

View full Pitch Deck: HERE

Our Prototype

Following our pitch, our team created a Figma prototype of an extension of State Farm Arena’s current website to demonstrate and house our activations.

First, users navigate to the Events & Tickets tab, where they can then drop into the Upgrades & Add-Ons page. This page includes information pertaining to each concert for a Merch Flash Pass, VIP Photo Service, Drink Package, and the Delta 360 Club experience. All of these offerings were intentionally added to create an unforgettable guest experience while generating revenue for State Farm Arena.

User Experience Research Plan 🤖

As part of our capstone journey, my team and I were tasked with developing a comprehensive user experience research plan (UXRP) to guide future UX testing of the prototype. The main purpose of this guide is to ensure that the data collected is efficient and provides actionable insights that will enable a two-phase testing during our final semester.

Our client, State Farm Arena, has asked our team to find ways to increase revenue during concerts. Our team has conducted preliminary research and presented 4 ideas to the State Farm Arena. They have chosen a blend of each pitch, which we will create into a singular project where a dedicated landing page will house enhanced customer experiences, VIP upgrades, and other offerings currently not available for disclosure.

Producing a landing page will help us deliver these new service offerings to customers; however, ensuring that the landing page allows for a positive user experience requires a detailed research plan to ensure that major issues that may impact UX and UI are addressed.

Content of our UXRP

1. Executive Summary: Provides a clear overview of the project, value proposition, and key features.
2. Research Goals: This section defines what our goals are and what success metrics look like for said goals

3. Methodology: Breaks down each team member’s role in the research, our target audience, and how we will create a data sample that is representative of the population. In addition, we outline testing instruments used to collect participant data.

Prototype Testing Tasks

Six tasks have been created to test the discoverability and usability of the prototype. Task 1 tests whether users can locate the prototype from the homepage of the website. Task 2 tests whether users can use the landing page to find VIP experiences for a hypothetical concert occurring in 2026. Task 3 tests the visual hierarchy of the page and whether the value proposition of the page is clear. Each task continues to go on to test the major functions of the landing page.

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Overarching Goal for the UXRP

Our team intends to use this research plan to guide our data collection, aiming to gather useful information that will improve our prototype. We are confident that the landing page can be market-ready, increasing revenue and customer satisfaction for the State Farm Arena.