off the court

PROJECT

Hackathon

TIMELINE

24 hours

TEAM

9 people

TOOLS

Figma, InVision, Adobe Photoshop, Discord, Google Meets

OFF THE COURT is a digital solution that will boost the WNBA's overall league engagement by capitalizing on its rising popularity and unique fans, who enjoy supporting leaders of social movements.

Through a dedicated space on the existing website, fans will have the opportunity to connect with players beyond basketball, tapping into the league's leadership in social movement and culture.

Collaborative ideation, organized design handoffs, and charismatic presentations to WNBA staff were crucial elements of our process.

View Prototype

Table of contents

1

Research

2

Problem

3

How might we

4

Persona

5

Solution

6

Prototype

7

Marketing

8

Key Performance 
Indicators

9

Key Learnings

1

Research

WNBA fans are between

2-6x

more likely than the average sports fan to be interested in politics, especially women's rights.

Niky Scott, Customer success manager at Zoomph
The WNBA has increased:

Opening weekend attendance by:

15%

Viewership by:

35%

Reach by:

207%

Engagement by:

129%

Merchandise by:

66%

WNBA: Take a seat, take a stand
Traffic nearly doubled from 2021-2022 for:
5.4 million unique visitors

+99%

9.2 million Total Visits

+79%

23.8 million Page Views

+83%

WNBA: Take a seat, take a stand

2

Problem

The WNBA preaches that the 'W' stands for more than basketball, but they don't effectively communicate this through their website.

3

How might we

How might we provide the WNBA with a digital solution to better leverage their work outside of basketball in order to increase overall league engagement.

4

Persona

5

Solution:
OFF THE COURT

Creating something completely new was difficult within 24 hours, so we decided as a team to leverage existing resources. While we all agreed we enjoyed their website, they were missing a hub that truly aligned their players' work outside of basketball to the powerful 'W'. Narrowing down the topics was difficult, but we selected the four that provided the most value to the fans.
Events

A schedule to keep fans up-to-date on what event is happening, where it’s taking place and when.

Social Justice

A collection of articles, projects, and impacts WNBA players are making on the world of social justice.

Fashion

WNBA is style. We’ll showcase your league fits and explain how fashion empowers your athletes.

Player Merchandise

Repping your favourite player's jersey is important to elevating superstars and connection!

6

Prototype

Typically, UX Designers create prototypes through Figma, but this hackathon simulated a real environment that gave us experience handing off our designs to developers to create. I learned what developers need, how to include them early on in discussions and the importance of clear documentation.

7

marketing

We decided as a team to capture attention on Instagram and Twitter with our #StandForMore campaign. We're confident that users will begin to truly understand why the 'W' stands for more than just basketball.
GOAL: get new users to sign up for OFF THE COURT newsletters so they can stay informed and even participate in the work.
Instagram: 1.3 million followers
Twitter: 806.2k followers

8

Key performance indicators

Once public, tracking OFF THE COURT will give us valuable insights to push development further.
Unique monthly visitors
  • Tracks the unique IP addresses viewing wnba.com per month.

  • We want to increase this number as it's an indicator of WNBA fandom.

Bounce rates
  • Tracks how often a user immediately leaves the page after viewing.

  • This helps us understand how often our product satisfies our user's needs.

Pages per visit
  • This indicates how many pages the average viewer visits each time they go to wnba.com.

  • We want to increase this number as it communicates the level of appreciation our fans have for our product's diverse offers.

9

key Learnings

Before beginning this intense project, I didn't really understand what hackathons were. All I knew was that you had to produce something fast. To be honest, I thought it meant hacking into some type of cyber security and then explaining how you broke their defense. While I only got a couple hours of sleep, it was an incredible experience that taught me how to work with professionals I'll be on teams with in the future!
Cross-discipline collaboration

Collaborative design work was captivating, teaching me negotiation, prioritization, and effective teamwork within just 24 hours. I now feel more confident to contribute significant value to future projects by leveraging my experiences and seamless integration into teams.

Timely communication

Early involvement of developers and data scientists was vital. Rather than sending them a nearly finished wireframe late at night, we prioritized their success by seeking their input and meeting their requirements. They expressed the importance of sharing files as we made progress throughout the night, enabling them to create frameworks for their development tasks.

Complaining is not productive.

Initially, our team faced a disadvantage without a Digital Marketer, but dwelling on the negative hindered our progress. As a negotiator, I endeavored to foster collaboration and strive for our best work. Looking back, I recognize that prioritizing time and focusing on solutions rather than problems would have led to a superior product.

Presentations need polish.

During the presentation, despite its quality, we lacked coordination and structure due to it being our first delivery. Assigning specific roles, such as a reviewer, transition coordinator, and dedicated presenter, would have improved the outcome. While I attempted to help, I now recognize the need for better effectiveness in similar situations. Valuable lessons learned for the future!

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