MARCH MADNESS LIVE
Bracket IQ
Bracket IQ was a sponsorship and collaboration with Google Cloud. We created a hub for advanced insights and in-depth analysis to help you make your picks and track your bracket. Starting at the Sweet 16, fans start doing mental math on the chances of winning their group. We built a tool for fans to be able to see their best possible path based on the remaining matchups of the tournament. As the Product Designer on the team, I was responsible for gathering competitive analysis and research, and leading the design process from early concepts to delivery.
As the UX Architect on the team, I was responsible for gathering competitive analysis, facilitating design sprints, and creating early design concepts.
PROJECT TYPE
Web
TEAM
Jane Neiswander + Sarah Eiring | UX Designer
Shai Harris + Alicia Marshall | Designer
Matt Mullen + Daniel Wilco | Product
Ligja Gill | UX Research Manager
TOOLS USED
Sketch
Invision
TIMELINE
Launched Spring 2021
Inspired by advanced dashboards
Early inspiration for this tool came from the financial sector and banking apps - with their advanced dashboards showcasing gains/losses and infographic representations of time, I thought there were a lot of interesting parallels with the way you could chart out your bracket potential.
Exploring Info Visualization
Drawing from the inspiration, I started outlining early wireframes for the concepts. I explored the layout of the bracket, how group information was shown, and additional modules and features we wanted to show. We really focused on how the tool was telling the story of your bracket progressing through the tournament.
Revisiting through User Research
With the 2020 Tournament cancellation, we decided to revisit the PTC tool to get some feedback from fans before launching in 2021. We partnered with the UX research team to conduct some moderated In depth interviews around the current experience of the tool.
High Level Findings
The tool exceeded expectations, with competitive players immediately recognizing the potential benefit.
The desktop layout felt very spaced out, and users mentioned it took a lot of scrolling to reach the content of interest
The ideal path section was considered the most informative and differentiated.
