Case Study - Fantasy Arcade

Team Building

AI

Presentation Deck

What is Fantasy Arcade?

It's a program that allows our team members to immersive themselves into a creative world with few limitations. We'd like for this program to spark new ideas for our product and enhance our team members' craft, without being limited by constraints.

Challenge

As designers it's easy to get "stuck" in our day-to-day activities and jumping from one project to the next. We usually have many constraints, such as product & design system limitations, not enough time to fully explore design solutions, and limitations to what engineers can truly build. This means that our ideas usually have to be simplified and less creative that we originally had hoped for. In the long-term this approach could potentially decrease a designer's creativity and motivation.

Opportunity

Back in 2022 we were exploring ways to incorporate more creativity into our work environment, where we have no (or very little) limitations, without interfering with our day-to-day projects. That's how the Fantasy Arcade idea was born. What could our product look like if we designed it the way we wanted, with no limitations?

Team overview
My Role

I led this initiative, while collaborating with our team to ensure we designed a program that would be beneficial to all team members. Eventually I put together the program's purpose and structure.

I've been leading workshops and design hackathons as part of this program and it's been an awesome journey to see what happens when we remove some of the barriers we sometimes have.

Team Members

All 9 members in our team, outlined below.

Timeline

The program was create in 2022 and took two months to establish.

Frequency

We aim to have the team members meet with their buddies 1 hour/week for a working session, and once every two months as a group.

Team overview

I led this initiative, while collaborating with our team to ensure we designed a program that would be beneficial to all team members. I put together the program's purpose and structure and I've been leading workshops and design hackathons as part of this program.

Team Members (for privacy reasons I'm using fake headshots)

Anya

Derek

Gabbie

Kyle

Rosie

Sarah

Stevie

Vince

Yiqi

Timeline

The program was create in 2022 and took two months to establish.

Frequency

We aim to have the team members meet with their buddies 1 hour/week for a working session, and once every two months as a group to showcase our projects.

Design tools used for this program

Figma

FigJam

ChatGPT

Midjourney

DALL-E

What goals should our team members have?

Exercise creativity

We want the team members to focus on the craft and explore new ways of designing. This is a good time to experiment so try new styles, patterns etc.

Push our limits

Think big. Think outside the box. Let's look at our competitors and companies outside our industry, such as the gaming world.

Few product/design constraints

Don't worry about the constraints we have in our day-to-day operations. Design like you have no limits.

Have fun

Most importantly, have fun. We want this program to inspire our team members and make them hungry to learn new things and try new ways of doing things.

What's the project scope?

Type of project

select a feature/page in our app to redesign.

Device

For this program we're focusing on mobile only.

Research

Research our competitors and other platforms in our industry and also outside our industry and create an inspiration board.

Design

Go wild with your creativity as we've described earlier.

Testing

Run your ideas by your design buddy and iterate based on your conversations.

Feedback

Every two months we'll meet as a group and have a Showcase, where each team member get to show their work.

Project Timeline

Every 4 months we'll assign a new feature/page to our team members.

How will this work?

You’ll work on your own project

Each team member will work on her/his own unique project.

Each team member will have a design buddy

Everyone will be paired up with a design buddy and they should be collaborating and helping each other.

Follow our work flow

This project is more focused on the UI rather than the UX. As a starting point let's look at the current UX flows and try to stick with those flows. However, if you discover any obvious UX improvements, feel free to incorporate those.

Every two months we’ll have a Fantasy Showcase

We'll meet as a group every couple of months to share our work and have a constructive conversation around these new ideas.

When can our team members work on this?

Lower priority

The day-to-day projects have higher priority than this project. Set aside dedicated time to work on this.

Frequency

We recommend that you schedule a 1-hour meeting/week with your design buddy and you can work together on your projects. You can also spend 1-2 hours/week working on this by yourself.

Find a rhythm that works for you

We're all different and work in different ways. So make sure that this program fits into your weekly rhythm.

Who are our design buddies?

This is an example of how we divided up our team for one session. For privacy reasons I'm using fake headshots.

How crazy can I go?

Update current design

Start with a feature or a page in our current mobile app.

Flows that already exists

Start with UX flows that exists in our mobile app and tweak them as needed to make them better.

Use any UI style you want

There are no limitations to how you decide to design the UI.

Design for our target audience

Keep in mind who our target audiences are, and make sure you put yourself in their shoes as you're creating your designs.

Follow our general business principles, goals and priorities

We want you to be aware of our business goals and priorities. This will make it easier for you to make educated design decisions.

Key takeaways

Collaboration and networking

By working closely with our buddies, we’ll get to know each other even more.

Increase product knowledge

This project gives us an opportunity to dive into our product and come up with forward thinking ideas.

Fan empathy and creativity

Even if these ideas won’t be developed, it’ll give us creative solutions to current pain points and we'll have the opportunity to better understand what our Users want.

Design Hackathon

I've hosted half-day design hackathons for our team as part of the Fantasy Arcade program. Below I've outlined what these hackathons look like.

Get ready for takeoff

Introduction (20 min)

Each team member will:

1
choose a feature to redesign (mobile only)
league cards
player page
team info page
league page
scoreboard
standings
player page (header)
2
be assigned a unique theme to incorporate into their designs
cyberpunk
70s pop culture
vikings
star wars
art deco
ancient greek art
Disney 50th
Research (60 min)

Each team member will:

1
conduct research based on their feature and theme
2
use AI tools to generate images/copy that match your theme
3
create an inspiration board with your research findings
Design buddy review (30 min)

Each team member will:

1
be paired up with their design buddy
2
review each other's research findings and share feedback
Break (10 min)
Grab water/coffee, get fresh air
Speed design (60 min)

Each team member will:

1
work independently to redesign their chosen feature
2
go crazy with their designs (no limitations)
3
incorporate their theme into the designs
4
work fast - this is a speed design exercise
Break (10 min)
Grab water/coffee, get fresh air
Showcase (45 min)

Each team member will:

1
share inspiration board and designs from the speed exercise
2
share constructive feedback

Results

Let's take a look at some AI generated content, inspiration boards and mocks that our team members created as part of this hackathon.
1
Examples of AI generated UX flows and content (ChatGPT)
2
Examples of AI generated images (DALL-E, Midjourney)
2
Theme specific examples of inspiration boards
Vikings
Ancient Greek Art
Art Deco
Cyberpunk
Disney 50
Star Wars
2
Theme specific examples of mocks
Player page
(viking theme)
League page
(cyberpunk theme)
Team info page
(ancient greek theme)
Player card
‍(Star Wars theme)
Scoreboard
‍(Disney 50th)
Team info page
(no specific theme)
2
Redesigns
A couple of examples of what this app could look like, from a Fantasy Arcade perspective
Homepage
(current)
Homepage
(Fantasy arcade redesign)
Team info page
(current)
Team info page
(Fantasy arcade redesign)

Conclusion

1
Gives our team an opportunity to enhance their craft and creativity
2
Have dedicated time to play around with different AI tools
3
Our team members seem to really enjoy this format
4
It's valuable to step away from day-to-day routines and do something different
5
This is a collaborative program that allows our team members to network, share constructive feedback both 1-on-1 and as a team

Conclusion

This is a collaborative program that allows our team members to network, share constructive feedback both 1-on-1 and as a team
It's valuable to step away from day-to-day routines and do something different
Gives our team an opportunity to enhance their craft and creativity
Have dedicated time to get more familiar with different AI tools
Allow ourselves to increase the User empathy
Our team members seem to really enjoy this format

Most of my professional career has evolved around designing impactful experiences for users and clients. There is nothing more satisfying than making a client and users surprisingly happy.

"It's better to be interested than interesting"

Mark Scharenbroich

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