How might we improve the customer journey to a Dallas Mavs game at the American Airlines Center?

The Dallas Mavericks

The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They compete in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was founded in 1980 and has since then established a strong reputation in the league, winning their first NBA championship in 2011. The Mavericks have a dedicated fan base, and their home games are played at the American Airlines Center, which has a capacity of over 20,000 seats. The team is known for their high-scoring offense and innovative playing style, which has been shaped by some of the greatest coaches and players in NBA history, including Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, and Rick Carlisle.

Overview

Throughout the project our team of design researchers embarked on a journey to understand the Dallas Mavericks game-goer experience. The team was given the opportunity to attend several home games, which allowed us to intentionally immerse in the game experience and observe guest behavior first-hand. In addition to gathering detailed observations, the team conducted in-depth interviews with attendees and verbally surveyed guests on site.

Expanding the experience.

  • Understand it.

    Our research was grounded in interaction and observation. Secondary research was utilized to understand the perspective of sports fans and the type of experiences that keep people engaged. Part of our primary research was used to understand the moments of joy and the pain-points related to the experience of attending a Dallas Mavericks game.

  • Plan it.

    Our team had several sessions of refinement on our research with the client. Each after conducting primary research together we re-framed our initial research question to funnel it to a viable prototype. Planning was the most intensive part of the experience as our visits to the space throughout our research helped to mold what our prototype would try to test.

  • Prototype it.

    Our team decided to activate the space between Victory station and American Airlines. We coordinated with the Mavs marketing department to deploy social media promoting DART riding. Our team designed way finding elements for the space, interactive displays, and coordinated DART employees to hand out vouchers to use inside as part of the activation.

Solution

During our process our team observed from field research and interviews that walking out of the DART to the AAC was a less stressful experience for game goers during our activation. People who arrive by DART may have an overall less stressful and more enjoyable game-day experience than their car-driving counterparts. We aimed to design our prototype for Dallas locals who may be amenable to taking the DART when they haven’t considered it previously and rewarding the behavior of guests who were already taking the DART to Mavs games.