Design Process
Sr. Product Designer, worked with cross functional teams (Product, Engineering, and Data), conducted interviews with users (NHL teams & sponsors), and maintained Trajektory's design system.
Research & discovery
Design
Refine & deliver
Project overview
In 2022, the NHL introduced a groundbreaking sponsorship innovation: Digitally Enhanced Dashboard = (DEDs). These replaced traditional in stadium dashboard ads with dynamic digital ads during live broadcasts, creating new opportunities for advertisers and presenting NHL teams with a revolutionary way to monetize sponsorships.
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While the DEDs unlocked immense potential, they also introduced complexities in tracking, measuring, and reporting on their performance.The NHL teams and sponsors wanted data visualization to help them understand the performance of their new DED sponsorship. So that they can optimize strategies, measure ROI, and make data-driven decisions to strengthen their league partnership.
Research & Discovery
Before jumping into the design phrase, understanding our users would help me craft the design solution. In my research with NHL teams, I've focused on:
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What does NHL teams and sponsors want out of a DED dashboard?
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Any frustrations on their current tracking method?
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What is their data needs?
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Key findings
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NHL teams and sponsors were care most about understanding the tangible value the digital boards deliver, specifically, how much visibility, audience reach, and brand impact each asset generates compared to its costs.
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They were struggled to quantify the value of DEDs, as traditional methods feel short of capturing the nuances of digital sponsorship.
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They were looking for viewership impact, sponsor engagement, and return on investment (ROI).
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Data visualizations and dashboards drive business insights and decision-making. However, if display the wrong type of data or in the wrong chart format, the information will not be clear enough to act on.
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In this project, with DED as our primary focus, I organized the data around key Sponsorship Media Valuation (SMV) metrics—specifically exposure rate and audience size. Based on the findings and available data, I refined and prioritized the dataset from most to least important. After presenting my analysis and recommendations to internal stakeholders and users, we finalized the following list:
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Number of unique DED appearances across all broadcasts
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Duration (sec) brand is visible on camera
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Mean length of each brand exposure
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Number of feeds (national, regional, international) showing on DED
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Estimated $ value of total brand exposure
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Design
The design approach would focused on answering three key questions:
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How much exposure did the brand receive across all broadcasts and feeds?
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How effectively did each exposure capture on-screen time and audience attention?
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What total media and business value did those DED exposures deliver for the investment?
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Keeping these high-level questions in mind, I focused on a few different chart types that captured the information NHL teams and sponsors needed to make decisions:
Early design mockups
Prototype testing
Before handing off a design, I like to run quick user tests when possible to gather feedback. I’ve learned that what seems like a great idea to the team might not always align with how users actually think or behave. I shared the different options to our users.
Takeaways
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It was difficult to determine which zone and broadcast type a particular valuation belonged to.
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NHL teams expressed interest in seeing more detailed value and exposure metrics for their top partners.
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Some users prefer viewing partner value and exposure in a bar chart, while others favored a table format.
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Both teams and sponsors wanted the ability to review past game DED sponsor performance alongside the associated partners.
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Final Design
Partner filters were added to enable sponsors to quickly assess brand performance
Added game names, as users tend to remember names more easily than dates.
To accommodate different user preferences, an option was added to switch between bar chart and table formats.
Zone labels and tabs were added, making it easy for users to switch between zones and view corresponding values.
The top 20 partners were highlighted to showcase the highest-performing brands.
Glossary- Zone Packages
Launched on Oct, 2023
Reflection
This was my first project in the sports sponsorship space, and there were many learning opportunities along the way. DED was newly introduced, I had just joined the company, and we faced a tight deadline to launch before the start of the 2023 NHL season.
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I took the initiative to learn about the space by collaborating closely with our internal team and engaging directly with NHL teams to understand how DED works. Through this process, I built strong relationships with both internal stakeholders and clients. As a result, we successfully launched the DED dashboard in October 2023. Being one of the few platforms with a DED dashboard, this launch helped the company secure five new clients in the same month.