Homerun MLB: Catch & Collect

Research Plan

 

Our project is an app that provides users card collecting/scavenger-hunt-esque experiences. Within this app, like Pokémon Go (but with an age-neutral UI), people can locate collectable cards in their town or scan special QR codes to receive cards. Each card would have a unique number, meaning the user can only have one copy of that card.

 

The focus is the experience of obtaining cards. The goals for the users are having souvenirs from their favorite stadiums, learning baseball history, and gaining pride in MLB.

 

1. Background:

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We want to understand why people collect baseball cards and what encourages people to trade, buy, and sell cards, along with going out and seeking collectibles. It is important to uncover this research so we can assess how to get all ages and genders involved. Pain Points might include baseball being a very male centric sport where women might not feel engaged with current UIs or local baseball locations if they are going out and collecting.

 

2. Research objectives:

 

Our research objectives are:

• To discover motivations behind collectibles.

• To learn about pain points in current object collecting platforms.

• To determine which features of the product are frequently used.

• To evaluate what encourages people to stay on a platform and engage.

• To remove unnecessary tasks for the users.

 

3. Methodology:

 

For the capstone project, we are mainly using evaluative and behavioral methodology. Evaluative methodology shows what product people are using and how it is functioning for them. Additionally, some behavioral methodology will assess how people go about collecting cards and trading.

 

4. Metrics:

 

We will measure success by asking users through surveys and doing user testing to ensure our app is enjoyed by various people.

 

5. Task time:

 

The users will have 5-10 minutes to collect a card and 30-60 minutes of total engagement when reading info, trading, and exploring other features in the MLB app.

 

6. Task level satisfaction:

 

We will know people are satisfied when there is constant engagement going on in the platform even when there is no game happening that day. The users can add friends, trade cards, look at their collection, and collect cards out and about.

 

7. Participants:

 

Target users are people interested in MLB and are looking for ways to engage with the community and be able to collect objects. They can be young teenagers / kids / women who are not interested in MLB but we want them to take interest.

 

8. Anticipated timeline:

 

The anticipated timeline is 4 weeks.

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9. Inclusion and Accessibility Considerations:

 

The inclusion and accessibility considerations we will address in our research are:

• Lens of audio - To turn on voice command.

• Lens of font - To keep the app user friendly. Readable font is considered to account for dyslexia and other difficulties with seeing and reading.

• Lens of color- the power of colors is lost when a user can’t see them or perceives them differently.

• Lens of Layout- The layout should be resizable and flexible to a minimum of 320 pixels with no horizontal scroll bars so that it can be viewed comfortably on a phone, also a screen magnifier can be added to zoom into when trying to view the cards in detail.