ONCE UPON A TIME...

ESC Games was created to bring large crowds of people together for interactive multiplayer experiences.

The early approach was custom-made theaters at events, but that wasn't feasible financially. So, the business pivoted to a software platform direction during late 2017.

After a restructuring of the company, including the hiring of a new CEO, CTO, and Head of Product, the team was ready to make some software in 2018.

On a chilly fall day that year, I met with the ESC Games team to begin a freelance contract to design and help them build an app for hosting games on Mac and Windows.

MY ROLE

Design strategy, methods, and tools

Executed end-to-end product design

CTO, Head of Product, Front-end Lead

Created a design system in Figma

Inspire, educate, and be inclusive with design

CONTRIBUTORS

Biz Dev, Game Design, Marketing, CEO

OUTCOMES

From intitial proof of concept to open Beta release in 3 months with efficient and measured process

Hosted games at NCAA basketball events held at the Prudential Center, and 35+ games at the ballpark of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs

THE OBJECTIVE WAS TWOFOLD

Design, build, and ship Mac/Windows app for venues of all sizes, from sports stadiums to sports bars, to host interactive multiplayer games on their existing screens that thousands that people can play using their phone.

Establish design strategy and implement process and tools needed to execute this with a customer-first, scalable, and measured approach. Also, actively help others do the same as they solve problems too.

STEP ONE: DISCOVER EVERYTHING POSSIBLE

Who is this product for, why do they need it, and what are the business opportunities here? Are there any major challenges to success?

STEP TWO: DEFINE THE POSSIBILITIES

What functionality and content does the app need? What should the architecture and hierarchy be? How does it scale?

Information architecture and user flows help to bring order, logic, and structure to an endless amount of "what if?" and "what could be," and is a useful tool for helping everyone on the team understand how the app works and is structured under the hood.

STEP THREE: REFINE THE DEFINITION, TEST ASSUMPTIONS

How does each view and step of the app work? What should it look and feel like to use? How do we test and get feedback all the time?