RYDER CUP
360° course explorer
The Ryder Cup 360° Course Explorer allowed fans to experience the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National like never before. In the first partnership with Google of its kind, our team captured over 4,300 panoramic photos allowing fans to explore the entire golf course, clubhouse, practice range with a full 360-degree view. Fans could “walk” to the exact spots on the tee, fairway, bunkers and greens where the Ryder Cup competitors set out to take down the other team. The experience was available for mobile, in the official Ryder Cup suite of apps and on desktop computers. A slim down version is also available on Google Cardboard VR.
Turner Sports TEAM in partnership
with the PGA of America
Creative Director: Randy D.
UX Lead: Luther Lotz
Design Director: Molly G.
Product Designer: Katie G.
Product Manager: Rob S.
Development: UbiLabs (Berlin)
Goal
We wanted to give the fans who could not attend the event a new immersive experience to get them closer to the course and the players. We knew about the technology Google had available to experiment with and we had a development partner that had experience with alternative google street view projects. Getting this experiment to market, some would say, was the biggest goal of all. Now all we needed was course data, relevant live video data, an interface that was enjoyable and the proper platforms to distribute this new type of experience for these exuberant fans.
My Role
I was brought in to bring structure to an idea that was loosely there. To formulate and poke holes in the assumptions and theories we had, and design a world class experience around it. A desktop approach was mandatory, but the mobile versions (for app and mobile web) were just as important to the fan base as these users typically switch from desktop views at work, to mobile views on the weekends. I prototyped and tested some ideas for validation and worked with our in-house design team and development partner in Germany. There was some coordination with our Official Ryder Cup app developer in Atlanta and the PGA web dev team as well to make sure everything linked up.
Ideation
As stated initially, this was our first venture into a modified google street view experience. A first for any major sporting event of its kind actually. There were some alternate street view experiences out there, and we certainly reviewed them, but we needed to make this more centered around a current event and not just a location. Most importantly it had to be relevant to golf fans. As we went down the path to discover new ways to get fans on the course virtually, many ideas were explored. From LIVE data overlays to telling the story for the country the fan were following (USA v. Europe). Inserting Live video and player comparisons were iterated on as well. Everything was explored on the whiteboards first with the team.
WHITEBOARDING
Discovery unfolds on the walls at Turner Sports
Wireframes
Annotated mobile and desktop wire frames were worked through with stakeholders reviewing at multiple stages. Those wire frames became clickable wires with Axure to help the development team in Germany to see how the interactions were to take place.
Challenges
After white boarding ideas, creating wireframes, building prototypes and building out the framework we came into some snags. We had delays with the streetview data from Google and started to get nervous we might have to scrap the project in the 11th hour. Thankfully the stars aligned and the project was launched.
Additional features of the experience were still on the drawing board, but time and budget restraints won out and they didn’t make this first version. We did find solace in the back of our minds as we knew we wanted to create these 360 course experiences for other upcoming golf championships we covered. If we couldn’t get it in this time for our experiment, there was (fingers crossed) another opportunity in the next 8-10 months. Thankfully another chance to improve this came with the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow and we were able to add in the ability to view our live coverage and some design tweaks. Unfortunately our live data overlays, integrated Live VR features and player comparisons missed the cut due to problems our of our control.
Results
Despite a few bumps in the road getting to market, the Ryder Cup 360° Course Explorer experiment was a hit with fans and commentators alike. The press enjoyed this new approach as well. We had over 150,000 fans spending an average of 10 minutes each in our experience. In the end this interactive tour featured custom elevation graphs for every hole, integrated video highlights, historical course moments and a fully responsive design which was key for a seemless integration in our mobile apps.
