Our First Prototype Design & Feedback

What was our first prototype?

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Our first prototype is two-fold: we created a visual representation of what our watch party experience might look like and we have built out an online community space in Discord for participants to explore. We built this prototype to solicit more tangible feedback on our away game watch party experience. As our stakeholders check out our Discord server and visualization of the watch party, we hope they will be able to suggest improvements and critiques that will help us to iterate further on our next prototype. We also created flyers advertising watch parties at different spots around campus and around Austin. We used these flyers to gauge feedback from our focus groups and see which spots interested them the most. 

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We also met with Drew Martin of UT Athletics and got valuable feedback from him about the possibility of the university hosting watch parties. He suggested that we gauge interest in a watch party at Republic Square downtown. According to Martin, this location is our best bet for allowing alcohol and food trucks because it is not directly on campus. He also said that it is his job to not only get UT students interested in UT athletics, but also the whole city of Austin, so this location would be a good opportunity to include the larger community. 

 

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Even though this project is for next football season, we decided to make these flyers advertising a watch party for the Longhorn’s next away game. Using these prototypes, we asked students which of these events they would be most likely to attend. We got feedback about the style of the flyers (#4 was voted most visually appealing), the location advertised and the activities or amenities participants were most interested in. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Feedback

 

In the first focus group, we talked to Ky Patel and Zach Tran and showed them the flyers we created. After seeing all of the flyers and explaining to the participants what each watch party would look like, they were most interested in the watch party at Republic Square and the one located at the South Mall by the Tower. The main driving factor for Republic Square was the ability to have alcohol, but they also appreciated the accessibility and proximity to campus of the South Mall location. Additionally, they liked the idea of a “Blues on the Green” atmosphere that picnicking on the slope of the South Mall would provide. 

 

“The post is really appealing to the eye and a watch party is definitely something I would go to.” -Zach Tran

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the second focus group, we talked to Perise Sasa Siaosi, Samantha Garza and Leo Cavazos. We asked them to rank the flyers based on aesthetics, location and where they expected the biggest crowd to be. For design, the group agreed that #1 seemed the most legitimate, but they also appreciated the low-key appearance of #2. Unlike the first focus group, they did not like the idea of having to travel off-campus for a watch party event. Even though Perise and Leo have cars, the difficulty of parking downtown was too big of a drawback. With this in mind, they voted that  #1 and #3 would have the most attendees. They expressed interest in getting to go on the field at DKR, even though there would be more restrictions about what they could bring inside. On the other hand, having a watch party on the South Mall would allow them to bring their own food if desired. Samantha said that there should be t-shirts at this event as well as carnival games (such as those on Bevo Boulevard). When asked what additional factors would make them more likely to attend, Samantha said that sandwich vendors, chips and fruit would contribute to the “picnic vibes.” They all agreed that music was a necessity. Leo suggested getting a DJ, while Perise (a former member of Longhorn Band) was interested in having a partial pep band perform.

 

“I feel like would go to this one (#2) because it looks like it was made for people of my age group.” - Leo Cavazos

 

“I really love the band. I like when they play music between plays, that makes it so fun.” - Samantha Garza.

 

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