Grand Games Case Study

Project Challenge

Problem

Grand Park is a 12-acre park located in the civic center of Los Angeles, CA, and welcomes approximately 1 million visitors annually. How can we enhance the guest experience to encourage visitors to co-create the story of Grand Park so that they can have a slice of the park wherever they go?

Insight

LA locals are drawn to the opportunities and diversity the city has to offer. Grand Park is centered in Downtown Los Angeles but visitors primarily visit for events. Locals are looking for interesting experiences, "hidden gems", but don’t often have the time or energy to find them.

Solution

Inspired by the diverse cultures of Los Angeles, we propose facilitating moments of play and exploration around the tables, walkways and grassy areas of grand park.

Grand Park Los Angeles

Phase 1

LA PLAY

Explore and Play

Encouraging play at Grand Park and the exploration of Los Angeles cultures.

Vianey Garcia

UX Design and Research

Rachael Legge

UX Design and Research

My ROLE
Concept
Competitive Analysis
Secondary Research
Netnography

SME and User Interviews
Observation
Storyboards
Storytelling

Discussion with Stakeholders

"The content is L.A. content, the partners are L.A. partners, the voice and the spirit of everything we do is rooted in Los Angeles.”

_________________________ Julia Diamond

Insights

Grand Park has a wide reach, multiple uses, serves various audiences and needs to be available depending on the visitor’s intentions
Aims to be a central community feature and gathering place
Wants to encourage engagement and community ownership of the park that reaches to the rest of the county

Diaris Alexander

Executive Consultant and Strategic Advisor for Grand Park

Marc Tobia

Assistant Managing Director and Design Strategist at verynice

Julia Diamond

Director of Grand Park at the Music Center

Bonnie Goodman

Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communication for the Music Center

Martha Guzman

Marketing Manager at Grand Park

Oleah Olaguera

Marketing Coordinator for Grand Park

REsearch

Competitive Analysis

Insights

I found that visitors engage with areas that are multi-functional.
Attractions and facilities are important factors for drawing in visitors.
Repeat visitors create most of the traffic in public parks.

Secondary Research

I primarily focused on the future of parks, what brings people to parks, placemaking and public art.

Insights

Technology and digital spaces allow for people to take ownership of public parks. Encouraging engagement and supplementing the park’s features.
Access to parks is limited for some communities, especially BIPOC. ⅓ of people don’t have access.
I learned that by allowing local residents to use and run programs in underutilized public spaces, gives the residents a sense of ownership within the space.

Netnography

Netnography research helped us understand why Los Angeles locals, former residents and tourists love L.A.
‍
Reddit was the most valuable resource because it gave us direct access to our users. We recruited our user interviews by direct messaging some of the respondents.

Insights

People appreciate the cultural diversity and availability of food, activities and interesting groups of people.
Locals feel acceptance and appreciate the opportunity L.A. offers.
People connect over iconography, sports teams and common knowledge of the area.

Who are our users?

We wanted to better understand the patterns we found in our users.

Why did they have pride in Los Angeles?
How they showed it?
What they did they do with that pride?

L.A. Fan Profiles

Types of L.A. Superfans:

L.A. Transplants
L.A. Sports Fans
Foodies
Urban Adventures
Tourists

Many fans were in multiple categories

Talking to Users

The L.A. locals we talked to were influenced by how they grew up and appreciated the variety of experiences the city offers. Generally for all of our interviewers the were appreciative of LA’s diversity and how much there is to do here.

Insights

Users are looking for unique “hidden gem” experiences that can share with others.
Users loved the culture & diversity that Los Angeles had to offer.
LA locals want a reason to explore Grand Park outside of events.

“You're going to a park to escape, right? I know that's hard in Los Angeles but that's why we have these areas, to experience space.”

Caroline, 32

L.A. Lifestyle Blogger
Influencer

“The cost of living here sucks. Let me just leave it at that. But what makes it worth it is the culture and the diversity, everybody that's here”

Nhan, 28

E-Commerce Manager

"Unless you actually lived here, you can't really experience LA, for what LA is."

Frankie, 32

I.T.

What we noticed

1

The park has a lot of visible interactive features that are underutilized by visitors.

2

People create their own space at the park my moving the chairs or with lawn activities.

3

Grand Park values the diverse makeup of Los Angeles. Celebrates diversity in many of its features.

4

The pink tables and chairs are a frequent touchpoint that is underutilized after the lunch rush.

Prototype

Version 1: App

An app that invites users to scan any of the Grand Park totems to explore the cultures that make up L.A.

Scan to choose language

Explore the culture

‍

Find where to play

Learn how to play

Try the XD Prototype

Designed by Rachael

Storyboard

A passerby that has an eye out for L.A.’s hidden gems is invited to play games and explore other cultures.

1. “If you’re bored in LA, you’re boring. LA has so much to offer.”

2. "I would love to explore LA's diversity it's what makes us special."

3. "Oh cool, let me check this out!"

4. “I’ve always found Japanese culture so fascinating.”

5. "Great! I can try this activity out on the first block of Grand Park?"

6. “I’m excited to explore Little Tokyo and try the food they are famous for!”

LA Play Storyboard 1
Created by Vianey

Feedback

“Is the solution an app?”
‍Apps have a lot of upkeep. We were challenged to think about this concept in its simplest form.
‍
“Keep the story within the park space.”
‍More focus on what users do in the park.

What I learned

I think version 1 focuses too heavily on how to invite users to play rather than what they are playing. This made it difficult for us to imagine ways to get people to wander into the park.

Version 2: Table Magnets

Create moments of play on the pink metal tables with LA PLAY magnets. Games are inspired by the cultures that make up Los Angeles.

Storyboard

Park visitors are intrigued by table top and play a game together. They share the game on social media and discover the cultural neighborhood that inspired the game.

Stakeholder Feedback

How might we invite community partnership in game curation?
‍
How can you co-create with those communities?
Important to co-create as to not make an assumption about the games they want to play.
‍
Game sourcing and accessibility across languages
Can they use easy images and reduce need to read a lot of text to make it easier for audiences?

Would the magnets be in danger of being taken by a park-goer?
‍
Are the games site specific?
‍
Are these games intended for various ages and physical abilities?

Look Into

Partnerships
‍Cultural Centers
Local game stores
Game manufacturers
Indiecade
‍
Future game nights

Reflection

What Worked?

The storyboards were helpful for conceptualizing the design and understanding how to make it digestible for users to understand. It was the fastest way for us to garner feedback from users and hear their interpretation of our prototype.
Rachael was a great teammate! Our work styles complimented each other well in how we worked and what our strengths were.

What didn't?

The app concept that scanned the totem to search for cultural hubs didn’t work. It led people out of Grand Park instead of into it to explore. In hindsight, I would imagine that users wouldn’t engage. Our target user is on the lookout for “hidden gems” with minimal effort.

What will I do next time?

Focus more on the game content. How will it be sourced? What type of games? What are the best ways to encourage people to play?
‍
User test a physical prototype with a person. Most of our storyboard feedback was written. In person there is better opportunity for follow up questions.

LA PLAY was one of the 5 of 13 ideas chosen to move to phase 2!
Our new name is GRAND GAMES

Phase 2

GRAND GAMES