01 refine designs
After organizing and reviewing, I wanted to adopt elements that I believed were successful in the existing creative. I did not want to make a complete departure from what was already live and instead work in tandem with what we had so that it remained identifiable to users. Attempting to produce a more polished and enhanced version of what they had already seen. Having a play with the layouts, we wanted to make sure that text and elements were the same across all assets to ensure creative was cohesive and clean. This also meant making a conscious effort to make sure JB’s photography was up to par with neater masking and similar color grading. Casino game art needed to be high quality and engaging, preferably downloaded directly from partner websites. Pushing league and team logos when possible was of the utmost importance as it added an extra layer to sports creative. Seeing an official league lockup can help instill confidence in users and of course flaunt Caesar’s exclusive partnerships.
02 Differentiate SB vs iCasino
There was no clear divide between the two as they are separate entities. While there is some user overlap, most customers are either utilizing Sportsbook or iCasino but usually not both. We needed to show quick designation so users could place bets and waste less time scrolling. I wanted to appeal to SB and Casino’s separate strengths and characteristics to create excitement and range within the app. So we focused on three things for each vertical: color, layout and imagery. Once this was nailed down I was able to start building the templates and hone in on more specific details.
03 template creation
The design schedule for retention is tight. Anywhere between 5-15 offers for Sportsbook and iCasino are needed everyday. Keeping this in mind, I remained realistic about what would be easy to plug and play everyday while still appealing to Users’ attention and need for excitement. Many JB photos and casino games were being re-used over and over; while popular, the selection was growing stale. I noted the importance of producing diverse imagery as the possibility of two similar offers being featured side by side in the app would be inevitable. To avoid these issues in the future, I employed a few tactics:
04 building internal communication
As a product and graphic designer, I recognized the importance of building a relationship with the product team to talk through their plans for future cycles and updates. I felt it was important to make sure we’re all on the same page regarding what is showing up in app, what info is being communicated, and how best to serve/inform the user. I also made great strides in improving communication with project stakeholders and the publishing team. With my lead, I was able to better organize the project submission process and open up a dialogue for new problems and needs that we could focus on in the future. Through my initial communication with publishing , I wanted to decipher where the existing sizes lived. There was some confusion within the creative team and I wanted to make sure we were designing with envrionment in mind. During this period, publishing also eliminated obsolete sizes that would not need to our attention. Reducing our deliverables to 4 sizes per offer. With close collaboration between myself and my Art Director, we created a new template that we believed to be much more successful. And after a short while, Product was able to start introducing autopopulated overlays based on our designs that would improve app functionality.
