Major League Baseball (MLB)
Product
Platform
Project Timeline
My Role
Team
Tools Used
Impact
OVERVIEW
Access archived games on MLB app
MLB At Bat app is home to team news, scores, and all things baseball. One of the app features is listening to past games. I helped update this experience to improve navigation and add easy access widget to the Android app.
goal
Improve the overall experience of listening to MLB archived games
Audio Archives allow users to listen to past games. To get to the page, you can find it next to the TV Archive icon in the nav. For the audios, users were able to choose the broadcast either by the team or language (Spanish or English).
There were a couple things our team pushed for:
• Update the audio player to have rewind/forward and a scrubber
• Add an indicator to what game is playing
• Update the date picker
• Add a widget to allows users to listen from their phone screen
Diving into user interactions on Android apps
The interactions I went with mainly follow Android native patterns. Following patterns allow users to register what to do. For instance, swiping left or right navigates users to the previous or next day. Tapping the calendar icon opens the date picker for selecting specific dates, and the archived audio displays the number of games. Selecting any archived game in the list reveals a broadcast list, allowing users to pick and listen to any audio. The audio player enables fast-forwarding or rewinding, and users can use the scrubber to pinpoint their preferred starting point.
Research
Learning android system to introduce home widgets
As someone who has primarily used Apple products, this marked my first venture into designing for Android. To familiarize myself, I conducted a thorough analysis of competitive widgets and studied relevant documentation, like this one.
My focus was on comprehending how to effectively resize widgets and determine the optimal amount of information for users. I began by creating Audio and News widgets for At Bat, aiming to showcase upcoming and current game information, scores, and news. Users have the flexibility to place these widgets on their home screens for a more customized experience.
While testing the Audio widget, during a game preview, the audio button is inactive, and game info takes the spotlight. In a live game scenario, the pause and stop buttons were active, synchronizing with a 15-second delay for real-time score updates. Users noticed this and to avoid potential outdated information due to delays, I refrained from adding details like base markers.
Outcome & Takeaway
Released updated audio archive to our android users
In redesigning the audio archive for the At Bat Android app and introducing a widget, the user experience improved. By integrating Android-native interactions, navigation became more intuitive, enabling users to effortlessly access archived games and swiftly select audio through the widget.
The implementation resulted in an increase in user engagement, evidenced by a 20% uptick in audio playback post-launch. The positive feedback really drives home how we've made things more accessible and functional. It just shows how crucial it is to make platform-specific design calls for optimal user satisfaction.
Ronni Thieman • 2025
Made in New York.