WE LEARNED —

Putting the fan experience at the forefront means making it simple, making it fun, and making it safe for everyone to connect over the shared love of a great game.

"Thanks to the innovative work from Pattern, Lucra is now the easiest and most accessible sports wagering platform in the app store."

Dylan Robbins
Founder and CEO
Lucra Sports

THE ASK —

With a stealth MVP in the wild and a huge opportunity to own peer-to-peer contests in the sports wagering space, Lucra engaged us to help them level up their brand identity, clarify their story and their differentiators, and design a killer product that seamlessly scales from iOS and Android to the web. We decided to accept the challenge.

From the very beginning we worked hard to become a part of the Lucra team. Their team had already been working very closely for over a year to develop the initial prototype and we needed to be able to fit in and get going quickly, like jumping into a car already moving. We Tom Cruise’d it. All aboard, we set out collectively to disassemble and redefine not only the entire app experience, but the brand identity itself. Who and what is Lucra in the Sports Wagering space? That question would be defined first in several intensive discovery working sessions and a complete identity overhaul.

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OUR APPROACH —

Our discovery sessions engaged the client team extensively with lots of questions as we usually do, but this time we also invited client participation in early mood board and competitive research exercises where everyone was prompted to comment, vote and share ideas in working sessions. Brainstorming was happening interactively, and in many cases, real-time with the entire client team. We were all in this together from day one and every comment and idea was potential gold. This process allowed us to come together early on as one team and very quickly get to ideas and concepts that would set Lucra apart from the competition and offer a truly unique experience.

This way of working together led seamlessly into iterations on a new logo and brand stamp, color and typography explorations, and even initial app concept designs to test the color options, logo concepts, type systems and photography directions we were considering. We were essentially designing micro-experiences for each concept that would allow us to see very quickly how a direction could come to life, this also gave us something to test with and get solid feedback on early in the process. It was also a great place to start testing new ideas and concepts around user interactions for the actual app. It was a very productive playground where we were able to create an entirely new sports wagering app with a unique spin on the way you wager, and then push that into a full blown social experience unlike anything happening in the space today.

After several rounds of iteration, external and internal testing, we settled on a concept for the branding refresh and started the process of finalizing and extending the new brand style into a system that could be easily used going forward by the UI/UX team, the dev team, as well as the client in their presentations. No one was left waiting. UI/UX was able to dive into the wire framing phase with a rapid transition to actual design comps, dev was able to begin building the initial framework and style guide, and the client had what they needed to start showing their investors what the app was going to do at a high level.

OUR APPROACH —

We explored and developed unique user experience ideas and functionality around everything from adding funds, to countering contests, chat and messaging, head-to-head stats, visualizing your wins and loses, and much more. Perhaps the most important functionality in the app was creating a contest. It had to be quick, clear and easy since the entire app revolves around this core functionality. Users needed to understand the contest they are creating and feel confident about it. We created a unique way of using statements to help clearly define what your contest is to you and the friends and community you are challenging. In this way, we not only turned what would normally be a numbers based interaction into an actual statement, but we also removed confusion and added humanity to the digital wagering experience. In the same way you might send a friend a text wagering them on a particular sport, you now can create a real wager through Lucra and smack talk them all the same.

Another unique UX hurdle was in incorporating the ability to create contests between different sports. Other sports wagering apps only allow for single sport contests. This was a completely new feature for the market. How do you clearly communicate which sports can be paired up and which stats will work together in a contest. The create a contest flow we designed provided that clarity and created a system in which only sports and stats that work together would be shown without breaking the experience. By only allowing one side of the contest to be created at a time, we were able to control the variables and limitations without affecting the user flow.

In addition to the above features and functionality, we also incorporated various ways of interacting with all of the information and sections within the app—swiping into your profile, toggling into different contest states, swiping to set the spread, and more. One especially unique interaction to call out is the “Tinder” style contest cards the user can swipe left to pass on and swipe right to view/ accept. The cards stack and feature fun animations as you interact with them. This will be a phase 2 future state implemented in the next release. Part of the ask was to set Lucra up for success with new features and functionality beyond what was required for the initial release of the app. In the end we ended up touching just about every aspect of the new brand from digital to print. In addition to the new logo, brand system and app design, we also extended the new brand to a website, print materials, presentation deck template, apparel and finally a fully realized brand book.

HIGHLIGHTS —

In the end we ended up touching just about every aspect of the new brand from digital to print. In addition to the new logo, brand system and app design, we also extended the new brand to a website, print materials, presentation deck template, apparel and finally a fully realized brand book.

Speed was key on this project due to a very tight timeline for Apple submission and Football season was approaching. Defining the new brand system, style guide and global components early on allowed us to move even faster than normal, giving design and UX everything needed to tackle multiple areas of the app simultaneously. Versus throwing everything over the fence to dev at the end, we were able to work closely with dev to get them key components and functionality right when they needed them.

This highly collaborative process was key in meeting our deadlines. Functioning as a seamless extension of the Lucra team allowed us to design, iterate, prototype and test extremely quickly and produce not only a unique experience for the app, but a cohesive and vibrant brand in all channels everyone can be proud of.

Brand Identity & Brand System
Product Design & Brand Application
UX & UI App Design for iOS
UX & UI Web Design
Motion Design
Print Design
Apparel Design

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