Designing an interactive widget experience for sports fans
Pickup is a digital sports engagement tool, essentially a widget that publishers and sports media platforms embed in articles or pages. It lets users make quick, interactive picks (predictions) on sports events
Will Aaron Rodgers win his 5th MVP?
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Problem
As Pickup shifted its business model from B2C to B2B, the widget needed to better serve sports organizations and media partners by clearly delivering value, integrating smoothly into their platforms, and capturing user interest without friction. The challenge was to modernize the experience and rethink the picking flow so it remained fast and intuitive for sports fans while supporting partner goals around engagement, data capture, and credibility, without adding unnecessary complexity at an early stage.
Timeline
3 months
Services
Strategy
Visual Design
User testing
Team
2 Stakeholders
1 Project Manager
1 Designers
Role
Sr. UX/UI Designer
Goals
The goal of the Picker redesign was to improve engagement and lead generation while aligning the experience with Pickup’s shift to a B2B model. This meant increasing first-time interaction by making the act of picking faster and easier, encouraging sign-ups by introducing a clear and low-friction moment to capture user phone.
Increase user engagement by making the first interaction with the Picker fast, simple, and intuitive.
Reduce multiple actions into a single, clear picking flow
Simplify tasks that were previously hard or confusing to complete.
Help users feel informed and guided rather than uncertain or confused
Move users from repeatedly verifying picks to staying logged in after signing up
Improve the overall user interface and aesthetics
Outcome
By simplifying the picking flow and gating results behind phone verification, the redesigned Picker improved both engagement and lead generation while aligning better with partner business goals.
+33%
Conversion from picks to phone sign-ups
Early data showed a significant increase in users entering their phone number after making a pick once results were revealed only after verification.
+21%
First-time user completion rate
A clearer, single-action flow helped more users complete their first pick without confusion or drop-off.
Product strategy and discovery
This phase focused on aligning user needs, business goals, and partner requirements after Pickup’s shift to a B2B model. Through a series of meetings and workshops, we discussed how sports fans interacted with the Picker in real content environments and how the existing flow was negatively impacting engagement and the overall experience. These conversations helped surface key pain points and business constraints, after which stakeholders and the project manager consolidated the insights into clear user requirements, goals, and a new information architecture that defined priorities and guided all subsequent design decisions.
Product alignment and vision
The vision was to transform the Picker into a fast, intuitive, and partner-branded experience that fits naturally into sports content while delivering measurable value. A key requirement was flexibility, allowing the widget to be customized for each sports partner, such as adapting colors, typography, and visual style to match brands like NASCAR or individual teams.
Product requirement docs and new information architecture
Gamification
One of the key requirements of the project was the idea of gamification. The product was not meant to be limited to making picks and entering a phone number, but to evolve into a game system where users could earn points, track progress, and exchange those points for prizes and awards.
Prioritizing ideas and functionalities
We started by exploring early gamification concepts and defining the core system behind them, including points, rewards, and progression. These ideas were translated into interface explorations that showed how users would see their points, rewards, and game status within the Picker, helping stakeholders evaluate the concept and plan future iterations.
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Gamification idea for default pickup widget
Gamification UI for partners like Nascar and Fanatics
Designing the final UI and flow
The gamification flow and UI were very well received by stakeholders and seen as a hook for user engagement. The idea was to create a fun, playful, and entertaining experience that encouraged repeat interaction. However, after some reviews, the client decided to pause this feature since it would be costly and time consuming at that stage.
Instead, the client opted for a simpler version of the product. The new flow focused on letting users pick a side or predict a winner, and to reveal the results, users were asked to enter their phone number. We then moved forward with designing this streamlined flow and the supporting screens.
Pickup widget main page
The widget home page was designed to focus on a single, clear action: picking a team or side. These picks could be future predictions, head to head matchups, or direct game outcomes, making the experience simple, fast, and easy to understand for users.
Different Picker play options
Will Aaron Rodgers win his 5th MVP?
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
IT’S HAPPENING
NOT THIS YEAR
Make your pick &
win $500 to Fanatics
ATLANTA FALCONS
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
Who will win the NFC east final?
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
Make your pick &
win $500 to Fanatics
ATLANTA FALCONS
BALTIMORE RAVENS
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
DALLAS COWBOYS
Who Will Win The NFC East 2023?
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
Make your pick &
win $500 to Fanatics
COWBOYS
EAGLES
P
Who will win the NFC east final?
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
Make your pick &
win $500 to Fanatics
ELLIOT
BLANEY
O/U: 4.5 Sacks for Justin Houston in '22-23?
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
Make your pick &
win $500 to Fanatics
Enter phone and signup pages
The signup flow was intentionally simple. Users only needed to enter their phone number to unlock the picker results and become eligible for partner rewards.
Different Picker play options
ENTER YOUR PHONE NUMBER &
win $500 to Fanatics
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
62%
DALLAS COWBOYS
15%
ATLANTA FALCONS
12%
BALTIMORE RAVENS
11%
Who Will Win The NFC East 2023?
Signup to see pick results and prizes
👇
+1
(909) 3527 324
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
ENTER YOUR PHONE NUMBER &
win $500 to Fanatics
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
62%
DALLAS COWBOYS
15%
ATLANTA FALCONS
12%
BALTIMORE RAVENS
11%
Who Will Win The NFC East 2023?
Signup to see pick results and prizes
👇
+1
(909) 3527 324
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
ENTER YOUR PHONE NUMBER &
win $500 to Fanatics
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
62%
DALLAS COWBOYS
15%
ATLANTA FALCONS
12%
BALTIMORE RAVENS
11%
Who Will Win The NFC East 2023?
Signup to see pick results and prizes
👇
- - - - - -
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
Didn't get the code? Click to Resend it
Enter the code sent within 2 mins. to verify your Pick.
ENTER YOUR PHONE NUMBER &
win $500 to Fanatics
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
62%
DALLAS COWBOYS
15%
ATLANTA FALCONS
12%
BALTIMORE RAVENS
11%
Who Will Win The NFC East 2023?
Signup to see pick results and prizes
👇
6 3 2 1 7 3
Terms & Conditions
Learn More
Didn't get the code? Click to Resend it
Enter the code sent within 2 mins. to verify your Pick.
Results Page
On the results page, after signing up, users could see the voting percentages for each option, showing how other users had voted and adding context and feedback to their pick.
Key Takeaways
Gamification showed strong potential as a powerful hook for user engagement, but budget and time constraints were clear priorities. As a result, we focused on designing a simple yet effective widget, both in terms of UI and functionality. After running internal tests with the team, stakeholders, and partners, the new flow and design were well received, allowing developers to move into implementation right away.
A few weeks after launch, the Pickup team shared positive feedback, reporting an increase in both picker usage and overall user engagement.
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