Nike Golf 360
The NG360 app inspires, motivates and enables golfers to improve their game through a variety of digital tools available on any iOS mobile device. The app provides score and stat tracking, Nike+ friend leaderboards, swing analysis and gear recommendations.
Users can share customized photos, analyze slow-motion swing videos from Nike athletes Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, and see how they stack up against friends and Nike Golf athletes with new Levels and Comparisons tools.
Contributions
My role: Digital Product Lead.
As the sole Nike Golf employee completely focused on the day-to-day operation of the app from the brand side, my duties included gathering feedback from users, triaging issues with the app, and communicating with our digital agency on a daily basis monitoring the performance and design of the app.
Story
Beginning on the Nike Golf Global Digital Brand Marketing team as a data analyst, I was an integral contributor; eventually becoming the Digital Product Lead. Responsibilities involved sitting in on design meetings with our digital agency Blast Radius, providing daily reports to our leadership team and participating in strategy meetings on global calls as we took the app to new regions in North America and Western Europe.
Managing a team of 4 to expand NG360 to include all golf courses in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Sweden and France, my input lead to numerous innovations including photo and social sharing, accurate course descriptions and layouts and improved interactions within the app.
Development
As the first game-improvment app created by a leading golf equipment and apparel brand, it was exciting to do something that had never before been done.
Nike Golf wanted to be closer to their consumers than any other brand by way of connecting and motivating golfers, enabling them to reach their full potential on the course.
With the idea that you can't improve what you can't track, NG360 allows golfers to input their accuracy and scores on the course and serves up tips on how to adjust their swing and equipment to improve their game. With features including Nike branded data visualization and golf-specific workouts courtesy of the Gray Institute, golfers were able to reach heights like never before.
Design
From a design standpoint, the idea of golfers as athletes was communicated from start to finish and was accomplished through striking Nike branding and sport-specific design cues.
Over the course of my year working on the app, we transitioned from the early iOS design (rich glossy textures and skeuomorphic UI) to the flatter design of iOS 7 (flatter graphics, colorful gradients, and a lot of sliding transparent panes) as well as highlighting a new product: the Nike VR_S Covert Driver, via vibrant red and black branding.
My experience working on this team allowed me to grow in a few ways:
Learn how to work cross-functionally, communicating with Global Brand, Digital Tech, Global Brand Marketing and Nike Digital.
Dealing with a disturbance on Day 1 on launching version 2.0 of the app where 10% of users were experiencing the app crashing.
Inspired me to pursue a career creating and designing services, tools and communities in the digital world.
