ESPN Tournament Challenge

2X User Engagement:
App Store Redesign for
#1 Bracket Game

Rosie Way
5.5 min read
🚀
Status
Shipped in Jan 2024
🗓️
Timeline
Nov 2023 - Jan 2024
🤖
Platform
Mobile App (iOS & Android)
🧰
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop

Impact at a Glance

2X

increase in user engagement

~50%

design time saved for the team

6+

designers upskilled
in Figma variables

Challenge

User feedback rolled in 🏀 The ESPN Tournament Challenge App Store wasn’t showing new features clearly, and some even thought the app was no longer active. To make things trickier, there was no centralized design system built for TC. That meant our refresh wasn’t just a visual facelift. It became a full-on systems project under a tight four-week timeline.

Solution

I led the design revamp for TC’s App Store, juggling mock creation, component building, and team delegation all at once. I designed polished, brand-new screens, built a flexible system from scratch, and kept everything moving across teams. Balancing craft with coordination, I launched a bold, UX-forward upgrade that brought clarity to users and sped up our team’s design workflow.

Project Lead & Team

My Role as Project Lead

Design System, Component Library, Graphic design, User Research, Competitor Analysis

Our Team

2 Product Designers, 1 UX Writer, 1 Motion Designer, 1 Product Manager, 1 Engineer

User Research

Usability Findings

⬇️ ~45% screen recall rate

Result showed that the original App Store screenshots failed to communicate key app features and new updates.

🙁 Ineffective UX writing

Lengthy captions fail to complement visuals, lacking clear feature highlights and brand voice.
I ran usability testing to see if users could spot what was new and why it mattered. Most struggled with visual clarity and recall, and unclear captions made it harder to take action.

Insights from
Stakeholder Interviews

I interviewed 10 cross-functional stakeholders who use the TC app. Their feedback showed gaps in visual clarity and message recall. These insights guided my goal to design an App Store experience that felt fresh, focused, and easy to grasp for both new and returning users.

Cross-Team Collaboration

Build a Cohesive
Visual System

Establish a Scalable
Brand Identity
1
I defined TC’s visual language with Creative Studio team, ensuring a cohesive look across App Store assets.
Develop Informative
UX Copy
2
I collaborated with UX Writer on crafting captions that highlight key features and drive engagement.
Prioritize User-Centric
Screen Flow
3
Partnered with Product to craft a clear screen flow that highlights new features within the user's bracket creation journey.
Apply Insights into
Design Execution
4
I transformed findings into App Store visuals that balance user needs with business goals.

Design Crits in Session

Through cross-team feedback, I fine-tuned the background visuals, feature indicators, and brand textures to enhance clarity and energy without overpowering the UI. These refinements strengthened TC’s brand identity while maintaining usability.

The TC Mockup Meltdown

Right as we wrapped the App Store refresh, I discovered our latest TC mockups were non-responsive, inconsistent, and disconnected from live March Madness data. I had to quickly rebuild everything to ensure accuracy across all screens.

Manage Unexpected
Scope Expansion

As project lead, I aligned the Product and Motion teams to validate our App Store video hypothesis, confirming UX goals and production feasibility to ensure on-schedule delivery.

Competitor Insights
to Inform Design

Sleeper
Direct competitor
Design with the dark mode users love in mind
Yahoo Fantasy Sports
Director competitor
Showcase new features via a high-impact video intro
ESPN
Within our Disney Sports product family
Ensure Disney sports branding consistency and motion integration
Leveraging my early competitor analysis, I pivoted the design scope to transform this surprise request into a data‑backed visual and motion enhancement that kept us aligned with industry benchmarks and engaged users.

Solution

Strategic Approach

🔎 Audit for Design Systems

I led an audit across three design systems (delegating tasks to a co-designer) to unify components, typography, color ramps, padding, and interactive states.

⚡️ Motion-Ready Components

I created animation-friendly components to support tight deadlines from the Motion team. This improved handoffs and enabled dynamic data updates at scale.

🚀 TC’s First Component Library

After delivering mocks and motion assets, I built a centralized component library with structured naming, dark mode support, and responsive layouts, 100% ready for handoff.

📈 ~50% Faster Design Efficiency

Designers were spending hours searching across files. By centralizing everything into one library, I cut search time in half and boosted overall team efficiency.

💨 Faster Variant Selection

By organizing interactive states and naming conventions clearly, I helped designers select the right variant twice as fast, reducing friction in daily workflows.

Result

Emotionally Engaging:
A Refresh Built to Perform

Before
After
App Store Experience
Screen recall rate
Screen completion rate
UX writing
Visual Branding
Before
~45%
~52%
Lacked clarity and engagement
Inconsistent and off-brand
After
~88% 📊
~92% 📊
Clear, engaging, and action-driven 🔥
Cohesive, bold, and brand-aligned 🔥
The refreshed TC App Store design created a more emotionally engaging first touchpoint, helping users instantly grasp product value and boosting both recall and completion rates by nearly 2x.

Testimony

Leadership Feedback

"Great job, Rosie, on tackling the challenging task of building a TC component library for our team, while producing high-quality designs for TC App Store."
André Bernardi
Design Manager
Disney ESPN Fantasy

Key Learning

✨ Teaching Variables

Curious about how Figma variables could improve efficiency, I explored the feature after hours and applied it to this project early on. It worked better than I expected, and my manager later invited me to lead a workshop. Sharing what I learned became a great moment to grow together as a team.

From Figma to
App Store

This shipped as part of the live TC refresh. Now live on the App Store.

See It Live
Disney Personalization
ESPN Ad Experience
THANK YOU

© 2025 Rosie Way I Designed with 🫶🏻 on webflow I All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer : Select design processes and data redacted due to NDA agreements

Disclaimer : Select design processes and data redacted due to NDA agreements

Disclaimer : Select design processes and data redacted due to NDA agreements

Disclaimer : Select design processes and data redacted due to NDA agreements