Role: Production Designer
Timeline: 2013 to 2014
Background
StubHub is an online marketplace which provides services for buyers and sellers of tickets to sports, concerts, theater and other live entertainment events. StubHub reinvented the ticket resale market in 2000 and continues to lead it through innovation. The company's unique online marketplace, dedicated solely to tickets, provides all fans the choice to buy or sell their tickets in a safe, convenient and highly reliable environment. StubHub is one of the world’s largest ticket marketplace.
Problem:
What is the view from the seat?
A view from section seating is something that is expected now when purchasing tickets. Users would buy tickets from a seat listing or, at best, a listing along with flat static 2D map. There was no context on how well their view would be from that seat purchase.
“With the limited screen real estate space on mobile, using maps to search for tickets becomes a first-class citizen, as opposed to scrolling through hundreds or thousands of listings,” said Mehdi Ghazizadeh, senior director of engineering at StubHub, San Francisco.
“With an interactive map, fans can simply select the sections they would want to sit and see only those listings,” he said. “Adding to this we are providing further visual aids such as view from section so that fans know exactly what the approximate view would be for where they want to sit.”
Click on "301" section to view seating! 👇
Solution:
Build maps with view from section
StubHub acquired Peekspy, which is a company that leverage’s Google Earth’s technology to create 3D products, in early 2012. Fanvenue, Peekspy’s website, further builds 3D interactive seating maps for venues and stadiums.
I joined team after acquisition and became part of the Maps team at StubHub. The team consisted of 1 manager, 1 engineer, and 2 designers. We were tasked to build maps for interactive and static seat maps. Team would interact daily with stakeholders. Production scheduled were evaluated and adjusted based on high priority venues that required quick action results to capitalize on seat sales.
2D map vector assets
Click "Picnic Area" to select section! 👇
2D maps were created into vector assets. Once maps were in vector format, the next step was to generate unique IDs code for each section seating.
Designers pushed these assets to developers for final delivery.
Team also managed quality assurance of seat map venue accuracy.
3D VFS model
Hover over to see wireframe! 👇
My role expanded and was able to learn some basic 3D modeling, light rigging and rendering using SketchUp and VRay.
I created 3D models for smaller venues which only required a few VFS (view from section) as needed.
Results
During my tenure, our team's map production increased presence and generated an uptick in sales. The team exceeded goals and produced a staggering 5000 interactive maps and 800 venues with 3D view from sections. Those numbers exceeded company’s yearly projection. These helped in sales across the companies global sites.
The integration greatly improved the buyer experience by merging StubHub’s onsite experience with their mobile applications and mobile web services. Through these new features, fans were able to browse for tickets by section, see the range of ticket prices in that section and view photos of sight lines, all from StubHub’s various mobile services.
Reflection
For such a small team we were able to generate a huge lift. The work was a great challenge while being at the forefront of emerging technology and fast paced turnaround to stay ahead of the competition. I thoroughly enjoyed our team and stakeholders who gave us positive feedback and constructive communication. I enjoyed the camaraderie of being at a company geared for entertainment.