Fair or Foul Design? - Diversity of Perspective is Critical

I am in downtown Detroit for a conference, so I took the opportunity to catch a Detroit Tigers game at Comerica Park while I was nearby. There was a lot to like as the stadium had plenty of different seating options, lots of unique quirks and features, and offered a good selection of food.

The seat that I bought a ticket for was down the third base line.

The view from my seats, clearly down the left field line.

As I sat down in my seat and began watching the game, I wanted to see something on the big scoreboard. It was then that I discovered that I had a problem. In order to see the big scoreboard in left field, I had to turn my neck such that I was looking directly at people in the rows behind me. This was not only uncomfortable, but seemed rather mystifying. If the scoreboard was in left field, why did I have to turn so much to see the scoreboard? And why was most of the scoreboard on the foul side of the left field foul pole? That doesn’t seem to be a very effective design.

The view of the big video scoreboard in left field from my seats along the third base line.

I spent the next several innings cursing the people who designed this ballpark. Why would anyone design a stadium this way? Why?

Then a funny thing happened. I got up from my seat and went to get some ice cream as I was a bit hungry and well, to be honest, the Tigers are not a very good baseball team right now. I then made my way around the concourse of the ballpark until I got to the part of the right field concourse where you can stand behind the outfield seats and view the game at your leisure. I stopped and continued to watch the game from my new viewpoint. Lo and behold, I turned toward left field to look at the big scoreboard and was stunned with what I saw.

View of the scoreboard while standing behind the right field seats

The scoreboard looks perfectly positioned in left field, at least from that vantage point. Your perception of the design of the stadium and specifically the big scoreboard is highly dependent on your perspective. My guess is that when they were designing Comerica Park, they didn’t spend enough time getting the perspective of people sitting down the left field line. They were all probably sitting behind home plate or down the first base line or even in right field, but there is no way that they talked to anyone sitting down the third base line past the infield. The result is that I did not enjoy my experience watching the game, at least until the Tigers made a huge comeback to beat the Braves who are in the same division as my beloved Phillies. Of course, there is not much that the Tigers can do now to change the layout of their stadium.

As we develop products for our customers, let’s not make the same mistake. Let’s ensure we put together a team with members from varying backgrounds and skill sets to ensure we have a multitude of perspectives present on the team building the product. Let’s also make sure we solicit feedback from a wide variety of not only current customers but also people who we want to be our customers in the future. When we don’t cast a wide enough net for different perspectives, we risk flying blind in some areas that may ultimately negatively impact the value and market share of our product. While software is easier to change than a stadium, it is still incredibly expensive to do so once we get too far down the line in the lifecycle of our product.

I know the next time I go to a Tigers game at Comerica Park, I will not be sitting in those seats again!