Ann Li

Hand-written name, "Ann Li"

Ann Li

is a multidisciplinary designer and researcher crafting creative research-driven experiences across platforms

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Ann Li

Neurobiologist-turned designer driven by sense-making, systems thinking, and storytelling. Open to full-time product, interaction, experience design roles.

Work spans the digital and physical, including functional user interfaces, immersive experiences, mixed-methods research, and creative strategy.

Pokémon Run

Bringing communities together through collaborative co-creation and physically activated experiences

Role

Product Design
Creative Direction
Market Research
Mobile UX/UI
Concept Ideation

Context

November 2023 (3 weeks)

Team

Carol Auh
Nina Gao
Taeyoung Chang

Tools

Figma
Illustrator
Photoshop

Overview
Outcomes
ResearchApproachDesignReflections

Overview

A virtual event hosted by Pokémon Go in collaboration with Nike Run Club, activated and experienced physically.

I led concept development and creative direction, defined product features within existing ecosystems, and contributed visual assets and UX/UI design and prototyping.

This client project was done in partnership with the Nike Global Brand Experience + Innovation Studio.

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Collaborative experiences that bridge the digital and physical worlds

Designing to connect and empower digital communities

We were tasked by Nike to drive 
community engagement, leveraging emergent technologies to explore community 
driven co-creation during a virtual event.

We identified a community with a solid digital presence, exploring why and how they engage to increase real-life social engagement, encourage remote collaboration, and bring new members into the existing community.

It’s always risky pitching Nike concepts to Nike– we would’ve been harder on Nike anyways– but this made sense, really landed in a great way. Thoughtful is the key word.
-David Frank, VP Global Brand Creative

Change the world, one step at a time

Set off on an immersive Pokémon adventure 
to help shape and explore a brand new region

A virtual event hosted by Pokémon Go in collaboration with Nike Run Club, activated and experienced physically.

01

Select Routes Through NRC

Seamless integration with Nike Run Club
‍City-specific routes divide the region into diverse areas.

02

Start Your Run

Explore the world of Pokemon and leave the tracking to NRC
‍Leave the stat tracking to the event-enabled Nike Run Club app so you can track those wild Pokemon. Enjoy full NRC app features: pace, distance, location, elevation, mile split, and heart rate data.

03

View Your Stats and Redirect to Pokémon Go

Celebrate your achievements and earn exclusive Pokémon Go benefits and perks when you move with Pokémon Run
Seamless integration between apps ensures that your miles, items, and Pokédex encounters are logged.

04

Claim Rewards and View Unlocked Areas

Help shape the region's biomes through collective decision-making and enjoy in-game rewards for movement
‍Upon route completion, unlock Areas to collect rewards and vote for your preferred Biome type.

05

Team up to shape regions to your liking

Community-Driven Habitat Customization
‍Collectively “vote with your feet” to shape regional biomes, customizing Pokémon types, items, and encounters found in each area.

06

Integrated Wild Pokémon In Your Community

Leveraging existing computer vision models, generative AI, and map APIs
‍Adapting to situated, real-time factors–such as time of day, terrain, weather, and occluding objects– dynamic visual assets are accurately placed and adjusted properly.

Each geo-asset is procedurally generated based on biome parameters, and map API tools allow for accurate geospatial placement of visual assets and route tracking, resulting in unique experiences for individual users.

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07

Contribute to the Official World of Pokémon

Revisitable regional exploration
‍When the live period ends, collaboratively designed regions are locked and preserved, allowing unique areas to be experienced by all Pokémon Go players.

"You’ve tapped into an insight we’re really trying at Nike– gamifying more experiences is really smart. Bringing the two together is insightful and well-researched."
Bryon Panaia - Global Sr. Creative Director, Nike

Why Pokémon?

We surveyed a range of digitally-connected communities, seeking opportunities based on the scale, accessibility, and longevity of the community.

Three key insights supported my intuition, informed by a strong personal connection to Pokémon.

  1. ‍Highest-grossing media franchise: Pokémon is a globally recognized brand, outclassing all other media franchises globally with IP spanning multiple subcategories.
  2. Tapping into a cultural phenomenon: Pokémon has become a cultural icon, influencing various aspects of pop culture and media beyond the screen.
  3. ‍Merchandise and media opportunities: An extensive range of Pokémon offerings provides multiple entry points to join the community, and contains meaningful opportunities for Nike collaborations.

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Discovering the Wonderful World of Pokémon

A core social experience filled with environmental storytelling and generational nostalgia.

We conducted exploratory secondary research and scoured the web to uncover three core pillars contributing to the success of the Pokémon franchise- traits that we aimed to preserve in our design principles.

The wonderful world of Pokemon

Social At Its Core

From the first Red/Blue dual version release, to trading cards and Pokémon Go, the original success of Pokémon games revolves around a highly social model of engagement.


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To travel across the land

Worldbuilding As Storytelling

Assembling and training your team is as much strategy as it is building an emotional bond with your Pokémon, situated in a unique world filled with characteristic  environments, side-quests, and lore.

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Continuity and connection

Nostalgia For All

Each generation builds off the last, rewarding stored knowledge and prolonged engagement with the IP.

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Exploring the Extended World of Pokémon

An expanded global franchise attracting a variety of fans across multiple entry points.

Existing community behaviors and grievances revealed opportunities to address gaps in current offerings.

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Bridging Worlds

Identifying design opportunities to respect and empower existing fans, while extending involvement to new communities.

While comparing existing Pokémon and Nike offerings, a clear intersection emerged that seamlessly leveraged both brands' DNA and existing offerings- a collaboration between Pokémon Go and Nike Run Club. Based on design opportunities derived from community findings, I refined our central approach to emphasize a connective, immersive, accessible experience rooted in the real-world, powered by movement.

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Region maps based on city neighborhoods and landmarks (Pittsburgh, PA shown)

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"A dream for us was to allow people to build a digital world, but in real life. Taking this angle and building a place for this, a physical component that lives on outside it is a brilliant opportunity. It’s such a rich idea and could create a new community…it's not just introducing two existing communities."
David Frank - VP Global Brand Creative, Nike
4
needs
12
themes
36
subtopics
12
opportunities

Approach

Empower Trainers to shape their gaming and fitness experience through accessible, democratized co-creation and shared exploration of new Pokémon regions.

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Design decisions were informed by  key objectives centered around three business considerations

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With our target demographic and design objectives in mind, I began to define key actions, tasks, and emotions that would be facilitated across the experience, creating a proposed user journey.

User journey map

Design Considerations

Soliciting feedback and unexpected discoveries

A major design challenge involved deciding which features and actions should be made available in each host platform, as well as when users would be redirected between the two apps. In the process of finalizing the key user flow from our ideal user journey, I walked through several different information architectures internally and solicited quick rounds of user feedback.

Deepening engagement via emotional dynamics

Areas-in-progress should be accessible before the event period ends: this transparency allows users to factor active progress into their decision making process, 
driving speculation and heightening engagement.

Continuous and discrete phase-dependent visualization: Allow for all user votes to be visualized until the event period ends (continuous), at which point the Biome with a majority vote is finalized (discrete). This targets dynamics of group decision-making, balancing one's personal wants with other users and collective outcomes.

Designing for anticipatory cycles

Rely on existing systems and mechanisms: the experience should offload specific rewards and outcomes in the Pokémon Go app to adhere to user expectations, separating UI notifications for in-run checkpoints in NRC (building tension) from post-run checkpoints in Pokémon Go (release).

Motivation and reward cycles drive structural UI decisions: this can be enhanced by keeping information in NRC limited to route-specific progress (anticipation, exploration), and lumping specific reward details to be revealed upon run completion, treating them all as a post-run reward after redirecting to Pokémon Go.

Reversibility and revisitability: give users an easy way to redirect back to NRC and start routes quickly, or share their progress with friends

These key insights and unexpected discoveries informed design decisions and the final user flow.

User flow: narrowing scope and clarifying platform redirects

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Design Explorations and Brand Consistency

Understanding established design language and UX patterns to ensure alignment

Merging two identities: brand immersion and platform evaluation

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Various medium-fidelity design explorations

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Mobile App Walkthrough

Final designs and user flow

Final flow across both hosting platforms

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Additional testimonials and feedback

I love the logo– we might steal it.
- Bryon Panaia, Global Sr. Creative Director
The experience is intuitive and well-designed- it already feels real, I believe that this is real.
It really felt like an event- the timeliness of the event, the intention. What’s the merch that comes out of this...when there’s a possible product component (it) makes the experience richer, is a badge of honor.
(This) hits a lot of different age groups. They would do it because it’s fun. You invited in a really large swath of people- when you bring people in from both worlds and introduce them to a new space, that’s a special and rare opportunity.
-David Frank, VP Global Brand Creative

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Reflection and Next Steps

As a creative proposal with very quick turnaround, we had to scale down drastically to focus on a narrow section of a potential user experience. There were many design opportunities and considerations I would have loved to explore and refine with more time and resources. A few thoughts:

Building more robust community features

Building out in-app social features, event-specific actions, and incentives for users to connect. Multi-player modes for run discrete events.

Refining user inputs

Exploring more nuanced user input for Areas and Biome-specific interactions. Considering increasingly granular user-created content and collaborative mechanisms in-game.

User testing

Usability and desirability rounds with users from various points across the demographic spectrum. Contextual inquiry and in-situ testing.

Promoting exploration

Features and location-based challenges to help users connect with their surroundings/community, while making movement feel playful and exciting.

Competition and rivalry mechanics

Fostering desire for improvement and engagement through friendly competition. Should feel light, retain the core of Pokémon Go but allow for users to challenge themselves. Self-competition
: personal records/bests, leaderboards and Versus
: group challenges, races, leaderboards.

Showcasing In-Run Engagement

Designing new challenges: hitting milestones, leveling up, egg progress, items collected, Trainer battles (live v. CPU) based on various metrics, determined by: distance, duration, interval/pace, number of steps, biometric data (bpm, respiratory rate).

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Hand-written name, "Ann Li"
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