FSC Students & Visiting Napier Students Design Apps for LI Ducks

Interaction Design Students Bring Innovative Application Designs to the Long Island Ducks

When people in paintings on the walls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry came alive in the Harry Potter films, viewers accepted it as part of the magical realm. 

Now that “magic” has become reality, and the “magicians” are Farmingdale State College interaction design students and their collaborators from Napier University in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

Together, in just two weeks, they created applications designed to help the Long Island Ducks baseball team increase attendance and fan engagement. Students, joined by their advisors, FSC’s Brian O’Keefe, assistant professor of interaction design and Edinburgh Napier University’s Dr. Tom Flint, associate professor of creative technology, presented their designs at a showcase July 1. “We’re getting them to apply complex concepts,” said O’Keefe, who added the students were called research associates. 

Partnering with the Long Island Ducks

The students began their work by attending a game at the Ducks’ stadium in Central Islip, interviewing fans, taking notes, photographing the stadium, and looking for ways for fans to interact with with the team using augmented reality.  

The team applauded students' contributions. “The Ducks are a community organization first,” said team President and General Manager Michael Pfaff. “So it came naturally to work with an institution that represents our community, like Farmingdale, while also welcoming those from far away to spend some time on an important project with Long Island’s favorite hometown team.”

A program developed by O’Keefe and Flint called the Designing Blended Experiences Toolkit made it possible for students to create apps more easily. One of Flint’s jobs is negotiating funding applications. “We’re highly ambitious and hate to take no for an answer,” Flint joked. 

Among the proposals: a phone application that allows fans to scan baseball cards so they “come to life” and they can learn more about the players. Another app tallies points, which can be exchanged for rewards, every time the user buys food or merchandise.  

People enjoy eating and shopping at ballparks, so rewarding them with things they like helps build loyalty, noted Cameron Weir of Napier, who designed the phone app with FSC’s Adam Schnepp, a second semester junior, who drew the illustrations for the proposal.

Long Distance Relationships

The two schools have been working jointly for five years, with FSC and Napier students traveling back and forth, but the pandemic forced them to work virtually for the past two years.  In June, Napier students came to Farmingdale and lived on campus, so the students were able to brainstorm in person. 

“This is more substantial than other exchange programs,” according to O’Keefe, noting that usually, students visit another country for a semester and that is the end of the experience. FSC and Napier students have built working relationships and friendships that have lasted years.  

The collaboration proves that FSC can be a leader in this rapidly evolving industry, said Sarbjit Sab Singh, associate professor and chairperson of the sport management department. Students from sports management and other departments were involved in the project, and Singh hopes to collaborate more with the interaction design department.  “I think it’s fantastic, it highlights the talent here at Farmingdale,” Singh said. “The sports experience is changing. I hope sports management students can see and understand what’s possible.” 

For some students, this was the first time they got to meet their research partners in person. Esther Sherry of Farmingdale, who will be starting her final semester in the fall, and Klaudia Salamonska of Poland, who expects to graduate from Napier soon, have been working on projects virtually together and with others for two years, juggling other responsibilities and time zones. During one project in 2020, they met weekly and even scheduled game nights.  

When she arrived on campus and saw Sherry, Salamonska cried out, “You’re here!” she recalled. “It’s weird finally doing normal things together, like nails.” 

She added that she met Sherry’s family, but she felt like she knew them already because, “I would hear them all the time in the background (of virtual meetings),” Salamonska said. After the project was completed, Salamonska spent another week in the U.S., with Sherry and her family. “My heart is growing just thinking about this,” added Sherry. The two women are even talking about going into business together after they graduate. 

Sherry worked on two different projects. One was a collaboration between Sherry, Salamonska, and Tyler Kaufmann of Shoreham where they designed an app that allows users to record a memory at a location in the stadium that is meaningful—such as the seats where a grandparent and grandchild used to sit-- so they can share it with friends or relatives later on. Sherry also worked on a ball that sends out signals.

The key to many of these apps is blending the new with the familiar. When the baseball cards “come to life,” it’s a way for fans to get to know the players and become more invested in the team. “It’s a sense of nostalgia brought into the modern world,” said FSC junior Anna Edwards of Huntington Station, one of the team members. 

Steven Gonzales-Soto, an FSC junior from Lindenhurst, said exploring new ways of doing things is what he enjoys about interaction design. “We have the ability to change people’s lives,” he said. “I like doing things that help in the long term.” 

More photos of the event can be found in the gallery.