MAC Best Practices: Western Michigan Takes Over Your Clock in an App

This blog is all about inspiration. Today is our final installment of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the MAC. You can also follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. For this work, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Thus far we've seen Kent State deliver context and Central Michigan give us Case Studies for Success.

Let's finish...

Hit the Western Michigan home page and you'll notice the bold callout for the WMU Mobile App. I was immediately intrigued because it didn't just say iPhone app -- thus offering the potential to connect with a much larger base. Is it worth it? Let's dive in.

Clicking in takes you here, shown below. As you'll see, there is a mobile app for your iPhone, Blackberry, or Android device. But what do you get?

The fine print calls out the WMU Clock Widget, which lets you see the latest scores underneath the time, whenever a game is in progress. Really? Yes. See below...

That's pretty amazing. Now I don't have to click on anything. Just look down at the clock and I'll get a sense for the game. Nice!

How could this be better? As you can tell, I love the concept. It made me wonder what happens when a game isn't in progress? Could this pull in the latest Tweets from WMU Athletics? Imagine if this was both a scoring tracker and a social media connector? We'd feel the program constantly.

Tune in Monday as we take on another league! Don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy