Allan Norico, Senior Product Designer

Experience

DraftKings (via Jackpocket acquisition), NYC

Senior Product Designer, Scratcher Operations

May 2023 - March 2026

Led product design for the full Scratcher Ops tooling suite, which included inventory management, ticket uploading, and barcode cycling. Design optimizations supported 4.2M+ tickets processed in 2024 and $135M in Q4 scratchers revenue.
Prototyped an R&D concept for scaling Batch & Pull across multiple stations, then traveled to our Texas fulfillment center to test it in person with associates. Their feedback validated giving each station its own set of games.

How might we

scale the Batch & Pull terminal?

Batch & Pull is the station where an associate pulls scratcher tickets from the bins and scans them to confirm each batch. When orders spike, batches come in faster than one associate can pull them. The answer on the floor is a second station that takes some of the games, but the dashboard couldn't split the work. Every terminal showed every game, so an associate at a second station would have to search the batch list for their own.

ON SITE · TEXAS FULFILLMENT CENTER

Built for one associate

The station is built for one person. The bins, the hand scanner and the terminal all sit within arm's reach of a single associate, with no room for a second. The associate reads a batch off the terminal, pulls the tickets from the right pack, and scans the first and last ticket so the screen can confirm it.

GUERRILLA UX SESSION · ON SITE

Direct lines of Feedback

I traveled to our Texas fulfillment center to present a concept prototype in person. Capturing feedback directly from the associate at the Batch & Pull station surfaced immediate UI improvements that would have been hard to get any other way. I ran similar informal sessions with associates around the floor, which gave me ideas for UI improvements from several points of view.

Having two separate pods … would make a lot more sense.

Give each station its own pod

Matches how the floor scales: one station per set of games

Next round measure

Associate preference after a full shift on a pod vs the full list

I’m literally waiting for the other person at that point.

Coordination is the bottleneck

Work design, found on site

Next round measure

Batch-to-confirmed-pull time per associate, full list vs pod

I have to manually scan through the whole list.

Show only your games

Recognition over recall

Next round measure

Time to find your own batches; scan errors

I know for a fact that those are all good.

Certainty is the payoff

Visibility of system status

Next round measure

How often associates re-check status

SYNTHESIS

From four quotes to four measures

Each thing Ritam said maps to a design principle and to what the next round should measure, from how long each associate spends finding their own batches to how often they re-check status.

R&D CONCEPT · VALIDATED, NOT SHIPPED

Pods: one station, one set of games

A pod is a column of the dashboard filtered to the games one station is assigned, showing only Batched and Pulled tickets. A manager sets which games go to each pod based on what's being ordered, so the associate at that station never searches the full list. Pods were validated with associates on the floor but never shipped. The next step was the measures on the previous card.

STEP 1 OF 5

Named inventor on U.S. Patent 12,697,540 for an automated scratch-off ticket processing system; designed the operator interface and real-time motor telemetry visualization bridging firmware data to an intuitive control layer.
Led on-site UX research at fulfillment centers in Texas, observing the ticket processing pipeline end to end and turning associate feedback into redesigns that reduced friction and cognitive load across multiple floor workflows.

FanDuel , NYC

Product Designer, Casino & Sports Verticals

May 2017 - March 2023

Led 100% of casino product design from inception to launch as the sole embedded designer. Initial launch generated $94M in wagers in 8 days and $6M in revenue across table and online slot games. Created all game assets (slots, table games, illustrations).
Designed Reward Machine, a configurable daily engagement engine with habit-forming mechanics (daily spins, symbol accumulation, seasonal reskins). Increased Active Betting Days by 50% and achieved 90% week-over-week retention among participants.

View case study

Led UX audit and experience optimization for NBA InPlay, a live second-screen fantasy product. Designed onboarding flows, drafting interfaces, and a scalable licensed virtual item system with NBA copyright approval, including a dynamic SVG asset architecture that eliminated dozens of pre-rendered assets per franchise.

See the onboarding audit

How might we

Make boosts worth buying?

NBA InPlay needed its first paid feature: timed boosts that multiply the XP and coins players earn during live games. Product wanted the store kept low-key, showing up only when players were earning. I mapped the full purchase flow as a clickable wireframe for engineering, then built the key moment, activating a boost, in high fidelity.

BALSAMIQ · MAR 2018

Wireframe walkthrough

The whole flow in Balsamiq: setting a boost, buying gems when funds run low, and swapping boosts mid-timer. Engineering reviewed it in one session and called every step feasible. Their pushback on stacking boosts led to a better rule: switch boosts and your remaining time comes with you.

FRAMER · MAR 2018

Final motion prototype

Built in Framer so front end could see exactly how activating a boost should feel. It shows three duration tiers, a Confirm that appears inside the boost's own row, and a countdown that starts the moment the boost goes live.

STEP 1 OF 3

How might we

Ship frames for 30 teams without 600 PNGs?

Frames were virtual goods users wore over their profile picture in InPlay, FanDuel's free-to-play NBA app. The NBA partnership needed versions for all 30 teams. Twenty unique frames per team would have meant 600 PNGs to design, export, QA and integrate. I made the case for drawing each frame once as an SVG, 20 files in total, and letting the app fill in each team's colors at runtime.

ILLUSTRATOR + SVG · MAR 2018

Color swap method

I drew each frame in Illustrator and named the shapes to recolor teamColor1 and teamColor2. For export, I set a convention that swapped the hard-coded colors for placeholders and added a link to the team logo. The app filled them from a master color table I wrote. SVG cost more code and render QA but no backend work. Front end and back end agreed on it in March.

FRAMER · APR 2018

Team selection prototype

I used the same method on a different item, the avatar's snapback hat. Scroll the 30 teams and the hat re-skins live in each team's colors and logo. I pitched the SVG standard on a 19 April call with the NBA, and they approved it for frame production as long as logos stayed uncropped and unaltered. Their later notes on the hats mostly became data edits, like a new hex value, instead of new art.

STEP 1 OF 3

2022 FanDuel MVP Award Winner.

Zynga , NYC

Game Artist

March 2012 - October 2012

Provided concept art and illustration for various titles across the Zynga game portfolio.

OMGPOP , NYC

Game Artist

February 2010 - March 2012

Provided concept art, vector illustration, animation, and 3D assets for multiple shipped titles.