Got Next!
Overview
A recreational sports mobile application design.
Goal
Designing an app that is aimed at helping individuals improve their experiences around finding recreational sports activities.
Roles(s)
UX Designer/Researcher
Hi-Fidelity Sign up Page
Team
Francisco Paulino
Mergim Shalaj
Peter Hsiao
Tania Dawer
Tools
Sketch
Figma
Photoshop
Methods
User Interviews • Persona Development • Journey Mapping • Feature Ideation • Competitor Analysis • MoSCoW Mapping • Design Studio Sketching • Wireframing • Prototyping • Usability Testing
Identifying the Problem Space
My team and I were interested in understanding the behaviors and experiences individuals had when it came to finding or participating in recreational sports.
When exploring topics, the core of our ideas resided in the concept of connecting people to recreational sports in their area. This is the topic that we decided to hone in on.
Key Insights
“I want more affordable options for playing sports”
Responders valued ease of entry and affordability when it comes to finding sports to participate in. Often times membership fees and equipment cost can act as a barrier for entry.
“I struggle to make time for recreational activities”
Adults, especially those older and approaching middle age, typically have more responsibilities in their personal or professional life which makes it difficult for them to set aside time to look for recreational sports.
“I hear about recreational sports through my community”
Interviewees revealed that most of the time, they got word of a recreational sports activity through word of mouth or local channels such as through a friend, flyer, or community groups.
Our User
Taylor, 34
NYC
Goals
Stay physically active
Find like-minded people to play with
Pain Points
Difficult to find convenient sports activities
Busy work/life schedule makes it difficult to align time to play with others
Needs
Ability to play with people of similar skill level
Ability to easily discover affordable local recreational sports
When it comes to discovering recreational sports, our data informed us that most people typically hear about local recreational sporting activities through word of mouth channels in their community.
Due to the unpredictable nature of this form of communication, it’s not always certain when a game is happening. With the bulk of our participants ranging from their mid-20s — 40s, joining an impromptu session can prove difficult due to personal and work-related responsibilities.
To better highlight the peaks and valleys in Taylors’ experience with finding recreational sports, we compiled a journey map.
Taylor has limited time and wants an efficient way to find recreational sports activities to participate in. How might we help him find activities that fit his preferences?
Feature Ideation
For the scope of this sprint, we needed to first prioritize the most essential functions to include in our minimum viable product.
I conducted a feature ideation workshop to gather features we felt necessary to best address Taylor’s problem, and then utilized dot voting to prioritize the most integral features of our product.
Competitor Analysis
Before moving forward, we set out to gain a better understanding of the competitive landscape by getting a feel for the potential competitors and comparators currently serving users who participate in recreational sports.
Ideally, we’re aiming to also reside in the top left quadrant. We want our users to be able to quickly and cheaply identify recreational sports in their area that match their preferences.
Design Studio Sketches
Design Ideation
Between desktop, mobile responsive website, or native mobile application, our team settled on creating a native mobile app.
A mobile app suits our needs because it would enable the integration of certain phone-specific capabilities necessary for core features of the app such as GPS and location sharing. Due to the nature of the product and how we anticipate users would use it, a mobile app would also make it easier to maintain personalized profiles given its ease of access and security.
Usability Testing
For the sake of being able to present an MVP by the end of this project, we prioritized and focused testing on the two primary flows of the application:
Find a game
Create a game
Testing was conducted using our mid-fidelity prototypes.
Task 1: Find and join and basketball game
5/5 users were able to find and join an event
2 users utilized the refine/search feature
1 user felt “Refine” should be more clear on its labeling
Users were able to easily determine which events were basketball games and joined the closest one to their location. However, the “refine” filter label may be too vague for some users to understand.
Task 2: Create a new basketball event
5/5 users were able to create a new event
1 User wanted more sports options shown without having to tap “see more”
Users found it intuitive to create an event and felt the options were easily understandable.
Prototype
In order to give stakeholders and new users a better sense of what to expect from the app, we implemented a benefits-oriented onboarding process for first-time users. Part of the rationale behind this was to better inform the user of what they are getting into before being asked to create an account.
Onboarding Text:
“Got Next allows players like you to easily find, create, and join a sporting event.”
“Our quick and intuitive signup process gives us an idea of the type of player you are; making it easier to match you with events and players that better fit your preferences and skill-level.”
Next Steps
Conduct testing on user signup flow
Explore making iconography more understandable to users
Proposed company partnership with New York Parks and Recreation to get up to date information on park availability