KICKET connects you with sporting activities in your area, helping you find new teammates.
Role
Product Designer
Project Type
Academic
Timeline
10 Weeks
Tools
Figma, Invision, Marvel
Design Process
The design process for this project followed the Design Council’s Double Diamond Framework. A way of exploring and resolving a problem space through diverging and then converging thinking. The first diamond represents how a problem space is explored while the second diamond explores how it might be solved.
Discover
A deep dive into the problem space through research in hopes of understanding both the problem and the user.
Why I Chose this Project?
I grew up being very active in sports, playing throughout childhood and even continuing at the University level. After graduation I no longer had a structured approach to being active, resulting in a disappearance of a major part of my life. I wanted to explore why others stopped playing and what might people help restore an active lifestyle through sport.
Problem Space
75% of children and youth between 5-17 regularly participant in sports, while only 26% of people above the age of 15 do. Participation levels peak between the ages of 10 and 13, and steadily and radically decline after that. Canadian youth are dropping out of sports and losing all the benefits that go along with it, including their connection to community and improved physical and mental health.
Secondary Research
In order to better understanding the problem space I conducted a literature review of existing research into the space. There was a great deal of information that helped to inform me about where the problem exists and why.
71%
of sport participants reported have very good or excellent mental health, compared to 59% of non-participants
Interviews
With a defined problem space about youth in sports, I needed some feedback from the youth themselves. so I conducted a set of 5 Interviews with Generation ‘Z’ youth. They were able to provide me with a great deal of insights into their involvement in sport and why they have (or have not) stopped participating in sport.
Insight # 1
Theme: Social Connection
Gen Z youth would more readily participate in sports if they had friends to do it with.
Insight # 2
Theme: Social Media
Gen Z youth are using many different social platforms to engage with friends and coaches.
Competitor Analysis
In order to see what existed in this problem space already I conducted a competitor analysis. I evaluated existing social platforms in both the athletic space along with the more general space ensuring that I understood what exists and what the potential users are currently engaging with.
Define
Take all of the research and synthesize the information into actionable items.
Primary Persona
Using the insights I gained from the interviews along with the data from the secondary research I created a primary persona. This allowed me to define the users needs, goals, motivations and behaviours.
Experience Map
Using the persona I explored how Marcus might go about finding a basketball game in the current situation. This showed me where opportunities exist. Ultimately leading me to a defined how might we question that I will look to solve.
How might we encourage youth to stay involved in sports so that they become active healthy adults?
Develop
Explore possible solutions
Task Prioritization & Analysis
Thinking about both the persona and where opportunities exist within a users typical experience I began to explore how this might be done. I first created a list of user stories and then further categories into epics. Exploring where the largest opportunities lied.
User Stories
Task Flow
Having narrowed down a chosen epic of ‘Find & Create Opportunities to Play’ I further narrowed down which user stories would have the greatest impact on the users experience.
Prototype Development
Using the above task flow I explored possible solutions beginning with paper sketches.
Paper Sketches
I began by developing 3 different concepts of sketches while staying aligned with my task flow.
Mid-fidelity Wireframes
Having settled on concept 3 due to its cleaner aesthetic and ease of understanding I translated the sketches into a first set of mid-fi wireframes.
Testing & Iteration
Using the first set of mid-fidelity wireframes I conducted 2 rounds of user testing. Each round included 5 separate individuals testing. Their feedback was used to make changes that would improve usability.
Round 1
Round 2
Deliver
Present hi-fidelity prototype, exploring and injecting a brands identity.
Brand Identity
Moodboard
Hi-Fidelity Prototype
Using the know defined brand identity, I was able to incorporate it into the wireframing thus creating a hi-fidelity prototype, that can be interacted with on your right.
Marketing Website
In order to help market the application and get it into the hands of users I developed a marketing website. This is a landing page that would help the user to download and understand the applications utility.
Multi-Platform Challenge
Exploring how Kicket might be integrated with other platforms, I landed on creating an apple watch integration. Many of the users will be athletically inclined and one of the main features of an apple watch is its activity tracking, something the users might already be using thus resulting in a larger number of users already using the platform. In the early instances a user will be able to see upcoming events near them that they can join in one click or select to see more details.
Conclusion
Key Learnings & Next Steps
Next Steps
KICKET hopes to be able to help those looking to take part in sporting activities find ones that fit their needs and remove the challenge of needed friends that are already taking part.
With this in mind it is important that Kicket continue to develop its features that might enhance this experience. The following next steps are just the start to how this might be done.
1. Develop a calendar function, giving the user a quick look at their chosen events and integration with existing calendar applications.
2. Explore chat abilities, how might people communicate with each other especially if they don’t have other contact information for them.
3. Further test and adapt to user feedback
Future Thinking: Tarot Cards
In an attempt to further explore the challenges that I might face when developing KICKET I used a deck of Tarot Cards of Tech to help me explore further details
I explored the questions presented by the superfan card.
First, I must say that a passionate user would be one that participates often in activities and creates many events of their own. This user would be needed to help build the community and drive continued use. While it would be important that this users enthusiasm does not intimidate the new user who might be apprehensive about getting involved.
The community as a whole hopefully in the future will be able to easily communicate. The challenge of this is to ensure that any communication is positive and that any possible ‘trash’ talk that occurs would not negatively impact participation. This might be mitigated by having any communications be approved by an AI that would detect detrimental conversations, especially if driven by prejudices.
Key Learning
I learned a great deal throughout this project. With a short timeline of only 10 weeks, the process was able to show me how important each step in the process is. I was able to implement what I was learning in class to a project that showed me the true value of conducting each step. The main key learnings that I identified throughout this process are summarized below.
Test early and test often
The earlier in the process that things are tested and therefore rectified means the least amount of time (and therefore funds) will be needed to make changes.
The user is most important
Keeping the user at the forefront of everything ensures that the product is actually addressing the users needs. This empasizes the importance of research both at the beginning (primary & secondary research) but also throughout the process (e.g. User Testing)