Introduction
This project serves as my capstone project at Sheridan College for my graduate degree in Product Design. Collaborating with four colleagues, our professor, and the Olympic Team Canada, we tackled an exciting design challenge. The challenge posed to us was: "How might digitally enabled experiences foster safe, inclusive, and barrier-free sport through one of the three pillars of action - Podium, Play, and Planet?"
Our team chose to focus on the "Play" pillar, which is centered around inspiring the younger generation to engage in sports. Our specific challenge was: "How might we digitally inspire young people to get into sport and stay in sport?"
Throughout the project, we worked collaboratively from research and problem identification to developing and testing solutions. We utilized data from our research to craft a suitable solution, which we then tested with users. In this presentation, I will provide a thorough walkthrough of each stage of our process.
Problem Statement
Why are young people not engaging in sport activities both leisurely and professionally?
We seeks to understand the factors contributing to the marked decline in the sports interest of younger generations and aims to craft inclusive, barrier free and accessible solutions that rekindle their participation, interest, and passion for sports making it enjoyable for everyone.
Goal of the project
The goal of this project is to comprehensively investigate the multifaceted factors leading to the substantial decline in sports interest among the younger generations. The primary objective is to properly understand the root causes and intricacies associated with this decline, with the ultimate goal of formulating inclusive, barrier-free, and accessible solutions.
Through this project, we aspire to come up with a suitable solution that would aim to rekindle the active participation, sustained interest, and genuine passion for sports for the younger generation as the target audience, ensuring an enjoyable and enriching experience for everyone, regardless of background or circumstance.
User Research
For this research, my team and I did Desk Research and Interviews.
The desk research help us to quickly understanding the population preferences based on collection of existing quantitative data. It also helped us make inferences and hypotheses to formulate interview questions about sports.
Interviews helped us understand the real thoughts of different people, enabling us to make more specific design decisions.
Participant Criteria
My team and I carefully selected our interview candidates based on the following:
Young people between the ages 18-30 years. Any one above that age do not qualify to take the interview.
Young people within the age range (18-30 years) who are not actively participating in sports as this would help us find solutions to our questions.
Young people within the age range (18-30 years) who are willing to participate in the research interview.
Some Of The Interview Questions
What do you think about sports? What does sports mean to you?
What sports are you currently engaged in?
If none, Have you ever played sports? What factors contributes to your present lack of engagement
What motivates your participation in sport? How have your perspectives on sports changed throughout your life? What factors influenced any changes?
How does your daily routine impact your engagement in sports or physical activities?
Describe any difficulty you may have encountered in accessing sport participation opportunities.
Considering the cost of living in your area, how has it affected your ability to join sport programs or make use of sports facilities?
Do you believe that your level of knowledge in a certain sport limits your ability to participate in that sport? If so, how?
In what way do you believe technology could help you better enjoy and participate in sports?
Research Findings
My team and I conducted user interviews with carefully screened participants. The interviews were evenly distributed among all team members, with each of the five members conducting two interviews, resulting in a total of ten interviews. Every participant willingly signed a consent form, demonstrating their agreement to participate. Prior permission was obtained before recording participants' video and audio. In cases where participants did not consent to recording, detailed notes were taken instead. All interviews were conducted using online meeting platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet. We made an effort to interview individuals from diverse backgrounds, professions, ethnicities, and age groups to ensure a broad variety of perspectives and responses.
Affinity Mapping
Insights
After analyzing the responses from our interviews, my team and I were able to come up with the following insights;
Lack of Partners to Play With: most of the interviewee noted not having partners to play sports with, suggesting that the absence of a social component in sports participation can be a hindrance.
Barriers to Participation: Barriers such as the high cost of equipment and limited access to sports facilities were mentioned, especially for those with financial constraints.
Lack of Facilities: The availability and accessibility of sports facilities are mentioned as limiting factors, especially in remote areas of the country.
Interest in Learning New Sports: There's an active effort to learn new sports like basketball, showcasing a willingness to engage in diverse physical activities for some participants, .
Community and Support: Some participants the help of supportive communities in sports clubs they have had access to which indicates the positive impact of a community on the fitness journey.
High Level Ideation
Based on the insights, my team and I decided to explore the idea of a Social Sports Networking Platform:
Create a digital platform where individuals can connect with others in their area who share similar sports interests.
Users can find partners to play sports with, organize meet-ups, and join local sports clubs or teams.
Incorporate features such as messaging, event planning, and profiles to facilitate social connections.
User Persona
Final Solution (Sportal Mobile Application)
We aimed to transform the conventional perception that sports are only about competition. Instead, we strived to promote sports as a fun and engaging activity that people can enjoy as a natural part of their lifestyle.
This inspired us to create a dynamic public platform dedicated to the Play pillar, where users can gather and participate in various sports activities.
Sportal is a mobile appplication mainly for people to come together and play sports. We aimed to create a seamless and engaging experience for users, encouraging them to explore and participate in sports. We delved into the main user flow, starting from the onboarding process, where users input their information and selected their preferences, leading up to the point where they chose the game they wanted to play. We also examined the secondary user flow, focusing on how users accessed the community page, navigated through the sports community, and shared their activities within their local area.
Features of Sportal
Profile: Users will be guided through the process of creating their profiles. This step is important for enabling users to participate in and organize new games.
Preferences: The app will prompt users to answer a series of questions to determine their preferred games, skill level, and favorite playing environment. This information helps tailor the app experience.
Play: Users can join existing games matching their preferences and location. They also have the option to start their own game by specifying the sport type, number of players, time, and location.
Community: Users can explore feeds of sports-related content, share their own stories, and interact with others through likes and comments. It's a space for users to share their passion for sports.
Trainings: Users can join training sessions led by professional coaches. These sessions are available for various sports, and can be selected based on price per hour, location, and the level of the class.
User Flow
Information Architecture
These are the main features of our first ideation:
User Profile
Sports Matching Event Planning
Sports Club
First Draft of Wireframes
We initially explored making improvement to the existing Team Canada Impact Agenda application. These wireframes represent the first draft of our initial idea.
Second Draft of Wireframes
Based on certain restrictions and ambiguities in the proposed changes, as well as suggestions from our professor, we concluded that it would be more beneficial, particularly from a user experience perspective, to develop a new standalone application. This led to the creation of the SPORTAL App.
Final Draft of Wireframes
Design System
We curated a design system to ensure a high level of consistency while collaboratively working on the high-fidelity page designs. We primarily adhered to the Team Canada brand guidelines, particularly focusing on typography and colors.
High Fidelity
User Testing and Feedbacks
We conducted user testing in two stages using UserTesting.com: first with low fidelity designs, then with high fidelity mockups. The high fidelity prototype was also shared with Team Canada representatives. Feedback from both users and Team Canada was instrumental in refining the SPORTAL App. This section highlights the key responses and insights gathered from these testing phases.
Low Fidelity User Testing Feed Back
Positive Feedback:
Community Features: The idea of following other sports enthusiasts is highly appreciated.
Onboarding: The onboarding process is clear and quick.
Ease of Use: Reviews praised the app's ease of navigation and clear design, emphasizing seamless integration and simple but effective overall design.
Areas for Improvement:
Completion and Clarity: Reviews would like to see high fidelity prototype.
Functionality Issues: Users experience some issues when trying to create a gameas they say it wasn't too straightforward.
Community Potential: The full potential idea of the community could not be assessed.
Icon Clarity: Icons are clear, but there's room for more intuitive or visually appealing designs.
High Fidelity Feedback
Positive Feedback:
Onboarding: The onboarding process was easy to navigate, simple, and quick.
Ease of Use: The app is described as intuitive and straightforward.
Community Features: Positive remarks on the community integration.
Icons: Icons are deemed useful and intuitive, facilitating quick navigation and selection.
Areas for Improvement:
Color and Theme: Interest in seeing the app with lighter modes or more colors.
Typography: Some parts could benefit from a larger font for better readability.
Feedback on Community: Users expressed a desire to see others' comments for better engagement.
Sport Options: There was curiosity about the ability to add more sports.
Tabs modification: Suggestions were made to reduce the number of tabs at the bottom.
Industry Partner Feed Back
Language Consistency: Use "games" and "train" consistently to promote inclusion and engagement.
Safety Measures: Remove the comments feature in the community section to prevent potential harassment.
Name Change: Rename the app from "Sportify" to avoid confusion with Spotify; considering other names.
Unified Design: Ensure the filter design is consistent across all pages for a smoother user experience.
Game Creation Update: Add game type options and set locations to Canadian addresses for game creation.
Engagement Incentives: Implement a rewards or rating system to motivate participation, visible as badges or points on user profiles.
Improvements (Importance/Difficulty Matrix)
After receiving feedback from our professor, testers, and Team Canada representatives, we created a matrix to organize and prioritize our tasks. Throughout the design process, we iterated and refined our design based on input from our professor and industry partner. Following the high-fidelity testing, we compiled feedback from user testing, our professor, and the industry partner.
We categorized this feedback into a matrix, prioritizing tasks based on their importance and difficulty. Given the time constraints, we focused on high-importance tasks that were easier to implement.
Final Outcome
At the project's inception, our industry partner presented three directions: Play, Podium, and Planet. We chose "Play" and focused on reducing social pressures and making sports more accessible and enjoyable. As non-sports enthusiasts, our goal was to foster sports engagement by making participation less intimidating.
For the project's outcome, we developed a digital platform to facilitate the organization and participation in sports activities online. The platform included a diverse range of sports, from traditional sports to activities like chess and dance, broadening the definition of sports. Additionally, we integrated educational and training features to help users learn and practice various sports, making them more approachable and fun.
Key Learnings
User-Centered Design: Emphasized the importance of designing with the user's perspective in mind, particularly focusing on making sports activities more inclusive and engaging.
Effective Collaboration: Learned the value of working closely with industry partners and incorporating diverse feedback to refine the design.
Iterative Process: Understood the importance of an iterative design process, using feedback from multiple sources to continuously improve the product.
Diverse Offerings: Recognized the benefit of including a wide range of sports and activities to cater to different interests and abilities, thereby broadening the appeal of the platform.
Educational Integration: Realized the impact of incorporating educational features to lower barriers to entry, making sports more accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
Team Collaboration: Gained experience in collaboratively working with team members, leveraging each person's strengths, and improving communication and teamwork skills.
