Getting basketball players where they want to be.
This innovative solution harnesses the power of the information revolution, providing players with tailored data and insights to make informed decisions that align with their immediate needs and aspirations.
Finding the right basketball court has never been easier.
Develop a platform that leverages advanced data analytics and personalized content to empower basketball players at all levels.
Create an intuitive and engaging interface that deliver, actionable insights and recommendations, helping players make informed decisions tailored to their specific needs, skills, and goals in basketball.
Before diving head first into the basketball data industry, I began researching to gain a better understanding of the visibility of outdoor basketball court data and demographics. Then, I conducted interviews to learn more about the different experiences people have had with selecting courts.
To determine the existence of missing outdoor basketball court information and demographics of our users, I began researching current user search trends with the help of Reddit and Google. Through forums such as Reddit, I was able to gain a more thorough understanding and fill in the gaps of my knowledge about the current basketball court data to better inform my design decisions moving forward. Here are some of the key insights that I discovered:
After learning more about the industry, I wanted to take a closer look at Ball Atlas' competitors and how they’re helping their users select outdoor basketball courts. Through my research, I identified some top direct and indirect competitors within the industry: Google Maps, Courts of the World, and Yelp. Direct competitors are court-focused applications similar to Ball Atlas, while indirect competitors aren’t focused solely on courts. Exploring each of their apps, I evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of each to see how Ball Atlas could fill in any gaps moving forward.
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In order to learn about the real experiences people have had while selecting outdoor basketball courts, I recruited 5 viable participants that fit the criteria of my provisional personas and my user interviews. Here, I focused on asking open-ended questions about their experiences to learn about our users and validate my understanding of the court selection process.
Taking the insights and needs from the user interviews I began to define the scope of the project by using an Affinity Map map to understand the main needs the users will require to complete their task. Using thematic analysis I was able to understand the general needs of the user and dived further into their needs by understanding their needs through the use of an Empathy Map Using divergent thinking, I created the best number of possible ideas through a brainstorming process known as laddering. Next, I refined and narrowed down the best idea through a process known as convergent thinking.
To start planning the architecture of the application and where these features would fit in, I created an application map to organize the screens in a way that would be logical and intuitive for our user.
To synthesize all the information I had gathered from the user interviews, I wrote my findings on sticky notes and created an empathy map. By identifying common patterns across my findings, I was able to uncover key insights which helped me understand who Ball Atlas users are and what they truly need.
From the major patterns that I identified on the empathy map, I discovered the following key insights which helped me understand the user’s needs: peak hours, nearby court information, and courts that fit their required preferences.
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To make sure that my decisions moving forward in the process are user-centered, I wanted to have a clear understanding of who Ball Atlas users are. Using what I learned from patterns on my empathy map, I created a user persona to represent who I will be designing for - Meet Kaison!
Taking the insights and needs from the empathy map from Ball Atlas user, Kaison, I wanted to start thinking about the design solution that would work best. Using divergent thinking, I created the best number of possible ideas through a brainstorming process known as laddering. Next, I refined and narrowed down the best idea through a process known as convergent thinking.
Taking the HMW questions, I started my brainstorming process to come up with solutions for each of these problems. I decided to use laddering which allows me to consider multiple facets of the problem space by moving up or down the rungs of a ladder. Each rung represents different levels of specificity. Moving up the ladder, looks at the broader scope of the problem which allows me to think abstractly about why the problem exists. While moving down the ladder focuses on genuine case studies and how I can create solutions for each specific scenario. This ideation technique ensures I can look at this problem from many different perspectives.
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After brainstorming, I had generated a lot of different ideas for these problems. At this point, I started laying out a strategy to help determine what goals I’m trying to meet and to help me determine which solutions I need to prioritize by using the MoSCow method. MoSCoW is an acronym for Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won't-have, each highlighting a category of prioritization. MoSCoW aims to strictly establish factors like the cost of a product, quality, and requirements as early as possible.
First, I started by defining the project goals to get a clear understanding of what we’re trying to achieve and where the business and user goals align.
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In order to narrow down the list of must haves for the product, I decided to create user stories to aid the selection process for the best possible solution. User stories help aid in this process since they tell the story of the problem or need that the user will solve through a particular piece of product functionality. It’s meant to be a living story that can be updated and modified as a project evolves. In addition, it will provide sufficient information for developers and designers to understand the functional need, but doesn’t go into the details of how these should be addressed from a technical or design perspective. In short, user stories are brief, specific, and quickly highlight only the essential features an early customer would need to complete critical tasks:
1. "As an outdoor basketball player, I want to play pick up games with others so that I can exercise."
2. "As a beginner outdoor basketball player, I want to practice my basketball skills so that I can get better at basketball."
Below is the list of steps an outdoor basketball player must take to achieve their desired goal: Finding a court/game
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To start planning the architecture of the application and where these features would fit into it, I created an application map to organize the screens in a way that would be logical and intuitive for our user.
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Now I wanted to deep dive to get a better understanding of the overall journey Kaison would be taking throughout the app from start to finish. I wanted to better empathize with the scenario he may be in, different decisions he would be making, and also the different paths he might take to complete the key tasks I identified. To do this, I created a user flow to step into Kaison's shoes.
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Using my understanding of the user, our goals, the architecture, and the user’s interaction with the app, I worked on making informed decisions on how to design Atlas' screens by sketching low-fidelity wireframes. F
by identifying the key tasks a user would be trying to complete when using Ball Atlas based on the users’s goals.
Then, I fleshed out the specifications for the key screens we would need to design to help our users complete each of those tasks. Finally, using this information, I started my process of understanding our user’s interaction with the app with task flows. These task flows helped me to see how our users would be completing these key tasks, what screens they would be interacting with, and what actions they would be taking in a linear flow.
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Now that I sketched out my ideas, I wanted to test the decisions I made and make sure that the structure and flow of the app is intuitive for our users. Before working on the visual design, I wanted to first make sure that the design was functional. In order to do this, I decided to create a paper prototype which would help me quickly test the design on real users and make any priority revisions before integrating the branding and visual design.
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For usability testing, I conducted a remote, moderated test over Zoom. The users were asked to share what they were doing, thinking, and feeling while interacting with the prototype and trying to complete the tasks given to them. I tested for key tasks I identified earlier in the process, asking the user to filter out courts based on specific features and then selecting courts that fit a task specific to selecting a court or game.
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From my second usability test, I wanted to assess how well my new iterations were received. I began to make revisions to my design based on the recommendations identified.
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After making the revisions to my design to improve its usability, I wanted to think about how we would convey Ball Atlas ' brand visually. Ball Atlas branding reflects the attributes: reliable, informative, innovative, minimalistic, and effortless. I worked on setting the visual direction to convey Ball Atlas' unique identity.
After designing the Ball Atlas logo, I started working on finalizing Ball Atlas' visual identity and created a style tile. For the branding, I focused on creating an informative, innovative, chic app, while still maintaining its reliability. For the icons, I focused on rounded shapes that provide a strong sense of structure with a chic color palette.
With Ball Atlas branding defined and synthesizing the insights from the usability tests, I worked on incorporating the identity to craft the visual design of the new application.
Enter Ball Atlas.
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As someone who was very familiar with the court selection process for outdoor basketball courts, I had to re-imagine the process from another user's point of view. By empathizing with that view, through both secondary and primary research, I was able to get a more comprehensive understanding of the many challenges outdoor basketball players face. Overall, this project was a lot of fun to work on - building an app from start to finish, and incorporating the user design process to bring a much needed update to the outdoor basketball court experience.
By re-envisioning the foundational information outdoor basketball players use in their court selection process, I was able to focus on the minimum viable information they would need in order to complete their task. Through several usability studies and many different reiterations, the patterns and designs created will later help inform future parts of the product as we constantly strive to improve the outdoor basketball court experience.
If you like what you see and want to work together, get in touch or follow my journey on:
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