Join the Game!
Building a recreational court reservation system to help you connect to new players
Product Designer
Skills
Prototyping
A/B Testing
Tools
Figma
Timeline
Aug - Sep 2024
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An occupied court can disrupt players fun plans and the memories they hoped to make.
Maybe they didn't have anyone to play with…
HMW help neighbors efficiently find and reserve sports courts, and allow them to foster connections while enjoying their leisure time?
High Level Goals That Defined my Design
1. Diminish the struggle to find available courts and organize games due to unclear or nonexistent booking systems
2. Growth in community participation and increased social interactions on the court
.01 The Challenge
.02 The Solution
An efficient way to get your game on
Match Point is an app that makes it easy to reserve neighborhood sports courts as well as foster a community of players. Through a streamlined booking process and community features, users can make the most of their neighborhood amenities.
Bridging the Gap between awkward first interactions
Eliminate awkward moments asking if you could play. Match Point provides information on tournaments, pick-up games, and brackets.
Save Time and Plan Ahead
The one step booking system allows you to reserve a court quickly and effortlessly, ensuring a stress-free experience.
.03 Research and User Insights
On the scene reporting!
I began the research with interviews. I got to know athletes after, and in-between their matches. The 9 interviews were conducted with questions grouped into the following sections:
01
Basic questions about the sport and their overall experiences
02
Questions on frustrations finding courts and people to play with
03
Questions on possible solutions for court harmony and possible features for MatchPoint
"You have to be good to play. If you aren't good then you won't get much playing time because the generic rule is King of the Court so only the winners stay on."
Interview highlights
"Do you face any challenges when trying to reserve recreational courts?"
"Unclear which courts have been reserved in advance and for how long"
"Desired times are not available a lot of the time."
"It is so weird telling others we're going to use the court. I don't own it"
courtside conversations
Gathering Player Feedback
I conducted a survey with potential users to understand their preferences and pain points. Here are the user survey insights:
45% are unsatisfied with their current method of reserving recreational sports
85.5% are interested in community focused features such as local tournaments or pick-up games
75% want mobile-friendly features such as reminders, push notifications, and easy cancellations
71% preferred an app versus a website or an on site kiosk
Pain Points Identified!
Lack of Transparency in Court Availability: Users are unsure of when courts are open or how long they are available for use.
Court Monopolization by Experienced Players: Skilled players often dominate the courts, limiting access for others to play.
Awkwardness in Claiming Court Usage: Users feels uncomfortable informing others that they are currently occupying the court.
How does MatchPoint Match Up?
.04 App Features
Notable Design Explorations
Product design decisions are nested in all elements of MatchPoint. I hope that my product design passion is evident through the experience this app provides. Although there were many iterations, here are a few that stood out.
Card Tags
Get a sense of the competition. The tags provide insight into how welcoming the current players on the court are, whether you can join them, and what skill level they expect from participants.
UI Ideation
How Can My Designs Allow the RSVP Process to come Naturally?
Behold, the final 3 designs from the 15 iterations!
Option 1
Save progressive disclosure for longer forums!
Too many dates up at once
Option 2
Bulky date options that take up too much space
After A/B testing I found that some people inputted obscure times or RSVP for multiple hours.
Option 3
After A/B testing, I limited RSVP times to 30 minutes, 1 hour, 1.5 hour, or 2 hours these options are based on survey questions.
Found the RSVP process short enough to keep on one page
MatchPoint Design System
Made possible by the 8px grid system!
.05 The Product
.06 Next Steps
Next Round
If I had more time I would implement a social feature in the app to alert friends when you're playing
A chat feature could be useful to communicate with other players before games
I would also like to expand the app to gym courts