PROJECT OVERVIEW
UC Davis is proud to be home to 25 Division 1 Women's and Men's Sport teams, fostering a dynamic athletics community that embodies the values of competition, camaraderie, and school spirit.
In the span of 10 weeks, my team followed the human-centered design process, conducting research and testing our ideas to create a high-fidelity prototype while collaborating closely with a team of developers and a stakeholder. We designed Aggie Athletics, a new app that will serve as a centralized hub for students, offering comprehensive information on upcoming games, exclusive rewards for event attendance, and access to various features such as news updates, event calendars, and prize redemption.
With key functionalities including QR code check-ins linked to student IDs, point accumulation for attending games, redemption of points for prizes, UC Davis login integration, full month calendar view, game recaps, and subscription to notifications for specific sports events, UC Davis Athletics promises to elevate the student experience, providing a seamless way to engage with campus sports.
USER RESEARCH
📑 Competitive Analysis
To get started, our team initiated a thorough examination of existing athletic apps utilized by universities. However, our investigation quickly revealed that these apps were lacking in crucial features, such as point systems and rewards, which were pivotal to our stakeholder's objectives.
Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive understanding, we expanded our research scope to include athletic apps used in sports stadiums, where such functionalities are more prevalent.
Our primary research objective centered around gaining deeper insights into the user experiences of students and sports fans within both existing sport and food applications.
📝 Surveys & Interviews
To better understand our own students' experiences with UCD sport events, we opted to gather survey data and conduct interviews. Our approach aimed to capture both overarching and nuanced insights. The questions we posed delved into participants' experiences at UCD sports events and probed their motivations for attending. Additionally, we inquired about their interactions with reward apps and the factors that incentivize their participation in sporting events or other activities.
Of the 97 university students surveyed, a significant majority, comprising 87.6%, cited attending sporting events due to the influence of their friends. Conversely, when it came to factors that did not affect their decisions to attend these events, a vast majority, representing 95.8% of respondents, expressed indifference towards the age of other event attendees.
SYNTHESIS
Drawing from our research findings, we formulated HMW (How Might We) questions and crafted a user flow to steer our ideation process and sketching endeavors.
Our HMW questions revolved around:
- Crafting an effective onboarding process for new users
- Ensuring all sport schedules, news, and points are readily accessible on the home page
- Designing an intuitive system for rewards, challenge applications, and prize redemption
- Establishing a straightforward profile page for sport event check-ins and point tracking
MID-FIDELITY PROTOTYPING
📱 Wireframes and Prototpyes
Following our discussion on the most effective strategies to address our HMW questions, we've curated a set of features to enrich our app:
- Onboarding Page
- Exclusive registration through college-issued student ID ensures platform authenticity
- User-friendly input fields for essential information like major and dormitory details
- Personalization option for users to select their favorite sports, enhancing their experience
- Home Page
- Highlights of featured and upcoming sports events for quick access and engagement
- Integration of news articles to keep users informed and entertained
- Visual representation of earned points, motivating users to actively participate
- Calendar Page
- Comprehensive listing of weekly sports events, categorized by featured and all sports
- Reward Page
- Dedicated sections for rewards and challenges, offering exciting incentives for user involvement
- Profile Page
- Quick access QR code for hassle-free event check-ins, ensuring seamless participation
- Convenient profile settings for users to manage preferences and personal information with ease
USER TESTING #1
After finalizing our Mid-Fi Prototypes, we devised a series of tasks and invited users to execute them, evaluating the ease and intuitiveness of our user flow:
- Onboarding Pages Evaluation
- Assessing the ease of navigating through the onboarding process
- Testing the clarity of steps involved in signing up with a college-issued student ID, inputting user information, and selecting favorite sports
"How do you like the onboarding pages as you open the app?"
"Do you understand the main aspects of the app?"
- Calendar Page Navigation
- Observing users' ability to seamlessly navigate among different sections of the calendar page
- Evaluating the clarity of event listings and accessibility of weekly sports schedules
- Redeeming Rewards and Challenges Section Transitions
- Testing users' understanding of how to access and engage with the rewards and challenges sections
- Assessing the clarity of transitions between different sections and the ease of redeeming rewards or participating in challenges
"Look at the rewards page. Do you understand how you can get rewards?"
"If you have 450 points, what prizes can you get?"
"Do you understand how to complete challenges and earn points?"
"What do you like about the challenges page? Dislike?"
- Profile Page Navigation for QR Code and Settings
- Evaluating users' ability to locate and utilize the QR code feature for event check-ins
- Testing the ease of accessing profile settings and making desired changes
HI-FIDELITY PROTOTPYES
Building upon our wireframes, we progressed to crafting high-fidelity prototypes, integrating refinements informed by insights gathered from our usability tests. These enhanced prototypes mark a substantial advancement in visual clarity, interaction design, and overall user experience. By meticulously incorporating user feedback and iteratively refining our designs, our objective is to develop a polished and intuitive final product that not only satisfies the needs and expectations of our target audience but also aligns with the vision of our stakeholder.
DESIGN SYSTEM
To ensure consistency and harmonization with UC Davis Athletics' branding, we decided to leverage their established design system for our app. However, we introduced additional pops of color to infuse vibrancy while still adhering to the UCD branding guidelines. This approach allows us to maintain a cohesive visual identity that resonates with the UC Davis community while injecting subtle elements of creativity and engagement into the user experience.
USABILITY TESTING #2
We conducted A/B testing to evaluate user preferences for filtering options between different sports and between male and female sports categories. Specifically, we tested two approaches: placing the gender filter directly in front of the sport filter, and using a dropdown menu where users first select the sport, followed by the gender category.
Additionally, we conducted A/B testing on the redeem button to determine the most effective wording and color choices. Our goal was to identify any potential confusion among users regarding the button's label and to find the color scheme that best captures user attention and encourages interaction.
Onboarding Page
Research Insights
-> According to the survey, it appears that user information such as year, dorm, and other details may not be essential for the app's functionality or user experience
Solution
-> streamline the onboarding process by eliminating the requirement for users to input non-essential information like major, housing details, and other user-specific data
-> prioritize the selection of favorite sports as the primary step in the onboarding process
-> incorporate initial screens that provide a summary of the app's key features and functionalities
Home Page
Research Insights
-> stakeholder's preference to prioritize the social wall feature
-> students usually go to sport events if their friends go or are interested in a specific sport
Solution
-> prioritize displaying featured and upcoming sport events prominently on the home screen
-> social wall feature will be given prime placement to enable users to stay up-to-date with social media content related to UC Davis Athletics
-> users will have the ability to filter news articles based on their favorite sports or view articles related to all sports
Calendar Page
Research Insights
-> information overload when navigating sports events based on gender
-> importance of incentives in driving event attendance
Solution
-> implement a hierarchical dropdown menu, primary dropdown of sports and secondary dropdown for the gender category
-> introduce a special challenge feature represented by a horseshoe symbol which denote events that offer unique incentives or rewards to attendees, such as free merchandise or exclusive opportunities
Rewards Page
Research Insights
-> confusing user flow for redeeming awards, receiving points, and entering giveaways
Solution
-> used color to differentiate between a user's progress in the giveaways and the actual entry process
-> color change to the progress bar for challenges to make it easier for users to understand their progress
Profile Page
Research Insights
-> It’s convenient for students to easily update their preferences and ensure they receive relevant notifications for their preferred sports
-> Need a seamless way for users to track their game attendance and points accumulated
Solution
-> dedicated section within the user's profile to edit favorite sports
-> simple notifications section on the bottom of the page with toggles to easily turn on and off
-> QR code along with the display of accumulated points within the user's profile
✨ Takeaways
👤 User-Centric Approach
Understanding the importance of thinking from the user's perspective and prioritizing user research and usability testing to inform design decisions. While stakeholder input is valuable, it's essential to balance it with insights gained from user feedback and data to create a product that truly meets user needs and expectations.
🔁 Iterative Design Process
Recognizing that design is an ongoing process and there's no such thing as a perfect design. Embracing the concept of continuous iteration allows for constant improvement and refinement based on user feedback and evolving requirements.
🛠 Collaboration with Developers
This often involves making adjustments to designs based on their technical requirements and constraints. It's important to maintain open communication and flexibility throughout the development process to ensure that design decisions align with the capabilities and limitations of the technology being used.
@Jessica Chu 2024
made with love 
and lots of sunsets 