REConnect

In a span of 5 days, I collaborated with three UX designers on a digital solution for the digital media company, theScore. How do we connect individuals through recreational sports, especially those who work from home? We designed REConnect, a mobile app for organized sports leagues to connect users with other people.

Role
UX Designer
Scope
Design Sprint
Deliverables
Mobile App
Duration
5 days
Tools
Figma

Background

Even in the remote, work-from-home environment we find ourselves living in, there is an opportunity to connect individuals through recreational sports. How do we leverage technology to create a sense of community & belonging? We explored apps that offered social connection or recreational sports to identify any missing gaps to validate designing our own.

Meetup
An app to organize in-person and virtual events for people with similar interests.
Sporty
An app to find people located nearby to casually meet and play pick-up sports.
BeJoin
An app that displays local groups, and casual sporting activities & events.

User Mapping

We saw an opportunity to create a more appealing digital solution for recreational sports. But first, we needed to assume what our target user's current experience were. Thus, we quickly mapped out various routes that the user would take to engage in recreational sports with others.

user mapping

Conducting Interviews

The user map contained multiple routes/steps that led to the same goal. However, were our assumptions of the mapping correct? To confirm this, we interviewed three people who were familiar with recreational sports, and found three common themes.

Connection
Connecting with people through recreational sports is important, especially when friends are included.
Structure
Organized sports were preferred over casually, as it encouraged commitment & a safer environment.
Confusion
There were too many recreational sports leagues that caused interviewees to become overwhelmed.

Insights into Opportunity

Since these themes aligned so closely with one another, it allowed us to focus in on a potential solution. To guide our decisions, we wondered:

"How might we provide busy adults a simple way to fit organized, recreational sports into their schedule in order to stay socially connected?

The Persona & The Experience

Before we jumped into any designs, we created a persona to sum up our findings, highlighting the goals and pain points. An experience map was also created to understand what steps are currently taken to participate in organized, recreational sports.

Persona
experience map

Developing a Task Flow

We identified a point in the experience map where the persona felt overwhelmed with their current experience of finding recreational sports leagues. Therefore, we designed a task flow for a digital solution to address this frustration. This mobile app provides users to different leagues, allows them to register for teams, invite friends and connect with their teammates.

Task flow diagram

Hi-Fidelity Wireframes

For consistency among all sprint teams, a set of design guidelines were provided. Following the task flow, we began sketching app screens that turned into hi-fidelity wireframes. We ended up with REConnect, a play on the words 'recreational sports' and 'connect'. Our persona now has a central hub that allow them to connect with others through different recreational sports leagues.

View Interactive Prototype

Gathering Design Feedback

To ensure REConnect turned out to be the digital solution we intended to address the problem space, we conducted usability testing. Based on the feedback, we made these minor iterations, as meeting the end-user's wants & needs are important to deliver an enjoyable user experience.

Sign-In/up Screen
enter account details screen
league selection screen

Project Takeaways

This design sprint was an opportunity to utilize my soft skills to work among a team of other designers: collaboration, active listening, etc. This led to a successful sprint, where we effectively made use of each day to design a user-centric digital solution.

Specifically, I learned to:
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