MY ROLE(S)
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UX Researcher
PROCESSES
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Competitive Analysis
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User Interviews
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User Personas, Stories & Flows
TIMEFRAME
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5 days (Feb 2021)
THE CHALLENGE
Elite sports teams can have well over 100 touch points a week across multiple platforms between staff and players. Kairos exists to make all day to day planning as efficient and effective as possible, giving staff and players increased clarity and optimised time management, allowing them to focus on what matters most - game day.
A current problem we want to solve is to allow our coaching staff to access key information at a per player level. Examples could include:
- General bio (name, age, photo)
- Performance metrics
- Current training goals
- Medical issues and general medical info (allergies etc)
Some of the coaching staff have mentioned that it might be useful to be able to compare one player with another, to quickly check performance of a set of team members that might make selection easier.
Some have also mentioned a ‘roster’ feature that would allow them to quickly select and export a team line-up for review with the wider coaching team.
01 - discover & define
• Not enough time to do intense data searches.
• Complicated process of finding information.
• Players can be awkward communicating information.
• Data is displayed in an unclear or unfriendly format.
• The required player data is not included/missing from the system.
• Information is stored on multiple platforms.
• Lack of technical knowledge regarding data systems.
• Staff not open to technology or change.
• No technical or product support available.
• The existing systems available are not flexible enough and do not cater for individual needs.
POTENTIAL SOLUTION
PROBLEM STATEMENT
"Coaches of elite sports teams NEED to get to know their players on a deep level and NEED to communicate with them on a regular and individual basis. Coaches can look after squads containing very large amounts of players and BECAUSE modern day sports professionals tend to have their own individual training programs, dietary requirements and medical & personal issues, the coaches NEED quick & easy access to each specific player's information and (or) performance stats.
"WE WILL KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE when we see coaches being able to quickly access player information from one central channel and being able to create more detailed and accurate player reports, training/diet programs and performance reports."
POSSIBLE PROBLEMS
A solution for this problem is a 'Squad/Players' component in Kairos.
Here coaches can quickly and efficiently search and filter for general or specific information on any of the players within their team/squad/club in one centralised place. This should give all users, no matter their technical knowledge, the ability to easily find basic player information like name, age, height, weight, etc. Then if required the ability to find and understand more specific and advanced data like performance metrics, training programs and player goals and medical history.
Also the ability to clearly & intuitively compare players h2h in terms of performance & career stats, fitness levels, work rate, etc. Plus the ability to create & export simple team mock-ups/line-ups that can be shared with the wider coaching team.
All this will have a positive affect on the amount of time coaches need to spend researching players and their specific information, enabling them to make more efficient use of their time and also letting them create more detailed and accurate reports and programs, etc.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
As is known, the sports/media/betting industry is very fast paced, ever evolving and notoriously competitive. The nature of the industry gives the need for constant improvement, so making sure the product is the best it can be and most importantly giving the customer what they want and need is paramount.
So lets find out what the other apps on the market are like, this will give me an idea of the basic features needed, what might be missing from existing apps, their strengths & weaknesses and some general inspiration for my own application.
02 - understanding the user
USER RESEARCH - GOALS
So to truly be able to help our users, we needed to understand what the coaches of elite sports teams feel about the process of obtaining player information and all that goes with the process. My main goals were to find out...
• Get a better overall feel of how our prospective users (the coaching staff) feel about the process of
researching players, e.g. their pleasure & pain points.
• What basic & what more advanced information users want to see.
• What kind of information users want & need to access most frequently.
• What kind of basic features or tools users would like to use when researching players.
• Any special or standout functionality that could improve the process for them.
USER SURVEY DETAILS
• Participant Scope - Recruitment of coaching staff from 'elite' sports teams across multiple sports.
However, the participants will already be users of the Kairos system and will have highlighted an interest in player data via previous communication. e.g. 'a new user survey'
• Survey Platform - Google Forms
To view the survey click HERE.
USER RESEARCH - RESULTS & ANALYSIS
However, I have still created the survey, as to give you a better idea of my overall plan & thinking, but I will not actually be conducting or analysing the results. Instead I shall make the following assumptions from the 'prospective data' that my survey would've provided me with...
General Info
• Most coaching staff have a good level of technical knowledge & are open to technology.
Player Data
• Coaching staff want to be able to view basic & specific player data on an individual level.
• Coaching staff want to be able to view basic & specific player data on a team/squad level.
• Basic player information coaches most want to view is, Name, Age, Recent Photo, Nationality, Height, Weight, Position.
• Coaching staff want to be able to view more advanced player data to use in different coaching areas.
• Advanced player data coaches most want to view is Performance Metrics, Fitness Data, Training Goals, Health/Medical Data.
• Coaches use player data to assist them with creating individual & squad based tactics, nutrition plans, fitness plans, match & training performance reports & metrics.
Accessing Player Data
• Coaches don't like the long winded process of finding out information on their players, where multiple devices or platforms might be involved.
• Coaches find it frustrating when the specific piece of information/data they want isn't available to them.
• Coaches would like it if there was a single platform that provided them with a readily and accessible data source.
Useful Tools/Features
• A useful feature for coaches would be a h2h player comparison tool, where they could quickly compare player attributes or performance data.
• A useful feature for coaches would be a player 'roster' feature that would allow them to quickly select and export a team line-up for review with the wider coaching team.
USER PERSONAS - COACHING STAFF
We already know that the main users of the player data component, will be the coaching staff of elite sports teams.
However, in modern day sports teams the coaching team can consist of many different people, each with their own interests, needs and goals, as shown here...
I would've liked to have gone into more detail for these individual coaching roles & map out full needs, goals and pain points for each one. Due to time constraints I instead combined them all into one overall 'The Coach' persona.
USER PERSONAS - 'THE COACH'
Here is our main user persona, 'The Coach'.
He is a combination of all of the different coaching staff members of an elite sports team rolled into one...
• Phycologist
• Tactics/Training Coach
• Health & Nutritionist
• Physiotherapist
• Club Manager
• Fitness Coach
• Performance Analyst/Sports Science
He represents the whole of the coaching team, incorporating their specific and individual needs & goals and their pain points.
For the rest of the design task I shall refer to 'The Coach' rather than any individual coaching roles.
The main issue blocking me with my user research task is, I don't have access to any 'elite' sports team's coaching staff. Yes, I could post the survey in an amateur sports group on Facebook or Twitter, but those results would not be completely accurate. So please bear that in mind.
Based on findings from my survey and the initial task brief, I created 3 user journeys for 'The Coach' and associated tasks. I feel these areas represent what our target audience are most interested in and also satisfies our design task...
• Research player data
• Collaborate with colleagues
• Compare player data
MENTAL MODELS & USER JOURNEYS
EARLY SKETCHING & WIRE-FRAMING
I began to put my thoughts onto paper in the form of some pen & paper based sketches, these would then be transformed into sets of lo-fidelity wireframes.
I did this for what I think are the 3 main user goals...
1. Research player data
2. Collaborate with colleagues
3. Compare player data
Below is an example of task #3 - 'Compare player data'.
More information on the other tasks, can be seen HERE.
Task #3 - Compare player data
• The user needed to be able to compare players or groups of players with each other. This feature allows them to select 2 (further players can be added) and compare different data.
• Different data can be compared, e.g. basic player info, performance stats or career stats.
• The user needs to understand and use this data to help makes decisions, so useful filters are available to display the data in different ways that make it easier for the user to analyse, e.g. time period, graphs or list views.