Product Designer
Bay Area, California
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Match Watch Case Study
Summary
Sports fans often struggle to find reliable information on match schedules, streaming options, and real-time updates, leading to frustration and missed games. This is exacerbated by limited personalization and lack of social features. MatchWatch simplifies the sports viewing experience by consolidating all relevant information into one user-friendly app. It provides schedules, streaming links, real-time updates, and community interaction. Users can also customize notifications to ensure they never miss a game. By streamlining sports viewing, MatchWatch saves time and reduces frustration. Its real-time updates and social features enhance engagement, fostering a more connected sports community.
"MatchWatch streamlines sports with schedules, streams, updates, and social features, keeping fans connected and frustration-free."
Hypothesis
By consolidating sports schedules, streaming options, real-time updates, and interactive social features into a single, personalized platform, MatchWatch will significantly reduce user frustration and increase engagement, leading to higher retention rates and improved satisfaction among sports fans.
Process
User Interviews
Considering the available time, budget, and tools, I chose User Interviews as the research method since they provide in-depth, qualitative insights about user behaviors, motivations, and pain points. I interviewed sports fans to understand their current habits, frustrations and needs related to tracking matches and viewing options.
What type of users did I choose to interview?
Fans from various regions and leagues, including those frequently attend live games.
Casual and Avid Sports fans include casual viewers and dedicated fans who follow multiple sports, teams, and leagues.
Primarily mobile device users who follow matches on the go.
Non-Tech-Savvy Fans who prefer a simple, intuitive platform for easy navigation.
Target audience and customer definitions.
Problems competitors address and any gaps in functionality.
Unique strengths and potential weaknesses.
Marketing approaches and potential points of differentiation.
Feature Prioritization
I prioritized features for MatchWatch by diving into user interviews and checking out what competitors were doing. My main focus was tackling the biggest pain points users had while keeping the experience smooth and easy to use. It was all about figuring out what mattered most and making sure it worked seamlessly!
Interview guide
To guide conversations, I used open-ended questions focusing on user goals, motivations, pain points, and habits. These insights were later organized using affinity mapping, which helped identify recurring themes and build a foundation for user personas.
The findings and key insights from interviews are:
Building empathy
Using the quantitative data from interviews, I defined a Persona to better empathize with my main user groups and prioritize goals as per their needs. It guided me through my design process and supporting my decisions.
I want to help Raj, a tech-savvy sports fan with a busy lifestyle, easily access scores, schedules, and streaming services while also engaging with friends to improve his sports viewing experience despite the fragmentation across platforms. For that, I had to identify the persona's problem statement to defend my design decisions.
How might we create an integrated sports app that combines scores, schedules, and streaming in one place to eliminate the need for multiple platforms?
How might we implement reliable, customizable notifications to ensure users like Raj never miss a game despite their busy schedules?
How might we incorporate an in-app community feature that facilitates live discussions and engagement with friends during games?
How might we provide concise updates and on-demand highlights to help users quickly catch up on missed matches without switching platforms?
User Flow
I translated the user needs into actionable steps to guide design, development, and testing. Mapping the journey helped me identify and resolve potential issues early, ensuring a smooth design process.
A little bit about my design and UI choices
Wireframes
Lo-Fi Wireframe
I started with low-fidelity mockups in which the layouts and features were designed based on user interview findings. During this phase, I did an early usability testing that helped uncover minor issues in the interface structure, as well as in certain formulations and interactions. Additionally, insightful user questions prompted further enhancements.
Visual Design
Once I got enough feedback from the quick usability test, I was happy to move forward to visual design to bring the app to life.
Time to Test
Usability testing revealed that while users found navigation and basic tasks intuitive, key features like highlight creation, notification management, and community engagement require significant refinement. Users need clearer instructions, confirmation prompts, and centralized options for managing notifications and reminders. These insights provide a clear roadmap for enhancing usability and ensuring a more seamless, user-friendly experience in future iterations of the app
Iterations on Visual design
Usability testing reveals that users find navigation and basic tasks intuitive, but improvements are needed for features like highlight creation, notification management, and community engagement. The users who tested it for me desire clearer instructions, confirmation prompts, and centralized options for managing notifications. These insights provide a roadmap for enhancing the app's user-friendliness in future updates! Based on those value feedbacks, the iteration goes like below:
Iteration 1:
Updating the home screen to include watch option
Iteration 2:
Adding unread notification to the bell icon
Iteration 3:
Updated the text for setting up reminder
Lessons Learned
Designing the MatchWatch app emphasized the importance of user-centered design and iterative feedback. Clear navigation, intuitive communication, and customization options like personalized notifications were critical to user satisfaction. Social engagement features proved essential for fostering community, while a unified platform reduced frustration by eliminating the need to switch between apps. The process highlighted the need for simplicity without sacrificing functionality, ensuring even complex features like highlight creation remain accessible. These lessons reinforced the value of testing, refining, and balancing user needs with functionality for a seamless experience.
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