Han Meng Pregame

_____ STAKEHOLDER INTERVIEW

Company Background

Baseball/Softball coaches always aim for the best outcomes for their players by providing them with opportunities to play and develop their skills in all positions. However, tools like Excel, which are often used to manage teams, are neither visually appealing nor efficient. Roster Champ was designed to solve this problem.

Before Pregame

With Pregame

We were really exited about this product, but the app was designed by the owner of the company himself, with the help of a couple of UI designers. All design decisions were based on his opinion as a user, without any other user research. We immediately realized that the most urgent thing was to test the design with users as soon as possible.

The challenge

Deliver the best results in a month

In 4 weeks, we need to identify major usability issues in the current design. We offered to conduct user interviews and information architecture since the client never did any user research. Within a short time frame, we also need to propose an improved user flow and prototype. So we were only focusing on the red routes during these 4 week.

My role

Myself and two other designers were brought onboard as design consultants to help this startup company improve the current design.

We divided the responsibilities and I was in charge of usability testing, information architecture, and a portion of the visual design and prototype.

_____ DESIGN AUDIT

Testing the current design to find the problems

Usability testing

We decided that we needed to bring the product in front of the users ASAP.

During the first week, three of us asked friends and family members who had experience coaching baseball to participate in the project and test the red routes. Here is the red routes we tested:

Auto draft the lineup for the entire game
Manual draft the lineup for one inning of the game
Set up a player's preference

User interviews

At the same time, we also conducted user interviews along with testing to better understand our audience.

Have you ever had any experience coaching baseball/softball?

Tell me about your experience with baseball or softball.

Have you used any applications or platforms for team management.

What do you think about those applications?

Do you have any frustrations when you created lineups for the game?

What you will do for the players when you are coaching?

Heuristic analysis

I conducted a full design audit of the current design using Jakob Nielsen's 10 general principles. Through this audit, I identified all the pain points that can be improved.

_____ COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

Understanding the competition

Two of my partners conducted a competitive analysis to assess what is already available in the market and identify what we can learn to enhance Pregame and make it a better product.

Gamechanger

Pros:

- Real-time Updates
- Intuitive User Interface
- Comprehensive Team Management
- Detailed Statistics and Analytics

Cons

- Limited Sport Options
- Design Customization Constraints
- Learning Curve for New Users

TeamSnap

Pros:

- Multi-Sport Support
- Extensive Communication Features
- Customization Options
- Integration with External Calendars

Cons

- Complex User Interface
- Limited Free Version Features
- Absence of Real-time Updates

Mojo sports

Pros:

- Live game status
- A solid scheduling foundation
- Chat feature
- Clean UI

Cons

- Mostly a scheduling app
- Limited Free Version Features
- Absence of Real-time Updates

Baseball Fielding Rotation App

Pros:

- Very simple to use
- Does a great job at meeting fair play

Cons

- Rudimentary UI Design
- Constraints on the amount of personalization
- Can not edit the lineups

Persona details

During the user interviews, we realized that users have varying levels of baseball/softball knowledge.

To address this, we created two personas based on their baseball experience. Each persona has different motivations and goals, which will lead them to different features in the app.

Venessa

35
Graphic designer
Cleveland, Ohio
New to coaching

" I hope there's a tool to help me organized the players so I can just enjoy watching my son play and not get swept up in the coaching side of things."

Pain points:
I have really little knowledge of baseball, even though pregame is an useful tool for me but all the technical terms throw me off sometimes.

Goal:
I hope the process of building lineups is simple and easy, and I don't have to spend too much time planning.

Robert

30
Teacher
Chicago, Illinois
Played College Baseball

"I have had frustrations with coaches who favor other players and do not allow everyone to play. Everyone deserves a chance to learn.”

Pain points:
Pregame's equity map can help me get an overall look at the players, but it's not detailed enough for me to apply my positioning ideas.

Goal:
I want to help players proficient develop their skills more, and make sure the whole team enjoys playing.

_____ DISCOVERIES

What problems we discovered

The research conducted in the first week yielded similar feedback, indicating major areas for improvement.

Problem 1: The design does not always keep users informed of what is going on.

Possible Solution:

As our users have varying levels of baseball knowledge, some may not understand the nuanced details of play styles. Providing an explanation for each metric can keep everyone informed of the results their actions will lead to.

Problem 2: It does not eliminate error-prone conditions.

Possible Solution:

All users mentioned that they expected to be able to edit the lineup while viewing it. Therefore, we can combine these two actions into a single button.

The term "RSVP" may not be the most accurate; we could try using "availability" instead. Overall, the language used throughout the app could be clearer.

Problem 3: Users need additional explanations to complete some tasks.

Possible Solution:

Equity Map requires an information page to explain the metrics to users so that they can track the status of all players during the game.

To improve usability, the hitting lineup should be spelled out and placed in a more prominent location since coaches would always need to refer to it during games.

Sitemap

Pregame never had a sitemap, so I traced the current flow and created a sitemap. Then, based on our research, these are what we changed.

We combined "View lineup" and "Edit lineup" to eliminate confusion.
For simplicity and efficiency, each game only allows for one lineup. This means that the options to "Build new lineup" and "Edit lineup" will not be available at the same time.
“Hitting lineup” has its own page. Users who are more technically inclined about coaching can always refer to it during the game.

User flows

Based on the new sitemap, we also adjusted the user flows.

Sketches

Edit lineup page: We chose Option 2 because it allows users to easily switch between list view and field view of positioning. Additionally, it provides easy access to "Hitting Lineup" and "Equity Map". The icons in Option 3 are also a good idea for visualizing the available options.

Hitting lineup page: Option 2 has a cleaner look without any other information interrupted.

Equity map page: We decided to use both options because while option 1 provides in-depth data about players for users like professional Robert, option 2 helps amateur Vanessa understand all the baseball terms.

_____ HIGH FIDELITY DESIGNS

Critical User Journey

Venessa

Vanessa needs to step in as a coach for her son's game. She needs to quickly draft a lineup for the game so that she can relax and watch her son play.

Build new lineup

After logging in, she selects her team and chooses the game "at Mariners". After confirming the information, she clicks "Build New Lineup", which takes her to a new page. There, she quickly selects "Auto Draft" for a quick and easy option, since she knows little about baseball.

Autodraft setting

Vanessa was confused by the different options for play styles in the old design. However, the new design includes descriptions for each option, allowing her to better understand what they each entail. The bench options will be automatically set depending on her choices for the play style.
‍
Development: Less skilled players will get more chances to play in all the positions
Balanced: All the players will get a chance to play
All-star: More experienced players will get more chances to play

Old

New

Switch between different views

Vanessa did not understand what "List View" meant in the old design. With the new design, she uses the toggle to switch between field view and list view. Now she knows that it is just a different way of presenting the same information. Additionally, the "Hitting Lineup" button at the bottom of the screen is clearer than the previous design's simple "H" button. After finishing her job as a coach, she can now simply enjoy watching her son play.

Old

New

Robert

Robert has an extensive knowledge of baseball and is full of ideas about lineups and player positions. He prefers to handle everything himself and possesses detailed information about each player.

Player setting

Prior to the game, he arranged preferred positions for each player to assist them in developing the necessary skills.

Manual draft

When building the lineup, he selects the "Build from scratch" option and manually positions all players.

Provide help for the users - Equity map and Hitting lineup

He checks the equity map and hitting lineup throughout the game to ensure that all of his players have a chance to play.

An information pop-up is added when he first time enters "Equity map" to explain the system. With this, he has a clear understanding what equity map is.

When he notices that Willie and Dori have already been sitting on the bench for three innings, he quickly switches out other players and puts them on the field for the next inning. Now he finally has everything in his control and make sure every player in his team can enjoy playing baseball.

Old

Measuring success

What I did well

The second round of usability testing gave us a lot of positive feedback.

"I feel like I’m in the lead, not the app leading me."

"I would definitely suggest to my varsity coach to use this app. Considering that I use teamsnap and gamechanger for our games, I would rather use this app."

40% of users said they would highly consider purchasing this service after seeing the changes to the usability of the platform.

What I would do differently

Thinking as your own business.

During the 2 months I was working on this project, I only focus on the MVPs that helps users build up healthy routines. Move forward, I would love to add a feature that gives user more positive feedback when they finished their routine.Working for a small business with two of my partners was an amazing experience. I learned tremendously about small business constraints, time management, and collaborations. One thing I would do differently is to take the project on as if it were my own business, not just as a designer. During our conversations with clients, we discussed the next milestones for the company and what new features could be added for the next launch. If time allows, I would propose multiple possibilities in that area.

Roster Champ

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