CONTEXT & PROBLEM
Questions we asked ourselves:
RESEARCH & DISCOVERY
We interviewed 25 individuals matching our target persona, providing key insights into the behaviors, pain points, and motivations of pickup sports players.
Initially, our focus was on helping users easily find local players to guarantee pickup games. However, our interviews revealed this missed the mark: players actually enjoy the organic, social nature of pickup sports and have no trouble meeting strangers or making new friends on the court.
Our research showed a shift in the primary pain point: users struggled more with coordinating friendly matches among existing friend groups and locating the "best" court or field.
With these new insights, we pivoted our platform's focus to become the hub for effortlessly coordinating matches with friends while fostering a social space to share favorite court and field moments.
STRATEGY & IDEATION
Ballr is an platform where you can effortlessly organize matches with friends, discover top-tier courts/spots, and share your best moments. All in one authentic community built for pickup sports.
By going back to the core social elements that make traditional social media engaging, we translated those principles directly into our app's core features.
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DESIGN & PROTOTYPING
From those core features, I mapped out the flow to create the most optimal user experience.
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Through numerous iterations, I worked with my team to create a functional prototype that would allow us to test our ideas and gather feedback from potential users.
The onboarding flow allows users to easily specify their preferred sports and skill levels right from the start.
The map page features a "Find My"-style interface that displays friends playing at nearby courts. We tweaked the UI to make it easy to join public matches or connect with people you know.
The profile page was designed to help people track their athletic journey, allowing people to document match highlights, connect with friends, and view personalized statistics on playing activity.
We redesigned that statistics page because it gave off the "health app"-feel too much. We wanted to go for something that was more personal and fun.
IMPLEMENTATION & POLISH
After doing some usability testing with potential users, we refined the app's design and functionality to better meet their needs.
Get the gist about what Ballr is about. Sign up or log in to get started.
Build your personal profile by creating a unique username and adding a profile picture.
Specify your preferred sports and skill levels to get personalized court recommendations.
After going through the onboarding process, you'll be ready to use Ballr.
Explore the Ballr community and see your progress on an achievement.
See what your friends are up to and view their sports posts.
Find courts near you and discover new playing opportunities with your friends.
Quickly start a session once you've found a court and are nearby.
Whenever you want to join a match, you can do so with just a few taps.
Your status updates automatically to show the sport you're playing and your current location.
Earn badges and achievements as you play and engage with your friends.
View your profile and make quick edits to your information.
Explore your stats and progress as you play and engage with your friends.
See who's on your friends list and add new friends once they get on Ballr.
Keep track of all the moments you saved playing with friends through journals.
REFLECTION & LEARNING
Ballr was a really iterative project that evolved constantly through user testing. Though we've since pivoted and haven't launched this idea, I would love to eventually revisit the concept to explore how to make it more engaging and sustainable. Here's what I learned, though: