Schedulete
Helping coaches spend less time scheduling and more time with their teams
Roles
Design Lead
User Experience (UX) Designer
User Interface (UI) Designer
Researcher
Challenge
With more than 1,000 teams that are apart of the NCAA and hundreds focusing on specific sports, coaches are discovering that the traditional methods of scheduling such as phone calls and emails are becoming increasingly challenging. In a world where technology and software are adopted to enhance efficiency and intuitiveness in various processes, it raises curiosity as to why the traditional method used by coaches hasn’t changed.
Schedulete is dedicated to help coaches save time and frustration by revolutionizing this process and allow more time for them to actually coach.
Improve the usability of Schedulete by addressing the painpoints coaches face during the game scheduling process. The goal is to streamline the user journey, enhance clarity, and reduce uncertainties within the platform.
Problems
Research
Current lack of transparency in the platform is leading to user confusion in the scheduling process.
Many users tend to disengage with the platform during the scheduling process.
Information and notifications get lost due to lack of user feedback.
I began by having a kick off meeting with the stakeholders to establish a foundation and gain a deeper understanding of the needs, goals, and requirements of the project and identify any potential challenges and opportunities. I then began by doing some market research in order to understand the approaches of other similar products. I also wanted to identify gaps in functionality and usability with the current platform. User interviews would help me understand the users’ journey in scheduling and identify their pain points.
Developing User-Centered Design
Although initially it seemed that all the users would have similar issues, after conducting user research, I realized that the pain points varied.
I created a consumer profile referencing the data from the user research in response to serve as a reference point for the design decisions moving forward.
The Journey is just as Important as the Destination
By creating and analyzing the journey map of the persona, I discovered some key emotional and operational moments that Schedulete needed to address. For example, the frustration the user might feel when they’re trying to find game invitation responses. To increase the chances of the product’s success, it would need to overcome these pain points.
“How might we reduce confusion within the product to streamline the users’ experience?”
Creating composition
Elaboration
Deliverables
Market analysis
User interviews
Persona
User journey
User flow
Site map
Mid-fidelity prototypes
High-fidelity mockups and prototypes
Usability tests and findings
Team
Angela
Laura
Olivia
Mike (Dev)
Project Duration
November 2023 - January 2024
10 Weeks
Using the collective data, I created a site map and user flow to depict the content’s structure and organization. This also helped in enhancing the user-centric experience.
Envisioning a User-Centric experience
I was able to explore some design patterns and ideas through rapid sketching and A/B testing the resulting mid-fidelity prototypes. Due to time constraints, I immediately went to a mid-fidelity prototype from sketching. This allowed me to quickly assess the feasibility of the different designs and lay the framework for a more fully realized high-fidelity prototype.
Through the tests, I uncovered the areas of cognitive friction users experienced while performing key tasks, that lead to the lack of a clear user journey and user confusion.
The high-fidelity prototype was created to bring the users as close as possible to a real experience with the improvements made in response to the data gathered from previous tests. Improvements to the interaction clarity were well received by the users, enhancing their usability and navigation.
Lessons Learned
At first, the clients raised concerns about users resorting to an external workflow to supplement the scheduling process. While initially perceived as a friction point, further research revealed it to be a user benefit. User feedback indicated a preference for the traditional method of phone calls to discuss details, and the process was so ingrained in the culture, making complete elimination challenging.
Despite the product being fairly simple the users were consistently getting confused in the scheduling process due to lack of information transparency. Easy-to-use labeling and filters were important elements of the process.
Due to the ambiguity of the challenge and uncertainty of the direction that the stakeholders initially presented, I found that clear communication with both the stakeholder and my team. This provided the alignment needed early on in the process to later establish a clear design direction and success of the product.
Proposed Solutions
Enhance the transparency and clarity of the scheduling process to minimize user error and confusion.
Address the problem of user disengagement and keep them on platform.
Increase user engagement by mitigating information loss.
Findings
No direct competition in regards to a coach-to-coach scheduling concept, but attempts at schedule organizing and auto schedule generating platforms.
Users voiced concerns in the platform’s clarity and adoption from others
Scheduling limitations and communication between parties were evident in the market.
Information organization was an issue for everyone, though the reasons varied amongst users.