DVLP
An all-in-one hub for athletes and trainers
Kevin Lanigan
Team
Cameron Locke
Mujtaba Khan
Timeline
3 weeks
Deliverables
Redesign
Prototype
Design Audit
Project Lead
UX Research: Market Research, C&C, User Interviews, Usability Testing
UI Design: Calendar, Messaging Features
Role
Background
Originally established as a basketball camp and training organization rooted in Nebraska, DVLP had a vision to enhance its offerings by introducing a cutting-edge platform. This platform aims to connect athletes with valuable resources and skilled trainers, while simultaneously equipping those trainers with the necessary tools to efficiently oversee and expand their business endeavors through a digital storefront. Athletes are granted the opportunity to access a curated selection of accomplished basketball coaches.
Problem
The DVLP app has launched for iOS and Android, but trainers struggle with its confusing layout and lack understanding of core funtionalities, including setting up their digital storefront.
Solution
In order to facilitate a smooth introduction to the app, we developed multiple onboarding screens. These screens serve to familiarize trainers with he app, provide insights into its features, and offer guidance on its various core functionalities. Additionally, we meticulously redesigned several user flows to ensure intuitive and seamless experiences for trainers.
The Research
After meeting with the stakeholders, we knew that we wanted to conduct the following research methods: Market Analysis, Usability Testing on the current state of the app, and User Interviews
Key Takeaways
Users didn’t understand the purpose of the application
Competitors in the market utilize a homepage, DVLP did not
Users were confused when asked to create a training session
Market Research
So much of DVLP’s content was hidden behind a hamburger menu. Essential features, like scheduling training sessions or creating workouts, were not obvious to our users
After researching the market, we identified five direct and indirect competitors. 100% of competitors utilized a home dashboard, while DVLP featured a social media feed
We conducted sitemaps of DVLP and its competitors. You can clearly see how much information falls behind that hamburger menu
User Interviews & Usability Testing
Due to the timeframe we were working with, we combined our user interviews and first round of usability testing. We were able to pull users from a list provided to us by the stakeholders comprised of current trainers and potential DVLP users
Our first round of usability testing helped us prove some of the assumptions we had going in to them, namely that a lot of essential features were hard to find
Ideation & Design
From our research, it was clear that users were having trouble navigating the application. It was necessary to familiarize users with the app through an onboarding process
After testing the new onboarding feature with users, 83% of users informed us that they were comfortable with the onboarding screens and 100% of them had no issues reaching the home page
We then turned our attention to what we viewed as one of the glaring issues with the current app, its information architecture. Based on prior user testing and market research, we felt it was necessary to reorganize the application and did so by creating a home dashboard
Our dashboard proved to be quite effective at improving user awareness of features. In the first round of usability testing on DVLP’s current state, 100% of users did not know that the app offered the ability to create training sessions or where to go to begin the task. In the second round, with the redesigned prototype, 100% of users felt that the create a session process was intuitive
We continued our design by building out the essential features screens, including the calendar, create a training screen, and chat functions
After consulting with our stakeholders and presenting our proposal, they were fully onboard with the redesign and plan to meet with developers to build out the app using our handoff documents
Takeaways
Working on this project over the course of just three weeks meant moving forward with decisions without being able to fully agree on directions as a team. There were lots of doubts over where to put our time and efforts, and what needed to be our MVP.
Throughout our time researching the company and its competitors, we realized that there was a lot more for us to do and so we needed to firmly lay out what we would feasibly be able to accomplish within the timeframe when discussing deliverables with the stakeholders.
Some next steps I would take if I was to continue working on this project would be to build out the athlete side of the application and continue working with the stakeholders and users to realize the most efficient version of their vision for the app.