Taking everything into consideration.

The research problem revolves around the complexity of meeting the diverse needs and expectations of players, clubs, and tournament administrators within the tennis community when creating a tennis website. This encompasses designing a platform with a wide range of features and functionalities, including tournament management, player registrations, performance tracking, and event promotion, while ensuring an intuitive and engaging user experience for a diverse audience.

Researching Problem Space

I began the design process by selecting a specific usage scenario to focus on. Guided by the assignment instructions, I chose to prioritize meeting the needs of both players and club managers. This involved identifying areas where the website could offer value to both parties, including features like player statistics tracking, match scheduling, communication tools, recruitment platforms, and more. To better understand the needs and preferences of players and club managers, I conducted research, including interviews and observations. This allowed me to gather insights into their behaviors, pain points, and goals related to tennis.

Some key findings...

• It is necessary to include separate login options for players and managers, catering to the different needs and access levels of each user group
• it emerged that providing a streamlined process for players and managers to register for tournaments and manage their participation, including payment processing, event scheduling, and communication of important event details, is crucial.
• It is important, for club managers, incorporate tools for team management such as roster management, player availability tracking, and communication features to coordinate matches.

Analysing Market & Competitions

Competitive Analysis for Tennis App Development

I decided to conduct a competitive analysis by studying existing applications for playing tennis. I chose to investigate applications with similar interests to TCC. I identified two competitors,  tennis.com and utrsports.com. I evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of these applications to outline how I could use that information in the development of the concept.

Defining Persona & Goals

Listening and understanding users

Based on previous observations and interviews, I recognized that there were two user types that the design tried to solve problems for. Creating user personas helped me start to visualize and understand the user's needs and challenges.

Placing the persona in an ideal context scenario helps identify the minimum required functions of our MVP.

At this stage, the main aim is to identify the design needs necessary for making these ideal scenarios possible. These needs will guide the brainstorming phase.

User Story: Finding and Registering for a Tennis Tournament
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Frame 1: The tennis player opens the tennis application on their phone.
‍Frame 2: The player navigates to the "Tournaments" section of the app and "Tournaments available".
‍Frame 3: The player selects their preferred club for the tournament.
‍Frame 4: The app displays a list of upcoming tournaments in the selected club, along with timeslot, Double or single, Age range,  type of tournament and number of spots.
‍Frame 5: The player reviews the tournament details and selects one that fits their schedule and preferences.
‍Frame 6: The player sign up for the tournament.
Frame 7: The player confirms their registration and receives a confirmation email or notification.
‍Frame 8: The player adds the tournament to their calendar and shares the event details with friends or fellow players.

User Story: Organizing a Tennis Tournament
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Frame 1: The club manager logs into the tennis club management system on their computer.
‍Frame 2: The manager navigates to the "Tournaments" section of the system.
‍Frame 3: The system displays a list of upcoming tournaments and past events, along with options to create a new tournament.
‍Frame 4: The manager selects the option to create a new tournament and fills in the necessary details, such as tournament name, date, registration deadline, type, number of player and specifications.
‍Frame 5: The manager confirms the tournament details and publishes the event, making it visible to club members and the public.
‍Frame 6: The system generates a unique tournament webpage with event details, registration links, and contact information.
‍Frame 7: The manager shares the tournament webpage on the club's website and social media channels to promote the event.
‍Frame 8: The system automatically tracks registrations and updates the manager on participant numbers and any outstanding tasks.
‍Frame 9: As the tournament date approaches, the manager uses the system to communicate important updates and reminders to registered participants.

Emphasising progress through access to Information, Tournament Organization, Connection and Community.

Leveraging the key findings and persona attributes, I understood that the ideal solution must be able to connect tennis players and clubs. A comprehensive tool that meets the needs for information, organization, connection, and performance tracking within the tennis community, enhancing the overall experience for players, club manager and encouraging participation in the sport.

After understanding the problem areas, I designed an information architecture to ensure that the resulting solution not only meets the needs and goals of both players and club managers but also provides a seamless and intuitive user experience. This involved considering how users will navigate through the system and access the information they need to accomplish their tasks efficiently

The final MVP product

User testing was an iterative process that was conducted both after ideation with creating sketches and after creating mid-fi prototypes. This helped me to notice the weaknesses of the design and also contribute with feedback on things I could develop in the design. Once feedback was gathered, I revisited the prototypes and tested them again.

What I learned.

• Designing with augmented reality was a new experience for me which led to knowledge about the techniques in augmented reality, design principles, different programs, and prototyping.
• How to combine storytelling and agumented reality to create a digital fictive experience
• To plan, lead and implement an individual design project.
• How valuable it is to demonstrate ideas to the design team early in the design process. This opens for input, feedback, and criticism which will help develop the concept.