The project

Just League is a Sports Tournament Management System. It is an MVP in which the user can register to the platform, create three types of tournaments, and manage information such as teams, participant, match, and results. The first release will allow creating soccer tournaments only.

The team 

I managed the entire design stages such as the visual layout, the front-end development along with some of the PHP functions. At the same time, I took care of several aspects of Product Design and Project Management issues related to the project. I also led a micro team of two developers (as remote co-workers), which helped me develop specific tournament algorithms.

1. Kick-Off

During the first (remote) meetings, we mapped out the project goals, identified competitors and target audience. We also detected key issues and potential solutions in order to gather a deeper knowledge of the market.

I did so through the creation of:

• User stories and personas
• User journeys
• Competitor analysis

2. Information Architecture

I built up the information architecture and held several brainstorming workshops with the client. I decided which features were to be taken into account for the MVP and how to structure the Web App.

I also considered that the responsive version would need a different layout due to screen size dimensions (same amount of information, smaller layout).

The problem

Among few minor issues, the most relevant problem was that our competitor’s releases had several functionalities that couldn’t be included in our MVP, at least not from the beginning, due to the limited time and the budget at our disposal.

The solution

After analysing the user-target of our best competitors, I discovered that their main customers were large sports facilities. 

Whilst, from the analysis of the user experience of the competitors’ products, I found out that their management systems, because of the largest set of functionalities, resulted consequently quite complex to use.

Our idea has therefore become that to create a simpler, more usable application, which through wizards, would enable the user to create tournaments and manage them in only a few minutes. Also, as we needed to target a different user, we decided to address our product to small-to-medium sports facilities, as well as single users.

Prototyping & Testing

1. Invision Prototype

I built up functioning prototypes using Sketch and Invision App.
These prototypes were tested each week to pinpoint usability and other issues.

Detailed Design

1. Look and feel

I tried to create a simple interface with a few essential elements in compliance with a responsive perspective. As a result, the interface is light, user friendly and fresh.

2. Detailed UI Screens

First I created a small library of elements made from an essential color palette, buttons, text styles and then assembled the elements into a detailed interface following the wireframes.

Development

The problem

After deciding on functionality and defining various case histories, I knew I needed a technology that would allow me to independently create the entire application. Having a thorough knowledge of WordPress I decided to use this CMS. The only problem concerned the creation of the algorithms that generated the tournaments once the necessary data had been entered. 

The solution

I realized the basic functionalities through the native WordPress functions, thanks to the ACF plugin. Then I created the main views and data structure by preparing some Trello tasks to be passed on to the developers who were working on the algorithms.

Another fundamental aspect we dealt with was to create an easily scalable data structure in the eventuality of a change of technology or a migration to a native data app through API.