FindaFan

A focused, organized, and interactive way for fans of the same sports teams - who don’t live near those teams - to find and connect with each other.

The Problem

It’s hard to find and connect with fellows fans of your favorite sports team(s), when you don’t live in or near their city.

The Solution

FindaFan provides a focused, organized, and interactive way for fans of the same sports teams who don’t live near those teams to find and connect with each other.

Roles and Responsibilities

UX Design, UI Design, and Product Design

Target Audience

Die-hard fans of specific teams

User Survey (36 Participants)

User Survey Finding #1

The results of this survey not only prove that this problem (die-hard fans who don’t live in their favorite team’s city wanting/needing to find other die-hard fans of the same team - or in short, finding fellow fans) needs a solution, but the solution could - as dramatic as this sounds - could change lives and create lifelong relationships.

User Survey Finding #2

The survey results also tell a story of a fan who has close to no fellow fans in their life, most likely watch all of their team's games alone, and talk about it afterwards with other fans online. Relying on seeing random people in the wild who happen to be wearing their team's logo is completely unreliable. They truly wish they could find a way to connect with nearby fans of their favorite sports teams and build a friendship with them.

Competitive Analysis

ESPN: The King Sports App. ESPN has always been known as the best sports app, and it shows with their extensive information about the majority of the sports world and sports team. Unfortunately, there is no way to find fellow fans.

‍NBA: Out of the three major sports leagues, the NBA app has the best visual design. There are some glaring UX issues, but the main one being it does a horrible job of creating a custom experience for fans of only a certain team. The layouts for team information and standings are very good. Again, there is no way to find fellow fans.-

NFL: The NFL has the best custom experience for fans of only a certain team. Once you’ve been onboarded (which is wonderful) most of your app experience revolves around your team. The layout for the team information - without question - is the best out of the big three sports leagues apps. Again, there is no way to find fellow fans.

MLB: I know what they’re trying to do, but this app is way too crowed and lacks direction. Once you’ve been onboarded (which is average) most of your app experience revolves around your team. Again, there is no way to find fellow fans.

Zillow: Has nothing to do to with sports, but the search and filter features are robust and detailed - and I want to copy them. The way Zillow’s search feature switches between Map and List is exactly the sort of function Find a Fan needs to ensure fellow fans connect. Zillow also has an extensive filter Find a Fan will model. But, Zillow, obviously, has to do with houses and not finding fellow fans.

Airbnb: Again, has nothing to do with sports, but the way their search feature leads the user into a flow ensuring they get the exact results they are looking for can be mirrored in Find a Fan. They also have a thought out filter feature. Again, Airbnb, has to do with places to stay and not finding fellow fans.

Care.com: The idea with Care.com is to connect people together and make it easy - parents and caregivers. I was hoping to grab a few key ideas on how they connect people, but while exploring their app I recognized that they seem to know the direction they want to take their app, unfortunately, it’s poorly executed.

Twitter: I’m a big fan of how Twitter’s DMs are structured. All messages, group and individual, are all housed in the same spot. Twitter also has the alternating messages - unlike LinkedIn and Slack - with different color messages per person. It makes it easy for the user to understand who messaging whom.

Instagram: Instagram’s DMs has almost the same usability as Twitter, but a little more busy UI. It’s more focused on sharing photo and videos.

LinkedIn: I’m a big fan of how simple LinkedIn’s messaging feature is. They stack their messages in between people, and sometimes it gets a bit muddled trying to figure out who said what while messaging.

Slack: Slack also stacks their messaging, but their visual hierarchy makes it easier to decipher who is messaging what in between people.

FindaFan’s Opportunity

While other sports apps connect fans to information about their favorite teams, FindaFan has an opportunity to what other sports apps can't - connect fans to one another. Connecting fans, who might feel lonely, could lead to changing lives and life-long friendships.

User Persona: Joshua Johnson (JJ)

The persona created was Joshua Johnson or JJ. He was created through the survey findings and some guerilla-style user interviews done as research. JJ is at the beginning of married life with a few toddlers. He grew up playing sports and has been a lifelong fan of his favorite teams. He is the only fan of his teams he knows about in his town. If we could make an app that connected a die-hard fan to even a small percentage of fellow fans in his area - every other type of fan could use FindaFan.

Behaviors

• Watches every game of every team he loves
• Loves spending time with family 
• Participates in fantasy for every major sports league 
• Is up-to-date on team news  
• Actively participates in social media conversations about his teams

Goals & Needs

• A way to connect and find fellow fans of his favorite sports teams
• Needs just one fellow fan who’s just as obsessed with sports
 • Pass the love he has for his teams onto his family 
• To provide for his family

Hesitations & Pain Points

• Doesn’t want to watch games at someone’s house he doesn’t know.
• Time it will take to build a friendship is hard with a young family
• That there aren’t any fans of his teams that live near him

Minimal Viable Product

1. The app will focus on connecting fans, so ensuring users are able to search and message each other will be a primary task.
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2. Customizing the app to each fan's teams is a must as the app will be dealing with multiple fan bases.

Information Architecture

User Flows: All About Connection

FindaFan will be a social app that provides an avenue for people to connect and either take that connection offline or stay within the app. To ensure I was focused on my MVP, most of the user flows were focused on finding and messaging a fellow fan.

Wireframes

Hi-Fi Wireframes Findings

While creating the wireframes, I realized that, do to the nature of this app, I will have to create a clickable prototype to truly test the MVP. It was also brought to my attention that the onboarding process will be crucial to set the users up for success. I'll be honest, I didn't wireframe the Onboarding screens as I already had an idea of what it should look like based off of the Competitive Analysis findings.

Usability Testing

I was able to test with six (6) users that were pulled directly from the user survey pool. I zoomed with them while watching them use the app live and asked questions. The usability testing yielded phenomenal findings.

Main Findings

Remove Fangauge feature almost completely. Especially during onboarding and on Search List. Move to Profile
Based on user feedback, certain visual design and UX copy needs to be adjusted/updated on the overall app
Add photos, social media links, more info section and active state on profile
Enhance the messaging experience by accepting message before interacting, add blocking ability, show matched team within messages, and indicate if message is read
Every user loved the app, wished it wasn’t conceptual, and loved the visual and overall design

High Fidelity Mockup

Next steps

Removing and integrating the Fangauge
Enhancing the messaging feature and profile
Applying certain visual design and copy changes
Start the process of a desktop version

Learnings

It was revealed during testing that the users believed this app could be life changing. As absurd as it might sound, most users said that if the app could connect them with one person - their life would change.

I would be so bold to say our target users NEED this app.

FindaFan will unequivocally help collectors go from analog to digital.

Final Thoughts

Don’t assume. At first, I believed the Fangauge would be a vital part of the app and would breed more connection, when in fact the opposite was found true through testing.
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The power of UX is connection. This app is designed to connect users, and that power can either create strong connections or could completely destroy them.