Roles
User research & User interface design
Project Type
Individual student project at Springboard
Problem
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a mixed martial art that is internationally recognized. However, there is a lack of technological presence in the sport, which prevents enthusiasts from fully optimizing their training and misses an opportunity for technological advancement in sports applications.
Questions
How might we find suitable partners to train with?
How might we introduce more women into the sport, making them feel safe?
How might we make Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu more appealing, encouraging people to join?
Competition
In our search for the most popular apps in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, we found four that stood out: YouTube, Reddit, BJJ Fanatics, and Jiu-Jitsu Five-O. These apps had a lot of users and offered things like instructional videos, community discussions, and event updates. We looked at how they were designed to get ideas for our own app. Our goal is to make an app that's like a one-stop shop for everything related to Jiu-Jitsu. We want it to be easy for people to find resources, connect with others, and be a part of the Jiu-Jitsu community.
Understanding the User
User Interviews
Affinity Mapping
Insights
We used affinity mapping and user interviews to identify key insights into practitioners' struggles in the sport. These insights also shed light on potential barriers for those not currently involved. Our aim is to strengthen the Jiujitsu community while also attracting new participants, so understanding these challenges is crucial.
There are many differences when it comes to novices and experienced practitioners.
Most women have a hard time finding training partners
Even people that do not practice the sport, knows that it is a type of mixed martial arts and it involves grappling.
Time and other responsibilities play a role in how consistent people are in practicing the sport.
Empathy Map
Says:
“I feel more alive when I go against someone and completely dominate them.”
“I like learning new moves and trying to improve myself and increasing my move set.”
“I would like it if there was a good school right next to me where I can drop in anytime I would like. That way I can learn with great coaches and people, without spending much time on travel.”
“I wish there were some more people a little more advance and the other purple belt is pretty old too.”
Think:
Likes the aggressiveness of the sport.
Hard to find good schools/partners.
Likes the discipline associated with the sport.
Does:
Watching others train.
Looks up moves on Reddit and YouTube.
Training and learning with friends.
Feel:
Worried about injuries.
Feels that it is more than just a sport.
Loves the competitiveness.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu takes a lot of time.
Persona
User Flows
Starting the Design
After gathering all the information from user interviews and creating empathy maps, user flows, and personas, we generate questions that need to be answered when creating the application. Moving on to the next step of the design process, we will brainstorm solutions to the problem we are solving. Following brainstorming, we create sketches for the application and eventually move on to low-fidelity wireframes to establish a foundation for the features and design elements we want to incorporate into the application.
Brainstorming
How Might we differentiate competition BJJ and normal BJJ?
How might we find suitable partners to train with?
How might we make Brazilian Jiujitsu more appealing, encouraging people to join?
Sketches
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Prepping for competition
Competition list for local competitions.
Large network of doctors, nutritionists, and other professionals to help athletes' health.
Coaching calls where users can video call or message different coaches.
The next step in the design process is refining the design. In this phase, we conduct user testing to observe how users interact with the application and identify any changes needed to enhance their experience. Based on the feedback received, we implement these changes in the high-fidelity wireframes.
User Testing
During user testing, we focused on identifying what users struggled with in terms of the interface and overall experience throughout the application. We provided users with specific tasks to accomplish and observed how they navigated through the application, paying close attention to which elements they found most challenging.
User Interface
Issues with button size and affecting clickability.
Issues with color and brightness of text and other elements
Tasks
Users struggled with switching from competitive and normal.
There were difficulties with finding the rankings of friends and global.
Several testers struggled with clicking the button to go either online or offline.
Conclusion
There is no home button.
Some buttons are glitchy and unclickable.
Issues with leaderboards.
Sees the value in the application and believes it can help the sport.
Some people are afraid it might be too much in addition to YouTube and Reddit.
As we move towards the end of the design process, we reflect on our work and gather key takeaways to further improve the project. Being our first project, we recognize that there are still many changes to be made. Our primary goal was to do our best to satisfy all the needs and wants of users to create the best Jiu-Jitsu application possible.
Reflection
This was our first student project, and it opened our eyes to the many steps needed to create an user centric design. Although it was our first project, there was a lot of research and editing involved to bring the idea to life.
Takeaways
The importance of user testing and interviews and how beneficial it is to have user inputs in the design process.
Users notice the little inconsistencies, it is important to keep everything as consistent as possible.
Prototype
Brand Guideline
Presentation