responsive website:
silicon valley vipers
Designing a responsive website for the Silicon Valley Vipers, a quadball team which has been active for almost 10 years, to promote "Kidditch" services and drive recruitment via education on the sport.
Skills: UX research, content design, visual design, interaction design, Framer
overview
BACKGROUND
The heck is quadball?
Quadball is an exciting new sport inspired by Quidditch from Harry Potter. As one of the only mixed-gender team sports, teams are uniquely inclusive communities for trans and non-binary players.
Due to the pandemic disbanding many college teams and a lack of awareness of the sport, quadball has been at risk of dying out.
THE PROBLEM
Quadball confusion
I address this issue through creating an educational, recruitment-oriented website for The Silicon Valley Vipers, a club team which has been active for almost 10 years.
The founder of the Silicon Valley Vipers pours his heart into recruitment — chasing after onlookers at practice with business cards to the team’s Meetup and Facebook pages, texting or calling prospective players asking them if they’ll join a tournament, creating a Tinder account for the team, and at times swiping on said account every day.
This is a problem because this recruitment style is time-consuming and requires consistent effort. Moreover, if recruitment targets are not met, the team risks losing its status as a competitive team.
SOLUTION
Introducing The Silicon Valley Vipers’ first-ever website
👩🏻🏫
educate users on the magic of quadball to recruit prospective players
🧹
promote the team’s “Kidditch” services and raise funds
🤪
capture the quirky, wacky spirit of The Vipers with fabulous copy
✨
wow users with breathtaking animations
discovery
USER INTERVIEWS
Interviewing Vipers team members and a community member
7 individuals residing in the Bay Area
Interview length: 1 hour
In these conversations, I explored the following questions:
What factors do team members and Silicon Valley residents consider when joining communities?
What are prospective players understanding of quadball?
What factors influence retention?
define
Quote
HMWs
QUOTE
Sense of excitement and hesitance
Following the interviews, I considered the narratives people relayed to me.
One hesitant community member told me the following:
“
It's checking all the boxes. It's just the kind of sport it is ... this is some new kind of sport which I don't know how to play. I'm not sure.
HMWs
Zeroing in on recruitment opportunities
How might we provide clear and accessible information about basic quadball rules to help newcomers get up to speed quickly?
How might we emphasize the beginner-friendly and welcoming nature of our quadball team?
collaboration with client
This project was purely voluntary, but I treated the captain as if they were any other client. I made sure to check in with him during early stages through brief phone calls, face-to-face conversations, and Figma file sharing.
I shared three possibilities for the about page:
usability testing
MODERATED USABILITY TESTING
Lo-fi testing to identify user needs
Since I imagined the primary use case for this website would be curious people on the go, I conducted all usability testing on the mobile format.
Two rounds of remote moderated testing
Test length: 45 minutes
In these tests, I explored the following questions using scenario-based tasks:
What questions do people have about the team? What questions do people have about the sport?
Is there anything people find confusing or frustrating about the prototype?
USABILITY TESTING RESULTS
Iterations
My main changes revolved around the following:
reducing number of items in interactive terminology section to encourage clicks and learning
adding imagery and videos to enrich introduction to sport
expanding explanation of trans-friendly nature of the sport
Fewer items in interactive terminology section to encourage clicks and learning
Before
After
Educational images to enrich introduction to sport
Before
After: imagery and videos to clarify types of positions and balls
Expanded explanation of trans-friendly nature of the sport
Before
After
end result
next steps
Examining website's user analytics to make data-driven decisions.
Updating team and practice information as needed to ensure a sense of legitimacy to prospective players.
reflection
Huge thank you to all of my interviewees for sharing their stories very openly and vulnerably. I also would like to thank all of my quadball friends and captains for creating such an inviting environment for someone learning from scratch. I've made so many friends through this sport and am extremely grateful for the outlet it has become. Here's to many more years of quadball!