Michigan Bass Nation

Overview

A graduate team of 6 was tasked with delving into Michigan Bass Nation's digital presence in order to pinpoint various inefficiencies and look for ways to improve the experiences for both the volunteer staff and competing anglers. Over the course of the semester, we worked with our client to understand the tournament and day-to-day website processes and bring about user-centered solutions to their biggest pain points.

Challenge

Starting with little knowledge of fishing tournaments, we needed to see clearly into the process and find ways to improve the experience for all. The website also posed organization and clarity challenges, so our team split into two groups to tackle each aspect of the project separately.

Initial Goals

  • Understand the angler tournament process and distinguish key user groups.
  • Identify pain points in the website flow and organization.
  • Ideate feasible and impactful solutions to deliver within the time frame.

Role

User Researcher,
UX/UI Designer

Duration

5 months

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Empathize and Explore

To start to learn about angler tournaments and the roles of the administrative staff in the organization, both groups conducted a series of user interviews and other surveying tools to gain some insight into MBN's online process. The tournament team conducted 8 user interviews from both staff and tournament volunteers to learn about each step of the tournament process and begin to get a sense of the common pain points.

“Tournament results are difficult to view and take 1-2 days to be posted.”

“A live leaderboard could help increase user engagement.”

“Real-time updates are high on improvement priorities.”

“Other software and programs are costly and require a learning curve.”

“Weigh-in process takes significant time.”

“Many user groups have a hard time finding tournament information on the site”

Affinity Mapping

From the user interviews, our team created an affinity map to organize the sentiments and begin to get a sense of how to prioritize the various obstacles MBN users face.

View Affinity Map
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Card Sorting

The website team, similarly, ran a card sorting exercise alongside their user interviews, in order to understand the website flow and organization from the admin's perspective.

View Card Sorting
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User Needs

Both teams revealed significant issues users were facing and compiled the common themes or patterns seen in the user interviews into a detailed list. Each section represents a broad user group or type. The teams can then brainstorm solutions and iterate designs based on these main needs from users, keeping them centered throughout the designing phase.

Admin Tournament Needs

  • Functional and reliable weighing system
  • Efficient formatting and posting results
  • Reduce tournament volunteer learning curves

Angler Tournament Needs

  • Live scoring visible at tournaments and online
  • Easy access to registration and results
  • Improve communication with angler families

Admin Website Needs

  • Showcase mission & events
  • Promote tournaments and increase sign-ups
  • Highlight sponsors and partnerships
  • Provide clear pathways for new members
  • Maintain an easy-to-manage website

Angler Website Needs

  • Quick access to schedules, results, and rules
  • Easy navigation on both desktop and mobile
  • News, updates, and resources for anglers
  • Trustworthy and visually appealing interface

Solutions and Designs

Both teams held brainstorming sessions to produce solutions that could be completed within the remaining time. The website team decided to focus on creating an updated website prototype, and the tournament team set about designing and developing a working leaderboard creator demo to save the admin time on results posting.

Tournament Team Drafts

The tournament team team now had a solid understanding of the tournament process, and were able to create some initial leaderboard and demo creator drafts. These drafts did not yet use the design system later implemented with the website team, but they allowed the tournament team to begin to form the prototype of the leaderboard creator tool.

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Website Team Initial Designs

After the website team finished the exploration phase, they first created two key design deliverables that would be crucial to the final website prototype. One was an updated site map, outlined from an initial content audit and supported by the card sorting and user flow maps. The second was a design system to reference for all future prototypes, and to support overall brand consistency for MBN's digital presence.

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Prototyping

Both teams created Figma prototypes of their initial tools to be tested by key users.

Prototyping Insights

  • The website team utilized the design system and site map to vastly improve the site's organization and information archiecture.
  • The tournament team created a simple yet effective tool that would allow a tournament program export to be instantly converted to a standardized, professional PDF for the site.
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User Testing

Each team completed two rounds of user testing on their products, leading to more streamlined and detailed final products. The website team, in addition to an in-person usability test, posted a brief survey for MBN's staff. The tournament team did two rounds of usability testing with the same participant in order to test on the prototype and coded demo product.

User Insight

The website team noticed a need for more clarity in the navigational and button elements on the site, so they rephrased CTA content and created a submenu in order to reduce visual clutter.

“I'm having a hard time finding the tournament rules."

User Insight

The tournament team received very positive feedback for both the prototype and demo products, as well as excitement over the potential for a faster formatting solution.

“This is going to save me so much time!"

Deliverables

By the end of the semester, both teams had successfully completed their goal of creating a finalized solution to a main user problem for MBN. The design decisions were data-driven, consistent, and significantly more accessible than the current website and tournament results formats.

Website Final Prototype

The website team finalized their Figma prototype and design system, creating a highly efficient and organized site for MBN to utilize as a reference for future website updates.

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Tournament Leaderboard Creator

The tournament team developed a small program that is able to take a tournament program export and convert it into a read-to-use PDF to be posted on the website, which will reduce the time needed to format the export and had caused significant results delays in the past.

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Conclusion

Both teams are exceptionally proud of the effort and products they were able to achieve over the course of a semester. Through working with MBN, they were able to gain a full understanding of the website and tournament processes, come up with meaningful and relevant solutions, and implement them in a user-friendly way. I was very glad to gain hands-on experience in an academic setting, and provide MBN with usable final products.

Path Forward

This semester project was full of learning curves and insights from both MBN and the student-led teams. I'm really grateful to have been a part of this semester, and I look forward to using this experience in future projects!