LET'S GRAB A MATCH!
READ FULL CASE STUDY
READ FULL CASE STUDY
Project Timeline:
Project Timeline:
August 2024 - April 2025
August 2024 - April 2025
Description:
Description:
“Let’s Grab a Match” is a UI/UX case study exploring how digital design guided by behavior change theory, gamification, and SDT can boost motivation, access, and sustained sports participation among Gen Z and millennials through user research and iterative prototyping.
PLEASE VIEW THIS PAGE ON A DESKTOP. MOBILE VERSION COMING SOON!
ROLE: (THE ONLY) UI UX DESIGNER
TIME: 6 MONTHS
My Contribution:
Secondary Research
Ideation
User Interviews
Thematic Analysis
UX/UI Design
Prototyping
User testing
Project Type:
Academic Capstone – UX Research & Interaction Design
Final deliverable videos
App Trailer (click to play):
Figma Prototype (click to play):
01. Motivation and problem
Statistics:
Top 3 barriers:
Logistical Challenges
Lack of accessible information
Reduced community engagement
The Problem:
Adults in Canada seem to give up playing sports after the age of 18. Further, when we wanted to play sports as newcomers to Canada, it was difficult to find people and spaces. This hampers the motivation and consistency in playing sports.
03. The design process
Double diamond
A diamond and a half
We used a simplified Double Diamond model, removing the 'Deliver' stage, since the thesis explored ideas rather than final solutions. This approach helped us understand the problem and explore possible directions.
'Exploring ways to help people play sports consistently'
04. Discover: Diary study
Purpose:
Real-world access & participation challenges
Scope:
7 sports, 20 km radius, 4-month study
Observed:
Booking, equipment, social setup
Venues:
Clubs, community centers, public parks
Badminton
2 players
Pre-owned equipment
Phone booking
Pickleball
4 players
Rental equipment
Online booking
Squash
2 players
Rental equipment
Drop-in
Table Tennis
2 players
Rental + pre-owned equipment
Drop-in
Golf
2 players + 2 met on-site
Rental equipment
Online booking
Lawn Bowling
2 players
Rental equipment
Free coaching clinic
Basketball
3 players + 4 met on-site
Pre-owned equipment
Drop-in
Badminton
2 players
Pre-owned equipment
Phone booking
Pickleball
4 players
Rental equipment
Online booking
Squash
2 players
Rental equipment
Drop-in
Table Tennis
2 players
Rental + pre-owned equipment
Drop-in
Golf
2 players + 2 met on-site
Rental equipment
Online booking
Lawn Bowling
2 players
Rental equipment
Free coaching clinic
Basketball
3 players + 4 met on-site
Pre-owned equipment
Drop-in
Badminton
2 players
Pre-owned equipment
Phone booking
Pickleball
4 players
Rental equipment
Online booking
Squash
2 players
Rental equipment
Drop-in
Table Tennis
2 players
Rental + pre-owned equipment
Drop-in
Golf
2 players + 2 met on-site
Rental equipment
Online booking
Lawn Bowling
2 players
Rental equipment
Free coaching clinic
Basketball
3 players + 4 met on-site
Pre-owned equipment
Drop-in
DIARY STUDY KEY LEARNING
There exist three levels of barriers:
Extrinsic: finding people, space and equipment
Intrinsic: consistency and motivation
Systemic: travel distance, time constraints, and cost of participating
05. Discover: User interviews
Assumption (before interviews):
People who want to play sports face logistical and motivational challenges. Those less interested choose easier activities due to less barriers.
Recruitment:
Posters at venues + Facebook & WhatsApp sports groups
Participants:
7 (Gen Z & Millennials, GTA residents, mix of casual & regular players)
Method:
Semi-structured interviews + Sports Motivation Scale-II survey
Analysis:
Thematic Analysis + Quantitative scoring
KEY FINDING: THEMATIC ANALYSIS
Motivation is highly individual. A sports community must cater to varied needs such as competition and skill-building to casual fun, injury recovery, or overcoming logistical hurdles.
KEY FINDING: QUANTITATIVE SCORE
Intrinsic motivation (engaging in sports for personal enjoyment, satisfaction, and self-improvement) scored the highest.
How might we design a sports community that caters to individual motivational needs of people while participating in sports?
06. Define: User personas
Name:
Naveen Singh, 37
Role:
Badminton Coach (100+ athletes students)
Goals:
• Create and manage athlete drills
• Track performance and timings
• Keep players motivated and progressing
Frustration:
Can’t track multiple athletes or prevent drill skipping
Quote:
"I bring out the optimum level of performance from each one."
Name:
Tanay Sawant, 25
Role:
Intermediate Badminton Player
Goals:
• Understand and improve performance
• Compete with peers and track progress
• Make practice drills more engaging
Pain Point:
Can’t train or evaluate progress independently
Quote:
"I feel motivated when my batchmates cheer me on"
Detailed View
Concise View
06. Define: Literature Review
We explored potential theories/applications through journals and scholarly research that are proven for providing individual and intrinsic motivation to play sports
Self-Determination Theory (SDT)
Solution must support choice, skill growth, and peer connection.
Gamification & Persuasive Design
Gamification should enhance, not undermine, intrinsic motivation.
Goal Setting
Users set flexible, trackable goals (e.g., “play twice a week”) that align with personal needs and resources.
06. Develop: Exploring directions
Hypothesis:
Scalable digital tools with persuasive design, gamification and autonomous goal setting might encourage people to sustain participation in sports.
To decide on a solution, we conducted an affinity mapping session and color coded to systematically evaluate the ideas.
Approaches to extrinsic problems
Approaches to intrinsic problems
Approaches to systemic problems
06. Develop: Persuasive design principles
Community
Diary study proved that a community helps solve logistical problems
Goal Setting
Allowing for individual goals and rewarding when achieved directly supports SDT
Positive reinforcement
Rewarding any effort with gamification improves motivation
06. Develop: Transforming design principles into features
Community:
Adding friends who play sports
Goal setting:
Choosing from pre-defined fun goals or achieving together with friends
Positive reinforcement:
Earning achievements for achieving set/unset goals
06. Develop: User Flow
06. Develop: Final Designs
Flow Screens
Wireframes
UI Design
The onboarding experience introduced users to the app’s core mechanics and experience the fun of physical play through "Trash Toss," a playful game using simple objects like a paper ball and a basket.
06. Learnings + What could have been done differently?
Defining solution
Learned how grounding digital interactions in real-world behaviors, especially with hardware products creates intuitive experiences. Observing physical actions helped me design flows that felt natural, not forced.
Narrowing down early
Instead of replicating existing tools, I broke down drills into their core components: actions, metadata, and dependencies. This let me reimagine drills from the ground up in a digital context ensuring flexibility and clarity in the UX.
Persuasive design
This was my first time conducting live user testing. Watching real users struggle with designs I had created was humbling. I saw firsthand how critical feedback drives better, more thoughtful design decisions.
More playfulness
Working closely with developers, the CEO, CTO, and visual designers taught me how to align multiple perspectives. I led design reviews and all-hands syncs, learned to manage expectations, and made inclusive collaboration part of the process.
06. Impact
