In the spring of 2019, we put together a team to build an Android app for FloSports. Below is a detailed outline of how I approached this challenge.
Planning and Strategy, UI/UX Design, User Interviews and Testing
Date: Q2, 2019
The challenge and goals were straightforward. Heading into 2019 FloSports was transitioning from being a web-based company to an app-based company. Already launching iOS, tvOS, Fire TV, and Roku, it was time to tackle Android — our users were starving for it.
One of the first steps in the process was to get organized. Asking ourselves, what are the requirements for a good MVP? To do this, I wrote user stories to understand user needs and screen requirements.
Below are the sections our user stories outlined.
User Acquisition
Onboarding
Event Discovery and Schedule
Live / VoD / Replay Support
Vertical Switching & Navigation
Account / Settings / Essentials
Once stories were complete, I worked through user flows. This step helped visualize screen requirements and how we would lead users towards successful outcomes.
Once we had an idea of what the designs needed to accomplish, I began the ideation process. Wireframes of varying fidelities allowed me to explore navigation patterns and critical components in an efficient manner. This step was all about getting ideas out quickly and receiving feedback.
Once our direction was clear, I moved into our first round of high-fidelity designs. The primary goal at this point was to create realistic designs so we could begin testing with current FloSports subscribers.
Two things would significantly impact the final designs. One, FloSports was in the process of a holistic rebrand. Two, the feedback we would receive from our users during the testing phase.
I worked closely with the Android product manager to develop a script and testing criteria. We had a few goals in mind for testing. First, to validate the feature set we outlined. Second, to confirm critical user-flows. And lastly, to make sure we did not overlook anything in our early research.
After going through a few rounds of testing, we felt good about the MVP we were proposing. This round of high-fidelity designs included adding the new FloSports brand and iterating on what we had tested. It was time to get everything in a dev-ready state.
Lesson number one, establish a strong foundation. Before producing any pixels, I spent my time understanding the Android landscape, material design system, and patterns common to an Android user. The bulk of my effort went into the planning, strategy, and testing phases of this project. Once I'd established a strong foundation, applying our visual-design language was simple.
Spending extra time in the foundational phases of this project, especially an all-new product, has allowed our team to add significant features to the app without any rework.