DUPR | Redesign focused on social and discovery features
Connecting the pickleball community through reimagining the DUPR app
Prompt: Adding a feature from an existing product.
Project type: Concept Case Study/ UX Feature Exploration
Role: UX design student, sole UX designer
Duration: 75 Hours
Tools: Figma, Canva, Otter Ai
What is the Pickle? 🏓🥒
aka The Problem Statement
Pickleball players of varying skill levels and backgrounds struggle to find compatible playing partners and reliable court access that aligns with their availability, location, and play preferences. Current tools like DUPR provide rating data but lack social connectivity, broader player profiles, and localized information that caters to both casual and competitive players.
What are the goals?
AI Generated Photo via Figma
Business Goal
This concept aims to increase user engagement, by expanding its utility beyond the DUPR rating checks. This concept will introduce features that help with social connection, court discovery and real-time friend activity. By enhancing the user experience, the app can become a go-to tool for finding games and players and encouraging organic growth.
User Goal
The user goal is to enhance the DUPR app by empowering all types of users, DUPR or even non-rated players to showcase their play style, achievements, past or current clubs/leagues. By showcasing more informative profiles, if can help other users connect with others who share common goals and play preferences.
AI Generated Photo via ChatGPT
Methods
Competitive Analysis- this was done mostly to gather what are the common features for pickleball apps and other unique features others possess compared to DUPR
User Interviews- The interviews were done to provide more insight on pickleball users and how they coordinate games with others, connect to players, locate available courts and their use of DUPR in their lives.
Research Goals
To gain insight into the pickleball experience, including how players coordinate games with others, connect with other pickleball players and locate available courts.
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If I had more time to do more research, I would do Contextual Research on the current app just to get more user data on how users use the app, what areas they use most, their pain points and their overall experience with the actual app.
The Research
Competitor Analysis
Things I focused on from my competitor research:
The overall layouts of the scheduling tools, court maps/info, and social features (chat boxes)
The common features and how they share similar directions: club/groups pages, profile pages, player search.
How different competitors create more social aspects and community driven features.
Competitor Insights
DUPR is the strongest as a rating and match-tracking engine. Best for users who want to track their performance, understand how matches affect rating, and engaging with competitive rating system.
Pickleheads excels at local games and sessions, especially for organizing play.
They integrate the DUPR rating system, does not reinvent the rating system.
Scheduling tool allows for waitlists, session chats, auto-add from waitlists.
PicklePlay covers is the one-stop app to find courts, join/hosting events, and chat with players.
Does not integrate DUPR rating, and does not have own rating system.
Has a means for club managers to use to have better organization for their club/leagues.
XRacket offers multi-racket sport appeal, gamification and is community focused based on point system beyond ratings.
Gamification of points, allows for competition within their friends or global community.
Has more of a full match coordination feature, and does not focus on DUPR ratings.
User Interviews
Goal: To gain insight into the pickleball experience, including how players coordinate games with others, navigate player profiles and locate court information.
Participants:
Plays pickleball at least occasionally (once a month to several times a week)
Has some experience organizing or joining games with others. Using any methods (apps, websites, texting, in-person, etc)
Are open to sharing their routines, challenges, and preferences related to playing pickleball.
Key Insights or Patterns:
Communication and coordination with other players:
Users use other forms outside the app to coordinate games.
Trust and transparency are valued
Connecting with similar and like players
Users expressed need to find more players with same level of play and goals.
DUPR ratings
Expressed as a good base but not 100% reflective of their game skills/level.
Some do not use because it being intimidating/newer or because they are more casual players.
Accurate data and statistics
Users value correct statistics data of their own play and other opponents when looking at profiles.
Define and Ideate
User Goals
Personalization of Profile and Control:
Users need more detailed information on the gameplay by providing more information on their past tournament standings, leagues, play styles and goals.
Users need a more accurate representation of their level of play.
Make All Types of Users Welcomed and Included:
By having a friendly onboarding, that will allow for more personality to show on their profile and to be able to connect with like people.
Easier Coordination of Play and To Connect with Similar Players:
Users need communication among their playmates and a more central place to do so.
Users need more informative profile on players play style goals and background.
How Might We…
How can we create more detailed data and statistics on players’ games that will benefit players game play?
How might we educate new users on the app and how DUPR works in order to retain users and encourage DUPR play?
How might we provide make user profiles more personalized and more on their background in pickleball beyond their DUPR ratings?
Personas
The Novice Player represents the casual and more social player whom is interested in playing more players in the community but has little interest in the DUPR rating system.
The Intermediate Player represents users who plays more often, but has limited reach to other locations and players because only plays in one spot. Wants to branch out to the bigger pickleball community and other locations.
The Advanced Player represents the users who look for profile data and statistics of themselves and their competitors. User is very analytical and appreciates accurate and reliable information.
First Sketches on how profile and player page will change
First sketches on how players can find players
First sketches on how one can view local play and courts
Prioritization & Roadmapping
Top 3 Priority Features
Profile features: The personalization, new tab to show past histories of tournaments, clubs, and other accomplishments.
Players page features: The ability to find your tailored players locally, other local player request, and friends recent activities.
Court features: The map view of nearby courts, quick and reliable court information and booking link.
Other must-have features:
Onboarding for new users to understand DUPR app
Social Aspects, integrating social media and more connection with community.
Privacy preferences
Prototyping and Testing
What was tested during user testing?
The task to locate profile and where to navigate certain locations
Where to quickly have players scan to add them/follow them.
Where to go to find past histories of pickleball play and accomplishments
The task to navigate the players page
How to curate their request for players with from their own criteria
Coordinate with players with pickleball and where to meet
Locate where players are looking for local play and friends activity
The task to browse around the courts page.
My Iterations and Feedback
Analysis of User Testing:
Common pain area in the user test flows was the after submitting play request and where to go to find the pending players that are interested in their posting.
I found that it was not clear where to find the pending players and that it took users longer than the goal was to do this task because of the multiple screens.
The completion of tasks was 100%.
The older adult, and beginner tech users had a harder time identifying icons, or words I used for navigation titles and filter labels.
Overall Feedback from Users
Well organized and categories made sense to users.
Would like to see more information on court information box, such as pricing, directions, and more pictures.
Would like to see more integration of booking times/dates on DUPR app to help facilitate the process of picking available courts.
All users expressed their interest in the new features and imagines themselves using them if available.
Project Reflections
What did I learn as a designer?
The UX design process
How to create basic components for my designs that can save time with duplicate screens
How to create basic prototypes that can be used for testing
Prioritizing my design ideas, and using my time to focus on the important features that I decided on as top priority.
Things that I would do with more time:
I would do more user interviews and more contextual research on the current app itself.
By doing so, I will get more information on what pain points users have and go from there on what priority designs are important to them.
I will use better interview techniques I have learned to gain better insights and user feelings toward different aspects of user testings/research.
Create a full onboarding flow, describing the DUPR rating and app features.
Build better UI kit/components for this project.
Final thoughts
Overall, this project helped me build a foundational knowledge on the UX design process and helped me focus on solving for the users and designing for better user experience. I practiced user-centered designs and prioritized my time to focus on finishing my top features with the time given. I will love to in the future to share my work with DUPR and to get more insight on what they want for their app.