DUPR | Redesign focused on social and discovery features for DUPR app
Connecting the pickleball community through reimagining the DUPR app with key features
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?
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.
The Research
Method: 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:
The users enjoy connecting with their current pickleball friends but want better ways to branch out and find players that share the same goals and skills for their playing needs. The feedback shared that they are interested in tailoring players to their needs and finding more players and connecting with the pickleball community.
Click to see full - Affinity mapping from user interviews
Click to view full personas
Click to view full personas
Click to view full personas
Define and Ideate
User Goals
Personalization of Profile: This will allow users to show their level of play through their past tournament standings, medals, leagues and clubs, other than the DUPR rating scale and individual matches.
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: This will allow players to request their type of play (more social or more competitive) and be able to find players that match their playing needs. Also users will be able to reach out to players they have met easier and branch out to meet more people in the pickleball community.
How Might We…
How might we provide the users a way to reach out to players that have similar playing goals and level of play?
How might we allow for easier planning when organizing with groups of individuals/or one other player?
How might we provide a platform for players to display their pickleball accomplishments and their type of play?
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
Prototyping and Testing
What were the priority designs?
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.
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.
Reflections and Next Steps
What did I learn as a designer?
I learned that the designs would not be designed if not for the users I had volunteer to help me with this project. I truly learned that good designs come from looking into the user prospective of how the think and how they view things. The features I designed had the users in mind in each step of this process. I also thought it was valuable to get feedback from different types of users (my personas were aimed to show representations of different type of users) to create inclusive features. I wanted to create features that non-DUPR rated individuals can also participate in and also creating ways DUPR rated or more competitive players can use to better their game.
Future Feature Ideas
Things that I would like to further design:
Onboarding forms: To have a good welcoming for the users to be able to understand what DUPR is about and how ratings work. I would like to make a pickleball mini quiz to find out more information on what type of player they are. Later this can be used to personalize their profile page.
Profile Stats and Histories: I would like to see more ways to make profile pages more informative about the players. Also have stats on past tournaments or leagues players were apart of. This would benefit the competitive players who like to research their opponents before playing them and also players who play non-DUPR rated events.
Peer Rating System: I saw that there were players who know about DUPR ratings but do not consider themselves competitive enough to play in DUPR rated games, but do play enough to want to know what baseline rating they are. I would like to explore more ways that can be designed in order to show a good baseline rating of a player that is based on peer ratings. (anonymously ofc)