Participatory Workshop

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PROCEDURE

  • [Time Limit = 75 Minutes]
  • [Amount of Subjects = 3]
  • [Honorarium = Pizza and Beverages]
  1. We introduced the users to the concept of our application that we had decided on. Gave them a brief background on why we chose Roster Management, explaining our process a bit before showing them our initial prototype briefly. This would give them a basic outline of some of our ideas that will give them enough room for them to come up with their own ways to improve our concepts.
  2. We then described what they would be doing. They would each be given a set of paper and then would be sketching out their own apps one by one in order to identify the problems that each individual faces with the way they are currently organizing their soccer team.
  3. The Coach (Kevin) was asked to sketch his idea first, because the functions that he needs primarily are the ones that would be most important for us to implement. Meanwhile, pizza and beverages were served. This was done to keep a casual atmosphere, because we wanted to encourage them to come up with fun ideas and when relaxed they were more willing to share what was on their minds.
  4. While Kevin sketched away, the other players and I chatted about the team, our individual lives, work and school. Keeping up the casual atmosphere we gathered a few more pieces of information that could be useful for our design process, without the users even realizing it.
  5. After Kevin finished drawing his app up with a pen on paper, we interviewed him with a camera, encouraging him to be a bit more formal with his explanation, and to speak his mind. We also asked what the most important features for him were as the team leader.
  6. We then asked him to jot down any ‘sensations’ that he would like to experience from the app. What fun things should be happening while he’s on the screens?
  7. Repeat steps 3-6 for Mike and Mark.
  8. After everyone’s sketches was done, and they had each explained their design and motives, the group discussed what the best ideas were while at the same time brainstorming new ideas, what each of them didn’t need, what other possibilities outside of an app were, as well as soccer.

RESULTS 

  • Participant 1: Kevin (Coach)
    • Main Concern: Getting everyone to RSVP
    • Background: Kevin is the coach of this team, and plays on two additional teams as well. He lives and breathes soccer, and lets it control many aspects of his life. He goes to pubs to watch games, goes to Whitecap games whenever he has the chance, plays FIFA 13 at home, and dates girls that are into soccer.
    • Sketch: Kevin drew up features that he found necessary: Homepage, Roster, Stats, Set Plays, *A Forum, Events, and Availability. The forum was an interesting idea, as the purpose of it would be to talk about soccer related or just group related things. Birthdays, favorite players, ideas for fundraisers, and issues or problems anyone has could be discussed here. It would be a fast and efficient platform that would reach all players. The event section was just a place for them to plan events both soccer-related and social for the group as a whole. And finally, the availability section would be a place for players to list their availability for an entire week or for the entire month in advanced so that as the Coach, Kevin would be better suited to planning practices as well as know who can make games a bit further in advanced.
    • Sensations: Kevin thought it would be interesting to incorporate video clips (like from YouTube) or photos that are soccer related as cut-scenes, so people could message interesting things to the group . He also thought that sound effects would be fun, specifically stating soccer chants as a personal favorite. And lastly, he threw in a competitive aspect of soccer trivia. He thought it would be interesting to get multiple choice trivia questions on the app occasionally so that the players could compete in knowledge of the game. He wasn’t sure how it would be incorporated, but it would add a fun, competitive aspect to the app that the team could joke about when they are together.
  • Participant 2:Mark (Full-time Player)
    • Main Concern: Knowing when games are.
    • Background: Mark is very determined when it comes to sports, but more importantly he likes to joke around with his friends. So with the app, his approach was that it should be serious for the stuff about games, because he wants the games to be treated seriously, but then for the rest of the app it should be fun.
    • Sketch: Instead of sketching, Mark just wrote down what he thought would be important. He thought that stats would be important, as well as notifications for upcoming games. Another thing he brought up was fundraisers for the team, as he thought it would be beneficial to incorporate money management into the app.
    • Sensations: Mark felt that the app should be colorful, include funny chants, and should incorporate a soccer ball in some manner.
  • Participant 3:Mike (Part-time Player)
    • Main Concern: Being given a bit of notification in advanced as to when there was a spot open for him.
    • Background: Mike only plays occasionally because his work schedule is all over the place (he works at the ports and they alternate schedules so he works nights, graveyards, or days depending on when he’s scheduled) and he has never been the most athletic. He does it for a bit of exercise, and uses soccer as an excuse to hang out with people, to drink after games, and to just chat with friends. Outside of soccer, his sports interest are centered on gambling, as he loves checking stats so he can make informed bets on sports games.
    • Sketch: Mike’s app primarily acted as a spreadsheet that displayed stats and whether or not people were able to attend the next game. He was interested the bare basics and only wanted to know whether or not the next game fit into his schedule.
    • Sensations: Mike was interested in the idea of a scrolling score bar / sports ticker. He thought it would be cool if the app acted like a sports channel that displays scores of their league in a way that made it feel more professional. He also thought the app could include the scores of professional leagues as well. Outside of the app, he thought pop-up reminders like notifications of the next game time would be highly beneficial since he is really busy and often forgets. Finally, he thought having something including carpooling would be highly beneficial, because whenever he goes to games, he enjoys drinking post-game but he can’t really do that if he has to drive back home.

DISCUSSION

After the individual sketching and interviews, the group discussed what they thought of one another’s thoughts. One of the biggest topics that arose was the topic of fundraising, as the team is currently around $1000 shy of what they needed to pay for the season. They discussed how this was an ongoing issue, and that every attempt at a fundraiser never materialized because the organization was not there. The group agreed though that the most important thing was the knowledge of when the next game was, and how many people have RSVP’d. Mark asked about using Facebook, seeing as it already has event planning on it, and Kevin acknowledged that not everyone on the team has Facebook, and Mike stated that even though he has it, he rarely checks it. Mike also brought up the point that he doesn’t have a fancy new phone, so he was wondering how the app would work for him. The general consensus was that the app would be lo-fi for Blackberries and would just incorporate the RSVP’ing mechanism.

FINDINGS

Participant 1 Analysis: Kevin’s ideas were similar to our initial ones as he focused on the prototype concepts we mentioned such as the Homepage, Roster, Stats, Events, and Availability. He also came up with new design features like Set Plays, and *A Forum. We found that as team leader Kevin’s design choices for focused on two main components: management and social involvement with the group. As a team leader we found his goals as wanting to bring the team closer together while making processes such as management easier. He likes that the management feature is quick and efficient but his main focus is the social connections within the group. He created a forum board where players can chat and be able to send pictures and videos of interesting things they found on the web. Kevin also wanted to incorporate a game feature (trivia) into the application so the team and him could possible continue to use the app even when their together to just have fun.

Participant 2 Analysis: Mike’s design ideas were drastically different from Kevin’s in perspective to him particularly wanted to focus on the management aspect as it’s currently a big dilemma for him. He mentioned that at times he’s forgetful of when it’s game day because he leads such a busy life. In order to fix this he suggested a notification system that would pop up your phone even when the app isn’t open on the day of the game, making sure you remembered. Mike liked the carpooling app as he’s quite a heavy drinker and would like a ride during post-game pub meetups. Additionally Mike is not that athletic and plays more for the exercise, but his favorite’s part is getting together with the other members to chat and drink. He mentioned the social aspects were important to him.

Participant 3 Analysis: Mark the full-time player had a similar view as Mike because he also just mainly wanted to know when there was a game and if he was playing or not. He wants the app to be serious and efficient while incorporating aspects of fun to make sure him and the rest of the team continue to use it. He brought up other points such a group finances and that the team is currently having a fundraiser in need of capital. He suggested that there should be a better way to gather the money as the team lacks the organization to properly set up a fundraiser.

Overall Analysis: This participatory design workshop validated our theories on what exactly was most needed for this soccer team. Each participant stated that knowledge of when the games are is the most important aspect of the proposed app, and knowing who is going to be there is extremely important. While most of our initial sketches were supported by the design workshop, we also learned that we were missing a few key elements for their team. The biggest one was the idea of a forum, so that they could socialize and share soccer related topics throughout the team. Setting up plays wasn’t as important as we thought it would be, but discussing stuff happening outside of soccer was. An important topic of discussion was the fact that they are in the midst of trying to put together a fundraiser right now. Setting it up requires them to communicate over different Medias as not everyone has Facebook. This was furthered by the idea of incorporating event set up through the app being brought up. We also got a good sense of what the players on this team would enjoy in an aesthetics sense.