SCENARIO
Every week, two to three practice games are scheduled for the team. For this week, there are two practices, and a practice match set up with another team. Bradley’s objective as the team leader is to tell Sherry and the rest of team about the weekly practice schedule, and ask if anyone will be able to make it, so he can create a practice roster that encompass the players that can attend.
OBSTACLES
Everybody who can attend the practices and those who can’t end up sending an assortment of messages across a broad range of mediums, such as phoning, texting, emailing, facebook. Bradley has a difficult job as he has to juggle through a variety of messages to see who will or will not be able to make it, and keep track roster. This process takes up a lot of time for Bradley as it happens on a weekly basis, and it’s not efficient because he has to tally up messages of yes and no (with excuses) to see who’s attending.
POSSIBLE DESIGN INTERVENTION
By creating an application that includes the place, time, and weather of the practice in a visual form that allows players to simply sign up if they’re showing up, and sign a logout list if not, with a reason if they so desire, this process becomes drastically easier. Bradley the team leader, and all players (like Sherry) can also see who’s going to be there and who’s not, but only Bradley can see the messages left on the logout list. If Sherry sees one of her friend not attending, she could help persuade them to come, helping increase the practice roster, or she might decide to also not attend practice. With this simple tool, Bradley has to only set up the practice once a week and then checks periodically for updates. This also allows players to have a better idea of what’s going on and who they are playing with. It can also further be used as a tool for setting up social events such as watching a Whitecaps games, as most players have seasonal passes or setting up a party at home to watch their favorite hockey team play, as well as creating post-game, and post-practices events such as drinking.
RESOLUTION
Using the application allows Bradley to control all the data he used to receive through a variety of mediums into only one. It is the team leader’s job to know who is going to be there, and to set up practice schedule beforehand, and this app helps by streamlining this process. With all the information in one location, Bradley can set up the practice routine by looking at the login list (goalies, strikers, defense). Due to the efficiency, it saves time and allows Bradley more time to his own personal endeavors, while also providing a social platform for players like Sherry to plan meetings and have fun (drinking, parties, watching sports).
ANALYSIS
Every week the team leader Bradley has to go through the same process of digging through all his inboxes, including phone calls, texts, email, and facebook, to find out the attendance of his soccer team. It takes a lot of time, as he has to constantly check his feeds for any updates of anyone who changed their minds. Sherry and the other team members do not really have access to the knowledge of who is going to show up, what is going to happen, or any other team social activities. Because there are too many mediums of communication that Bradley has to use to make sure everybody knows, quite a few people fall through the cracks.
Fantastic Four Fingers 