Disc Golf Course Review

DGCR

Disc Golf Course Review is the fun, easy way to... Find, View & Review disc golf courses, Organize & Trade discs, Track round scores, Talk disc golf and much, much more!

My role

Lead Designer

Team

1 Designer, 6 Engineers

Business Goals

When the founders initially converted the website to an app, there was little to no process for usability or clear strategy. They wanted something fast and easy to get out there. When I approached them to volunteer my services, I wanted to guide them through a design strategy and set up requirements to better help flush out the potential of the app.

Set up a design system. Since the product was created as a side project at the beginning, the engineers were building it piece by piece and had no structure in place for rules or consistency.

Place emphasis on the MVP features. I wanted to focus on the main reasons players would be using the app. Having a scorecard, course maps, links for driving directions, and creating a profile to save your information were our key principles.

Chapter 1

Think

Current website

Current mobile app

What is DGCR

DGCR provides extensive course information on thousands of disc golf courses. It is one of the oldest and original forums where players can find disc golf courses near them, browse interactive maps, track round scores, sell and trade discs, and review courses. It was created as a passion project and is open sourced. My work with the moderators was pro bono because this is a service I use frequently and I wanted to give back to the community.

Defining the Problem

Created in 2007, the user experience was suspect at best, and the UI design was intermittently built over the years. The creators were more interested in making a product that didn’t break, other than creating a solution that was easy to use. My challenge was to take the immense amount of data that they provide and design a user friendly experience in a native app. The current product was simply a website that was not mobile friendly. The moderators want to start monetizing the app to cover expenses.

My Role

I was the lead designer responsible for this project and directed the research, building of the case study, and wireframing sessions. I produced sketches, user journey maps, wireframes, and mockups. This product is still a work in progress and the changes are still being implemented into the app.

Defining the needs & user journey

As an avid disc golfer for over 9 years, I was well aware of the product needs and wants. The basic necessities like a scorecard and course map were obvious, but what else could be useful to make this app stand out and rise above the numerous other disc golf apps? I wanted to implement a stats page for authenticated users, a library with links for videos and articles, tournament news, and the ability to upload the discs in your bag to compare the flight paths between them (overstable/stable/understable).

Competitive Analysis

We’re not here to recreate the wheel, we’re here to build a more efficient one. With that mindset, I took screenshots of other disc golf apps to see what was successful, what they prioritized, and what didn’t work.

Chapter 2

Make

Building Wireframes

After flushing out the app’s goals with the stakeholders and aligning on our deliverables, I began building wireframes and mapping out the user journey. The app isn’t very complicated or complex, but I wanted to make sure we had all areas of the user journey covered and the navigation between screens made sense. This allowed me to go back and edit the simple wireframes when situations arose and certain elements didn’t make sense.

Designing Mockups

After digitizing the better wireframe designs, I began adding details and stock images to fill out the interface architecture of the site. After completing this part, I was able to review parts of the app that seems to skirt the brand style. There were several text links that were simply too light when using the DGCR brand green and I needed to go back and try some new ideas. I feel like some of these screen are very raw and will need a lot of polish before we get to the final design. Build, critique, test, edit, critique, test...