Smartcoach — Event management for amateur football teams
Smartcoach is a web app designed within an 8-week bootcamp program to assist amateur football coaches in scheduling and tracking training or game sessions and managing player invitations.
We've tried to create an experience that should reduce the time scheduling football events for coaches so they could focus on football instead of scheduling. I've learned how coaches managed to organize any football event before.
We listed the critical challenges for the coaches. All the coaches we interviewed complained about the complexity of using so many apps to schedule a training session.
They asked if we could manage in one particular app. Then, we came up with the web app idea. Coaches can create their team, invite the players to their team, and add them to upcoming events.
TL;DR
Smartcoach is a web application that helps amateur football coaches in Switzerland schedule and manage practices and matches.
The goal of Smartcoach is to reduce the time and effort that coaches spend on scheduling and management so that they can focus more on coaching and player development.
The app was created through a user-centered design process, which involved interviewing coaches and players to understand their needs.
The app's MVP includes a centralized event calendar, a player availability collection system, and a player management interface.
Designing an app that helps coaches focus on football
The key steps taken to create an intuitive and efficient web app for the target audience are amateur football coaches. However, we include players plus coaches in the design process. To design a good experience that will work efficiently for both sides.
How to save time for the coaches?
Amateur football coaches in Switzerland spend an estimated 4 hours per week on administrative tasks related to scheduling and managing practices and matches. Smartcoach is a web app that aims to simplify these tasks by providing a centralized platform for coaches to create events, track player availability, and communicate with players. The app allows players to log in and accept or decline event invitations.
Why should we need an app then?
The time commitment is significant. 4 hours per week is a considerable amount of time for a volunteer coach to spend on administrative tasks. This time could be better spent coaching and developing players.
The tasks are repetitive and tedious. The functions of scheduling practices and matches, collecting player availability, and communicating changes are all repetitive and boring. This can be a significant source of frustration for coaches.
The current process could be more efficient. The current scheduling method and managing practices and matches could be more efficient. Coordinating schedules, collecting player availability, and communicating changes are often complex. This can lead to missed practices and games and can be a source of conflict between coaches and players.
55.5% of coaches are a considerable audience. Based on our interviews with coaches, over 50% prefer using a single app to schedule practices and games instead of relying on several third-party apps.
This can save coaches time, reduce frustration, and improve the efficiency of the scheduling and management process. As a result, coaches can focus on what they do best: coaching and developing players.
Smartcoach can also benefit players. By allowing players to log in and accept or decline event invitations, Smartcoach can help to ensure that players are aware of upcoming practices and matches.
So, a question for us…
How about we streamline scheduling and managing practices and matches for amateur football coaches in Switzerland across all levels of play so that it is more convenient, less time-consuming, and more efficient for them?
Coaches weren't happy with the current flow
Our research showed that amateur football coaches in Switzerland spend an average of 4 hours per week scheduling and managing practices and matches. They face challenges such as coordinating schedules, collecting player availability, communicating changes, and managing potential conflicts. 100% of coaches rated effective communication with players as essential. There are over 14,000 potential users in Switzerland.
We got some answers from coaches and players
Our data from the survey and in-depth interviews highlighted a clear need for a more efficient and user-friendly tool to streamline amateur football coaches' scheduling and management process. This tool should integrate with existing digital calendars and messaging apps and provide practical communication features to ensure smooth coordination with players.
Key features in Smartcoach
Our first MVP release includes the following:
Events: Allows coaches to add, edit, delete, and view practice and match schedules and share them with the players.
Rsvp: Each player will be able to provide availability for every event so the coaches can know who's attending.
Event creating form: Stepped form (Basic info, Details + Preview) It's designed to get essential information about the event and to prevent overwhelming it's separated into steps. Also, we added a preview step to inform the user what they fill and give them a chance to review or edit that information in case they mistyped.
Team: In Team, the coach will be able to see or edit all the players that they added. When they sign up team will be auto-created as a default.ere...
Wrapping Up
Smartcoach was designed using user-centered design principles and delivered an intuitive and efficient solution for scheduling, tracking, player management, and invitation processes. Ongoing feedback and iterative improvements will ensure Smartcoach remains aligned with user needs and continues enhancing amateur football's coaching experience.