This project was completed for a Sports Interaction Technology course during the first year of my Master's degree in Interaction Technology at the University of Twente.

Note: The dashboard was an adaptation of a template on the Figma Community and the game detail page was inspired by another template from the Figma Community. Both templates were tweaked and finetuned to fit the purpose of the solution.

My role: Research and Design

Team: 4 people

Duration: 5 weeks

Website link: https://skatesmartsolution.my.canva.site/

Intro

Inline skating is an increasingly popular activity that poses many challenges for beginners such as balancing and braking. SkateSmart is a proposed novel mobile application designed to address these challenges by enhancing the learning experience for novice skaters. SkateSmart incorporates various games and challenges related to inline skating which can facilitate the learning of skating techniques. The different exercises help novice skaters master different techniques in their chosen space, allowing for mistakes while reducing the risk of severe injuries. Smart protective gear comes alongside the app and allows the synchronisation of skaters' activities. This way, the successful completion of each game or challenge can be determined, and the skating process is tracked via the app. SkateSmart aims at making the learning experience safer and more enjoyable by gradually increasing the difficulty of exercises and guiding the inline skater in their learning process.

Methods

To find out how different constraints influence inline skaters and what problems they face, several interviews and a literature review were conducted here.

Interview

A total of 8 interviews were conducted with participants of diverse ages, genders and nationalities who are inexperienced and experienced skaters, some of who still actively skate, some not frequently and some not often anymore. The interviews were semi-structured and lasted around 20 minutes on average. All participants signed an informed consent at the beginning of each interview.

The participants mostly enjoyed inline skating for its speed, fun, and the physical challenge it presented to them and the positive impact it had on their physical well-being. They mostly learnt by guidance (in the form of demonstrations and cues/tips) from family and friends, through trial and error and watching YouTube videos.

The interview sessions revealed a couple of overarching problems and the challenges faced by skaters, especially the novices. The common challenges were mostly maintaining balance and braking, especially on uneven or steep surfaces.

The participants also mentioned that maintaining balance was also a challenge as it was difficult to attain the right posture. A good posture helps to skate better and can prevent falling. One interviewee said that looking forward instead of downwards is very important. This interviewee also mentioned that bending the knees helps a lot to maintain balance. Another also mentioned spreading their legs well helps with balancing which contributes to getting the right posture.

Falling was also a theme for all of the participants as well as braking. All participants said they struggled with braking when they started skating and most of them still do. Some preferred to fall deliberately and this often led to injuries as only a few preferred to use protective gears while others didn’t use them due to not perceiving a need for them. Besides this, it is also a lot scarier to go faster if braking is difficult. Since you cannot know when to stop, the sport itself becomes a bit unpredictable.

Also, most participants mentioned that practising was a good way to master the sport as they often noticed that when they stayed away from the sport for a while, they faced these difficulties mentioned above and it made the sport even harder for them. In general, the sport was appreciated for the ability to be able to perform anywhere whether in a park, on the road, or streets.

Literature review

To supplement the interviews, a literature review was employed to explore the challenges novice skaters face as well as the constraints that can influence their learning.

Although inline skating is beneficial for our physical well-being, individuals (especially beginners)  still experience challenges which affect their learning and eventually mastering the sport. As seen on Skatefresh, most beginner skaters are afraid of falling and ultimately getting injured. This fear can hinder them from learning and exploring the sport.

S. Sherker and E. Cassel mentioned in their study that novice skaters can feel overwhelmed by the speed of the skates which can make it difficult for them to maintain balance, especially when braking or turning. This can affect their ability to slow down or stop in time to avoid crashing or falling.

L. Parrington et. al stated some cues that could help reduce incidences of injuries, which are as follows: ‘push out as far as possible’ with the propulsive leg; ‘pull the foot back under the body’ during recovery of the pushing leg in preparation for the next stride; and use a strong fluid push, rather than a ‘short choppy stride’.

Ideate

After understanding the challenges faced by our target users, we focused on generating and exploring a wide range of ideas to address the challenges faced by novice inline skaters: learning how to balance and brake effectively. The “brain writing” method was employed to ensure the generation of various individual ideas before a collaborative workshop session was held. Figma was used as a brainstorming tool.

The brainwriting method allowed each team member to contribute ten ideas independently, ensuring a diverse range of solutions and perspectives. By the end of the session, with the participation of one extra person, a total of 50 ideas were generated. These were organised into seven related themes/categories to identify common patterns and areas of focus. 

Subsequently, the “dot voting” method was employed to narrow our focus. In this activity, each team member casts their vote based on personal preference and perceived impact.  The "Sensor in Gear" theme received the most votes.

The ideas within the chosen theme "Sensors in Gear" were further assessed and it was discussed which idea would most effectively address the balance issues novice skaters faced. The concept of "attaching sensors to protective gear to track the skater's process" was selected as the idea stood out for its potential to create a rich learning environment.

After further brainstorming sessions, the final concept was created, consisting of a mobile application which creates a rich learning environment for inline skaters. The combination of a mobile application with sensors in the protective gear could help novice skaters learn to skate efficiently and safely.