Hunch
I would like to build a social media app that connects athletes who want to find other athletes to play their sports with, because I feel like there is no adequate social media app to strengthen communities of athletes and promote health and wellness.
Planning Materials and Raw Interview Notes
Guiding Questions:
- Do you use social media for different reasons now that you have graduated? If so, what are those reasons and how do they differ from the reasons you had for using social media in college?
- On a scale of 1-10, how connected to your friends do you feel through social media, and why did you choose the number you chose?
- Is staying connected to your friends and forming a community on social media important to you? What else do you use social media for?
- Can you briefly describe your background as an athlete, including the sport(s) you played and your level of involvement during college and now?
- What motivated you to continue playing your sport after graduating from college?
- What are the primary challenges you've faced in finding opportunities to play your sport after college?
- Can you tell me about your current methods for connecting with other athletes to play your sport? Are there specific platforms or networks you use?
- Have you ever used any social media or online platforms to connect with fellow athletes for games or practice sessions? If so, what was your experience like?
- Would you ever be open to using social media to connect with another person that you met online? If so, what would you want to know about that person before you met them in real life?
- How do you currently discover and join sports events, leagues, or pickup games in your area?
- Have you encountered any safety or privacy concerns when trying to meet and play with other athletes? If so, could you elaborate on those experiences?
- How important is it for you to connect with athletes who have similar skill levels and interests, when arranging to play your sport?
- Are there any specific sports or activities you'd like to engage in but have difficulty finding opportunities for? If so, which ones?
- Could you describe a memorable experience when you successfully connected with another athlete to play your sport? What made that experience enjoyable?
- Have you ever faced any communication or coordination challenges when trying to set up a sports activity with others? If so, can you provide examples?
- What kind of information or details would you find valuable when considering whether to participate in a sports event or connect with another athlete?
Raw Interview Notes
These are the raw notes I took during the interview. For direct quotes, I recorded the interview and listened back to it.
LIBBY NOTES:
Do you use social media for different reasons now that you have graduated? If so, what are those reasons and how do they differ from the reasons you had for using social media in college?
-College: learn about new people she just met
-Now: keep in touch w old friends that don’t live near her anymore
-Hates the random vids on Instagram
-Likes beReal bc there are no adds or random vids
-See friends every day and their new lives
Is staying connected to your friends and forming a community on social media important to you? What else do you use social media for? -Staying connected to friends is the only reason she still has social media
-Hates how social media is becoming worse for conenction w old friends
On a scale of 1-10, how connected to your friends do you feel through social media, and why did you choose the number you chose?
-6, used to be higher but instagram moved away from that
-beReal helps increase the number
-Without beReal would be a 3
Can you briefly describe your background as an athlete, including the sport(s) you played and your level of involvement during college and now?
-Grew up playing sports her whole life, enjoyed doing sports with her family. When she was 9 joined tennis group lessons and started doing clinics. Friend stopped playing. Headed towards high school choosing between tennis and basketball and chose tennis. Took private lessons every week and tournaments every weekend. Chose D3 for the perfect balance. Still a sport that you think is lifelong, now plays once a month sometimes once every 2 months. Misses the good players of college tennis. Hard to find people to hit with at the same skill level. Outside of tennis always loved sports and being competitive in general.
FOLLOW UP: What else do you miss about college tennis?
-Misses playing towards something
-Loved the competitiveness
What motivated you to continue playing your sport after graduating from college?
-Doesnt feel happy when she is not active
-Is trying to stay competitive
What are the primary challenges you've faced in finding opportunities to play your sport after college? -A lot of people stop playing
-Theres a mix of barriers (the players that u grew up training with don’t really play anymore)
-A lot harder to find courts (court availability)
-There are always people interested in playing, but it’s not the same as when u are playing with good players.
Can you tell me about your current methods for connecting with other athletes to play your sport? Are there specific platforms or networks you use?
-Just plug into social old tennis network
-People that she is still friend with
Would u ever be open to using social media
-Yes this is something that she wishes existed. Came up with same idea junior year.
What safety concerns do you have in terms of meeting someone from online?
-Would need similar safety checks (verifying background)
-Doesn’t want to meet someone thats much older than her
-Prefers women to men
How do you determine someone else’s skill level in tennis without seeing them play?
-Most competitive players are ranked in college
-After college, just hearing their background (did they play jv or varsity in high school, how long have they played, do they know how to keep score)
Are there any specific sports or activities you'd like to engage in but have difficulty finding opportunities for? If so, which ones? -Pickleball
-Basketball
Have you ever faced any communication or coordination challenges when trying to set up a sports activity with others? If so, can you provide examples?
-So many times she has tried to play with a friend, but when they get to courts, the courts are full, or they are not allowed to play on them
What kind of information or details would you find valuable when considering whether to participate in a sports event or connect with another athlete?
-Cares about the age range
-Could be a potential of dating
-Wants to be able to connect w on personal level
-Skill level is most important
-Wants them to have similar goals for playing
-Wants them to be competitive
TROY NOTES:
Do you use social media for different reasons now that you have graduated? If so, what are those reasons and how do they differ from the reasons you had for using social media in college?
-College: posted for his frat
-now:Running Tik TOk
-Instagram to see friends
Is staying connected to your friends and forming a community on social media important to you? What else do you use social media for?
-Staying connected is a main reason he uses insta
-Most of college friends live far away now
-Uses it also for running tik tok
Can you briefly describe your background as an athlete, including the sport(s) you played and your level of involvement during college and now?
Beach volleyball summer before highschool through a highschool program, and then joined the team in high school (3 days a week in the fall). And in the spring did indoor volleyball. Kept playing volleyball in college (got recruited). played for 5 years in college. Now that he is done with school, just plays beach volleyball (3-4 days thru the summer,1-2 days o.w.), plays casually with friends and signs up for tournaments.
What motivated you to continue playing your sport after graduating from college?
-Wanted to stay active, really enjoys beach volleyball and being in the sun and sand. -Needs to stay competitive
What are the primary challenges you've faced in finding opportunities to play your sport after college?
-One of the hardest things is figuring out a good network of people to play with, because especially with beach volleyball there is no set clubs. Logistical problem sometimes. Helpful to have a network of fellow players at the same skill level.
Can you tell me about your current methods for connecting with other athletes to play your sport? Are there specific platforms or networks you use?
-Built connections thru the years because has been playing a while (texting)
-Facebook groups for a lot of people just starting out. Used to use them, but they are very unorganized, and bad at matching skill levels. Sometimes too many people show up as well.
-Has never used this but knows there are a lot of programs for adults (20-30) (vavi) that has events that a bunch of adults come to casually play sports. Not sure how good it is.
How can you determine someone’s skill level without seeing them play?
-Tournaments (AVP): ranking system, anyone that signs up for most tournaments gets a ranking
-But most players in the facebook group don’t do tournaments, just casually for fun
How do you currently discover and join sports events, leagues, or pickup games in your area?
-Plays in the summer circuit. Got to play one or two professional tournaments this summer.
-There aren’t really leagues or clubs in volleyball
-Plays casual games w friends
-Wishes there were more players that were high level to play w
Have you encountered any safety or privacy concerns when trying to meet and play with other athletes? If so, could you elaborate on those experiences?
-Not really
FOLLOW UP: if you were to connect with someone from social media, what would your safety concerns be?
-Not that scared in terms of safety
-Still would wnat to know what they look like and how old they are and a bit about them like what they do in life
How important is it for you to connect with athletes who have similar skill levels and interests, when arranging to play your sport?
-“For me it’s really important, probably like a 9. You only get better playing with someone that is at the same skill level or better than you.”
Are there any specific sports or activities you'd like to engage in but have difficulty finding opportunities for? If so, which ones?
-pickle ball, don’t find the opportunity to play too often but loves it
-Dodgeball
-Kickball
-Pick up basketball
-Main issue: finding people of the same skill to play with. Not motivated enough. If I was to do it it would have to be done for me in a way.
-Spikeball
Have you ever faced any communication or coordination challenges when trying to set up a sports activity with others? If so, can you provide examples? -Yes, it happens all the time. Whether it be people sleeping thru alarms or people not being in sync with plans
-IDEA:(could come up with a design that gives a ranking of how much someone shows up) aka shows how reliable they are
What kind of information or details would you find valuable when considering whether to participate in a sports event or connect with another athlete? -The time its at and the location its at
-Skill level is most important
-Personality (other interests)
-Weather at the event
-What you need to bring
-Format of what you would be doing (drills or play)
-Age of player
Target Audience
I decided to interview two different athletes. My target audience is athletes that are no longer on sports teams (like highschool or college teams), but who once competed seriously in their sport. I wanted to determine how these individuals continue playing their sport after graduating from college, and if they have any difficulties finding other players to play with. In addition, I wanted to learn if and how they use current social media to keep up with their sports and other athletes. To get the full picture and capture all athletes, I wanted to interview a girl and a guy, where one player was from an individual sport and the other was from a team sport. I decided to interview one girl and one guy because oftentimes women have more safety concerns than men. In addition, men and women sometimes have different social media preferences, and I wanted to account for this when considering the design of my app. This is why I decided to interview Libby, a former collegiate women’s tennis player, and Troy, a former collegiate men’s volleyball player. Tennis is a sport that requires two people for singles, and four for doubles. For indoor volleyball, you need twelve players, and for beach volleyball you need four players. In addition, both interviewees are college graduates who work a full time job. Since most college graduates work a full time job, it was important to me that the people I interviewed also did. This allowed me to learn how they can continue playing their sport with a busy schedule. Libby works in investment banking, and Troy is a software engineer. The difference in job industries allowed me to gain insight into how one balances their sport with work with differing schedules and time constraints. On average, Libby works 60 hour weeks, and Troy works 35-40 hour weeks.
Interview Report
Interview with Libby
Libby was a collegiate women’s tennis player, and she now continues to play tennis while working a full time job as an investment banker at J.P Morgan. In college, Libby played tennis every day, and now she only plays once or twice a month. When I asked Libby what challenges she now faces when trying to find opportunities to play tennis, this sparked more emotion in Libby. To summarize her full response, the main challenges that Libby faced were finding people to play at her skill level and finding courts to play on. Highlighting a moment of her response, I could tell Libby felt most frustrated about the lack of people she could find to play with. When she was talking about this she said “This is funny, because I was just talking to one of my tennis friends about this. We were talking about how frustrating it is to try and find people to play with that are at the same skill level as us. There are always people that would be interested in playing, but rarely are they at the same skill level. I don’t get the same rush as when I am playing with good, competitive players. That’s what I miss most about being on a team with good players. For me, most of the players I grew up playing with no longer play or live somewhere else.” I was intrigued by Libby's remark about missing being on a team and asked her to elaborate on what else she missed. She responded, “I miss playing towards something. In college, we were always trying to be first in our league, and it made everything more competitive, which was fun for me.” Right now, Libby’s current method of connecting with other players is primarily through texting people she grew up playing with or reaching out through mutual friends. After hearing about how challenging it was for Libby to find other skilled tennis players, I asked her if she would ever be open to using social media to connect with other athletes. She said “I really wish something like this existed. Actually, when I was a junior in college, my friend and I thought of creating this as a business idea. We never followed through with it, but I do think it’s a great idea”. I was enthusiastic to hear Libby’s excitement about the idea of this social media app, and this validated my thoughts that people similar to Libby would be a good target audience. With any social media app that facilitates strangers meeting each other in person, you cannot ignore the concern of safety. To gauge how other women may feel about the safety of meeting a new person they connected with online, I asked Libby if she had any safety concerns. She said “Safety is a big reason why I don’t just dm (direct message) other random athletes on Instagram to meet. I would be willing to meet other athletes only if there was some way to verify their background and identity. Also, I personally wouldn’t want to meet up with a 60 year old man. I would prefer someone around my age.” When Libby came up with an example of an instance that would make her feel unsafe, this gave me a lot of insight into ways that I could make women feel safer on my app. Her explanation led me to come up with the idea of adding an age range feature where players could choose the age range of other athletes they would be comfortable playing with. In addition, her emphasis on the importance of safety suggests that for my app to be successful, safety must be a main priority.
Libby’s responses contributed greatly to how I want to design my social media app. Libby’s emphasis on wanting to be competitive again stood out to me in our interview. The thing that she misses most is that competitive feeling of playing someone equally as good as her. She also missed competition in general. To satisfy her needs as an athlete, it would be best if my app could be used to facilitate competition. Another one of Libby’s needs was finding courts to play on. It would be extremely useful if my app had a way to show places that athletes can play at that are nearby. Finally, skill level was very important to Libby. As she said, she is much less satisfied playing beginners. Thus, having a way to determine another player’s skill level would be useful in my social media app.
Interview with Troy
Troy was a men’s collegiate volleyball player, and he now works as a software engineer at a startup. In college, Troy played volleyball five to six days a week, and he now plays three to four days a week during the summer, and once or twice a week otherwise. Unlike Libby, Troy is able to continue playing his sport often because, in his words, “a lot of my friends that I grew up playing with are still here in San Diego, especially during the summer, and we enjoy playing beach together”. This contradicted what I thought about it being harder to find players for a team sport, but when I thought about it longer, it makes sense. Libby left her hometown, while Troy still lives in his. On top of that, beach volleyball players are far more likely to live in an area that has beaches if they want to continue their sport. Troy’s main method for finding other players is through friends he grew up with and through going to tournaments. Even though Troy has a few people to play with, when I asked him what his primary challenges were when it came to finding opportunities to play, he said “One of the hardest things is figuring out a good network of people to play with, because especially with beach volleyball there are no set clubs. There are also logistical problems sometimes. It would be helpful to have a network of other players at the same skill level.” I was surprised to hear that Troy had the same problem as Libby, even though Troy mentioned earlier that a lot of his volleyball friends still live in San Diego. When Troy mentioned the benefit of having a “network of other players”, it prompted me to ask him if he knows of any social media networks that are used to connect players. Specifically, I asked Troy to describe how he uses social media to connect with other athletes to play volleyball, and he told me “when I was a beginner, I used to use Facebook groups to find other people to play with. It was honestly really annoying most of the time, because there was never a limit on how many people joined, and a lot of the time way too many people went at once, so not everyone could play. It was always disorganized, and because anyone can join the groups, it isn’t good for matching skill levels.” In regards to my social media app, Troy’s response showed me the importance of matching players’ skill levels and having logistical organization. When considering logistical features of my social media app, having a limit of the number of people that can go and play together would be important to keep the event organized. Troy’s response also highlights the fact that although current social media is used to facilitate communication with new people, there is very little organization or thought that goes into who can join these groups and if these people are compatible to play with one another. In contradiction to Libby, Troy had little concern for safety when meeting another person from social media. However, he did say that he would still want to know some basic information about them before he went to meet them, specifically things like age and how they look. Thus, even though design aspects like an age range are there for safety, they would still be beneficial to someone like Troy, who wants to know some basic information about the person before meeting them.
Further along the interview, I asked Troy if there were any other sports he has been wanting to play but has a hard time finding opportunities to do so. He responded “There are so many sports that I’ve been wanting to play. Pickleball, dodgeball, kickball, pick up basketball, and spikeball would all be really fun if I could get other people to play”. I was surprised at this answer because a lot of these sports, like dodgeball and kickball, are much more casual than the mainstream sports, like volleyball and tennis. His response encouraged me to consider alternate ways my social media app could be used. On top of a competitive outlet, my social media app could also be used to meet new friends and help them bond through a casual sport.
Interesting find for both interviews
When I asked both Libby and Troy if they use social media differently now that they have graduated, both of their answers were very interesting to me, so I wanted to document them. Libby’s response was “Totally. In college I used social media mostly to connect with new people, and now I really only use it to keep in touch with my friends from college that live far away from me. I really hate the way Instagram changed so now you see random people’s posts in your feed, because I only really want to see my friends' stuff. That’s one thing that I like about BeReal. Every day, you post a picture of yourself at a random time, and it goes off at the same random time for everyone, so it’s fun to see what my friends are up to in their day to day lives.” I was interested in the fact that for Libby, social media became a way to stay in touch with old friends, and no longer a way to learn more about new ones. From Libby’s answer to my question, I can infer that the design features that Libby dislikes about today’s social media apps are those that make the app less about keeping in touch with your community. Troy’s response to my question was “I don’t really use social media that much anymore. I used it a lot more in college when I was in a frat, and we were supposed to post things for that. I still use Instagram and Tik Tok, but not that much. I like being on “running tik tok”, where runners post about their daily runs and give tips for marathon running because I also like to run.” I had never heard of “running tik tok”, but after the interview, I looked more into it, and it is pretty much a bunch of running videos, where runners, beginner and expert, post about their journey of becoming a runner, post about races, and post tips and tricks they use for running.
Design Opportunities
PLEASE READ: Based on a question in the assignments thread, I am confused on whether we are supposed to come up with design opportunities (features) for one app idea, or design ideas about different kinds of apps. The first five ideas below are for features. If this is not what I was supposed to do, scroll further down to see design opportunities for apps.
Design Features
A feature that shows an athlete nearby places they can play their sport at.
-Example: If two players want to play together, this feature will take both their locations, and find places that are closest to both of them to suggest for them to play at. Included in these suggestions will be information about if you need to make a reservation ahead of time, and if you need to pay to play or if it's free.
-Why this opportunity matters: One potential obstacle to someone playing their sport is finding a place they can play it. Adding this feature makes it a lot easier for both athletes to find somewhere to play that makes sense for both of them. Both Libby and Troy said that one of the obstacles that keeps them from playing is the logistics. Libby specifically said “it is hard to find courts that I am allowed to play on. Since I didn’t grow up here (west LA), I don’t know where the good courts are”. This feature would take the stress away from the user of having to find somewhere they can play. It allows the user to focus on playing their sport without the hassle of logistics.
Add an age range
-Example: Say you are an athlete on the app. You will have the option to choose which age range of players you are comfortable with. If you are only comfortable with players in the age range of 18-24, you will be able to specify that as your age range, and all of the other athletes that you see will only be athletes in that age range.
-Why this opportunity matters: Knowing someone’s age before meeting them in person is important both for safety and personal preference reasons. Libby was most concerned about safety. In her words, “ I personally wouldn’t want to meet up with a 60 year old man. I would prefer someone around my age.” In addition, this app could be used to facilitate friendships, and sometimes people prefer being friends with others of similar age. For Troy, safety was less of an issue but he still said it would be important for him to know a bit about the other person before he met them in person.
Safety measure (background check)
-Why this opportunity matters: There will need to be a way to verify each user’s identity for both ethical and safety reasons. Without a good background check, reappropriation could occur, where users are now using the app with malicious intent (ex: to kidnap people). Thus, there will need to be a background check similar to the check that other apps like Tinder and dating apps use. As mentioned above (in the age range explanation), Libby mentioned the importance of safety when I interviewed her. She said “Safety is a big reason why I don’t just dm (direct message) other random athletes on Instagram to meet. I would be willing to meet other athletes only if there was some way to verify their background and identity.”.
A feature that allows players to choose whether they are looking for casual play or more serious game play.
-Example : Say one tennis player wants to use the app to form friendships with other tennis players, but is looking more for casual play (rallying and hitting for fun). Another tennis player wants to start seriously training for a tournament, and is looking for serious match play. These two players would not be compatible, even if they are of the same skill level. In my app, both players would be able to specify what kind of play they are looking for, which will filter their results for athletes looking for a similar type of play.
-Why this opportunity matters: If two athletes are looking for something different in terms of seriousness when they are playing with other people, then they are not compatible to play together. Both athletes would get more enjoyment and productivity out of playing with other athletes that are looking to train in similar ways. In my interview with Libby, when she was talking about how it’s hard to find players at her level, she said “I don’t get the same rush as when I am playing with good, competitive players. That’s what I miss most about being on a team with good players.” Libby is looking for someone to play a competitive match with, and this feature would allow her to find another athlete looking for something similar. This is important, because if Libby is matched with someone that doesn’t want to be competitive, then even if they are good players, she will not feel as satisfied because she is looking for competitiveness. Similarly, Troy mentioned that for volleyball, he would be looking to play more competitively, but for other sports he was interested in, such as dodgeball and spike ball, he would be looking to play just for fun.
A feature that categorizes athletes based on their skill level (categories: beginner, intermediate, and advanced).
-Example: As an athlete you would be labeled as a beginner if you are just starting the sport, intermediate if you have been playing for a while but not in competitions, and advanced if you are competing often. You will also be able to specify what skill level of other athletes you are willing to play with. From there, the app will only show you athletes of the skill levels that you want to play with.
-Why this opportunity matters: If you are an advanced player, it is unlikely that you will get much out of playing with a beginner. For both Troy and Libby, playing with other athletes that were of similar skill level was extremely important. In my interview with Troy, when I asked him what kind of athletes he tries to play with, he said “When I am training for tournaments and not just playing for fun, I try to play with players that are at least as good as me, and hopefully better, because whenever I play with someone that is better than me it makes me a better player too.” Libby similarly talked about how one of the bigger obstacles to playing tennis is finding other players of similar skill level.
Design Opportunites: App Edition
- An app that connects athletes with other athletes looking to play their sport. For a detailed description of features that would be included in this app, look at design opportunities (above). In summary, this app would be a way for athletes to find other players of a similar skill level that they can play with. When I spoke with Libby and Troy, they both told me that a big obstacle they face when trying to play their sport is finding other players that are just as good as them. For safety reasons, Libby doesn’t use current social media to connect with other athletes that she doesn’t personally know. There is also no current social media that is made specifically to facilitate friendships and communities of athletes. Both Troy and Libby play their sport significantly less than they once did, and both said they are often unsatisfied with the amount they play now. An app like this would be useful to players like Libby and Troy who are wanting to play their sport more often, but don’t know enough people to play with. In addition, this app could be used to facilitate friendships. Troy mentioned he would love to make friends and casually play dodgeball and spike ball. This app could be similar to Tinder in the way that people can look at other athletes profiles, pictures, and background info, and meet up with them if they both are interested in meeting. (This is not similar to Tinder exactly though, because the main idea is to connect people with a shared interest in a given sport).
- An app for athletes, where they post videos and pictures of them doing their sport, and form a community with other athletes. Many people use apps like Instagram and Facebook to post pictures with their friends and family. This app would be used primarily to connect with other athletes. This would be a great way to document your improvement as you progress in your sport, and to connect with other athletes that inspire you. I got this idea when I interviewed Troy, and he told me about how he enjoys watching running videos on tik tok. On tik tok, anyone can post videos, and a lot of runners post about how they got into running, current races, running tips, and motivational running videos. Having an app that has these kinds of videos for all sports could be extremely beneficial for any athlete, especially athletes that are just starting a new sport that want to learn more tips and tricks.
- An app that facilitates competitive play (through bets): After college, many players that were once extremely competitive in their sport now have to find new outlets for their competitive nature. This app would be a great outlet for these athletes. With this app, athletes could meet other athletes that want to be competitive, and they could play matches/games for money against one another. I came up with this idea because it really stood out to me how much Libby missed competing. This way, athletes can continue playing towards something (instead of winning League, its now winning money), and be even more motivated to keep improving in their sport.