2nd_project | official

WEBSITE

grassroots

tennis association

05 / 12 / 2017

When having a sit down with the stakeholders of the Grassroots Tennis organization, they clearly communicated that they were in need of a complete rebrand. Of course when any designer hears this its music to their ears. I will have to say that working on this project has been a blast. I personally play and coach tennis myself and it just felt right to work on something that you have such an understanding of. But there is a problem, making sure as a UX practitioner you stay in your lane.

Now because I have experience in tennis it did allow me to have more of an empathetic view to the needs of the users. In all respects, I would be a user myself, although I would have to be cautious not to overstep the boundaries of the true users.

The stakeholders determined that they wanted not to only rebrand but to rebuild there brand from the ground up. This would include Identity, a strong web presence, mobile, and print. I chose to apply a UX process for all of the projects even the logo. The logo was the critical part of the project considering it communicates what the association stands for. After a satisfying amount of research and mood boarding, I choose a solution that would bridge the gap between the modern tennis world and the traditional. This would create an aesthetic that would communicate that the association was an established entity in the tennis world but also a progressive one. This approach creates a logo with cross-cultural appeal as well as communicating the associations ideological intent.

OVERVIEW

IDENTITY / WEB / MOBILE / PRINT

When having a sit down with the stakeholders of the Grassroots Tennis organization, they clearly communicated that they were in need of a complete rebrand. Of course when any designer hears this its music to their ears. I will have to say that working on this project has been a blast. I personally play and coach tennis myself and it just felt right to work on something that you have such an understanding of. But there is a problem, making sure as a UX practitioner you stay in your lane.

Now because I have experience in tennis it did allow me to have more of an empathetic view to the needs of the users. In all respects, I would be a user myself, although I would have to be cautious not to overstep the boundaries of the true users.

The stakeholders determined that they wanted not to only rebrand but to rebuild there brand from the ground up. This would include Identity, a strong web presence, mobile, and print. I chose to apply a UX process for all of the projects even the logo. The logo was the critical part of the project considering it communicates what the association stands for. After a satisfying amount of research and mood boarding, I choose a solution that would bridge the gap between the modern tennis world and the traditional. This would create an aesthetic that would communicate that the association was an established entity in the tennis world but also a progressive one. This approach creates a logo with cross-cultural appeal as well as communicating the associations ideological intent.

IDENTITY

NEW LOGO

design process

DESIGN THINKING / CENTERED AROUND THE DREAMS OF THE ATHLETES

When starting a project from scratch it can be a challenging task to ideate content and visual concepts. This is where UX methodology starts. Choosing the best UX practice for this project was in my humble opinion pretty obvious considering we were really revisiting an already existing site but looking at it and approaching the project as if it was from the very beginning. I choose to use the concept of design thinking which allows me to more flexible in how I approach my problem-solving strategy. I implemented some very basic but highly effective UX tools from the UX toolbox to get the ball rolling. We started by doing a Competitive Analysis that focused on the most successful transportation companies in the world. By doing this it gives you insight on the UX similarities. From there we can do some brief user testing on the competitor's sites to see what works and what does not work, once again giving us valuable feedback on what to explore regarding design ideas.

ATHLETE AND STAFF INTERVIEWS TO GAIN UNDERSTANDING

EMPATHIZE

Our approach was to interview and understand the stakeholder's goals for the association as well as understand the career goals of the athletes. Because the association was coaching Jr. athletes along with pro athletes, we figured that a group discussion would be an effective way of getting a more well-rounded view of the organization's needs.

define

UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM

Houston we have a problem! So here we are, we have arrived at the point of defining the issues. After taking into consideration everything that was said in the interviews, one on one conversations and visual observations I took a hard look at the research regarding other tennis associations and how they solve the problems that were identified in this project.

ISSUES TO ADDRESS

CONFUSING UI CREATES A POOR USER EXPERIENCE

INFORMATION OVERLOAD / LACK OF INFORMATION ORGANIZATION

TO MANY ADS

UNAPPROACHABLE HUMANISTIC OR EMOTION ATTRACTION

LACK OF SITE ARCHITECTURE DISABLES THE USER

MINIMAL INSIGHT ON THE ASSOCIATIONS MOTO

THIS EXPLAINS MY OVERALL THINKING BEHIND THIS PROJECT.

GENERATING A SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

ideation

When entering the idea-generating phase of the project I had a relatively good understanding of how the user might benefit from the UI. I decided to focus on messaging. Messaging can be presented to the user in many different ways, language, images, or video. You can also use a combination of the two in order to communicate more effectively. I choose to use images as well as language. By using clean minimal design with impactful images and language you demonstrate to the user that the organization has a focus and what that focus is. The GRASSROOTS TENNIS ASSOCIATION is focused on providing the resources and opportunities for less fortunate kids. This allows them to have a chance to play the game of tennis and grow the game.