Elite Prospects
Elite Prospects is a reference in the aggregation of hockey statistics, offering an extensive database that spans the entire hockey universe. With approximately 6 million unique visitors, the website provides comprehensive data on active and retired players, games, leagues, national teams, and agencies.
Driven by user demand and a strategic initiative to engage a younger audience, this project aimed to identify opportunities and challenges in developing a mobile application for Elite Prospects, as well as offer a design concept for an app.
Duration: June to August 2024
My role: Project Lead & Design Lead
Team: 1 UX/UI Designer, 1 Technical Lead (iOS), 1 Web Developer
Research
The initial research included a discovery workshop, competitive analysis, and user interviews.
Discovery workshop
The team and the main stakeholders came together to understand the users and their needs, discuss business goals, identify problems that can be solved with an app, and align priorities.
We learned that the user base, comprising active and retired players, hockey parents, fans, scouts, managers, and media professionals, exhibits very diverse behaviors. Fans tend to dive into extensive data, while scouts focus on finding connections between teams and prospects.
Key learnings
Problems and assumptions
14-18-year-old players do not use EP actively; their parents take care of their profile
Parents spend time and money trying to find a good match for their children
EP has data to help match teams and players
From the 1.1 million players in the database, only 12 thousand have claimed their profile
Not many use the endorsements on the EP website
Goals
Focus on the active players and hockey parents
Create an app that appeals to a younger audience without losing current users
Match players and teams, and, consequently, reduce costs with travels to attend tryouts
Increase verification rate and profile claims (claimed profiles double profile views)
Offer tailored content based on user preferences
Competitive analysis
We examined a range of apps across different categories, including sports, exercise tracking, social media, and finance.
One goal was to identify common patterns in how popular apps display tables and handle large amounts of data, ensuring that our design would be both user-friendly and efficient. We also explored social media platforms, focusing on strategies to engage a younger audience.
Additionally, we reviewed dating apps to understand best practices in selecting favorites and creating profiles with preferences. This provided insights into how we can incorporate intuitive selection mechanisms and personalized experiences.
User Interviews
I conducted six in-depth interviews with people who have strong ties to hockey, including parents, coaches, and fans. The participants live in Canada, the USA, Sweden, and Finland.
The goal was to understand how they seek hockey-related information and identify challenges, particularly for parents finding teams for their children.
Each interview lasted approximately 45 minutes, yielding valuable insights, such as the need for a more focused platform for finding opportunities in hockey. “I honestly get tired of scrolling through [Facebook group] feeds of a 10-year-old, people asking how much training should you do for a 10-year-old or, you know? If there was an app where you could see 2009-born AAA from this area looking to play this or this...”, summarized one parent in Canada. Another evident need was for more video content. “A 15-minute video might save a ton of travel. I mean, they will still like to eventually see them, but the video is really important”, explained a coach and retired player in the USA.
The insights from the interviews were grouped in three categories:
Data accuracy
There are concerns about stat updates, as they rely on team availability.
There's a demand for objective metrics to better promote defensemen.
Height and weight are critical factors for young players. They also take pride in the number of profile views.
Photos and videos
Scouts rely on videos to assess player performance.
The current video upload process is not user-friendly.
Challenges in determining which videos scouts need.
Young players are active on Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok.
Communication
Parents rely on social media, especially Facebook, to find tryout and program opportunities.
Parents use Elite Prospects to verify the legitimacy of coaches and agencies.
Players are often contacted via social media. Instagram is at the top of the list.
Creative Process
When the team felt we had enough information to start, we immersed ourselves in the Elite Prospects website to map out the most important flows. We identified tables related to each profile and explored various placements within the app. Multiple iterations were conducted.
We also created a shared file to keep dynamic communication with stakeholders. Because it was a fast-paced project, we wanted to receive feedback as soon as possible, to quickly shift direction if needed.
We continued iterating until we developed a prototype for usability testing.
Usability test
With our initial concept in hand, we moved to the crucial stage of user testing. We shared a prototype with 2,000 active users of the Elite Prospects website, including players, fans, journalists, coaches, managers, parents, and staff members interested in testing the app's beta version.
We collected 704 responses in total. Our goal was to gather first impressions from passionate users, test the app's experience, and observe how effectively users navigate the interface and find what they're looking for.
The participants were given eight tasks to conduct in an unmoderated test via Useberry. The tasks were:
Find a player’s profile
Find more content - photos and videos - on a player’s profile
Find profile analytics on a player’s profile
Find results of the latest games a player has played
Find a player’s connections
Find an overview of a player’s goals and assists
Send a direct message to a player
Find a team’s profile and locate its upcoming games
Results
Most users successfully followed the intended paths to complete the tasks, but it was visible that they took longer to find player goals and statistics. When I came to the profile analytics, the results showed that 42% of users tried to find the information alternative places before completing the task.
The heat map confirms that users effectively utilize the search function, and a significant number of clicks on the navigation bar suggest that users may be exploring alternative ways to find a player and a team
Participants quickly found a way to send a direct message. The task had the highest completion rate.
There were, however, a high number of skipped tasks and drop-offs, which is also more common in unmoderated tests.
Besides testing the functionality of features, this part of the research also gave us insights into the first impressions of the app among heavy users.
Users’ first impressions
“I really enjoyed the features and especially loved the connections feature!”
— Fan
“I think that app will be very good for anything I need to know about hockey.”
— Active player
“Clean look, easy to navigate.”
— Retired player
“I really like the first look of the app. People that visit the homepage each and everyday will have an easy transition to using the app. I'm really looking forward to the android version because they somehow look slightly different than the ios versions.”
— Journalist
“I like the layout and the flow of the app. I’m really looking forward to it. I think it runs smoother and quicker than the mobile version of the website (not that it is bad), but I would probably use the app 9 times out of 10 to reference players (maybe not to admin my son’s page - would have to see how that worked on the app).”
— Parent, Journalist
“I like where this is going!”
— Parent, agent, scout
Refinement workshop
After analyzing insights from the usability test and gathering stakeholder feedback, the team recognized an opportunity to improve the navigation bar. Our goal was to attract younger players and encourage interaction while ensuring a seamless experience for our existing user base—primarily content consumers rather than contributors.
To achieve this, we organized a stakeholder workshop. We began with a card-sorting exercise to identify key navigation items and determine their optimal placement. Next, we collaborated on refining the naming of each tab to enhance clarity and usability.
Beyond navigation, the workshop included ideation sessions focused on notifications and incorporating ‘small delights’ to elevate the user experience. Finally, we defined the scope for an MVP version and explored future opportunities for further enhancements.
App concept
Tabs and seach
The Home feed delivers personalized information tailored to each user's favorite teams, leagues, and players, ensuring a customized and engaging experience.
For non-premium users, the feed will be ad-supported, allowing access to the same content but with occasional advertisements integrated into the user experience. This setup provides a personalized touch while accommodating different user preferences and subscription levels.
Under the Curated tab, users will find a comprehensive collection of articles, game analyses, and game summaries and highlights. This dedicated channel is designed to provide valuable and trustworthy hockey news, ensuring users stay informed with high-quality content.
The Games tab offers an overview of past hockey game results, as well as the dates and times of upcoming games. Additionally, the tab has the potential to evolve, offering expanded functionalities such as details on where fans can watch games, options to purchase tickets, partnerships with ticket providers, and live scores.
Explore is an area to discover relevant stats and insights that users did not know they needed. This tab enhances the app experience by providing additional value and deeper engagement.
The Search functionality is designed to be easily accessible from anywhere within the app, conveniently positioned at the top of the screen.
This powerful feature lets users quickly search for any content across the entire app, including teams, players, games, and articles.
Player profile
The Follow button replaces the star icon from the website, which confused users who weren’t sure if it meant "follow" or "favorite" a player. This update enhances clarity and aligns with familiar social media patterns, fostering a stronger sense of community.
The profile section provides quick access to player overviews, stats, logs, and careers. A dedicated photo and video area encourages uploads, helping scouts and coaches assess players more effectively.
Since research showed that players take pride in their view counts, this feature is now prominently displayed for easy access.
Team and League profiles
Users can explore team rosters as a list or player cards, emphasizing the value of updated photos and inspiring more thoughtful content sharing.
On a team page, fans can access details on past and upcoming games, delve into historical facts, and stay updated with the latest news about their favorite teams.
After thorough analysis and research, we determined that team stats would not add value at this time, as the website tables do not currently support meaningful data.
Data such as nationalities and the number of retired players will be featured under the ‘History’ section.
Future opportunities
The concept above focused on core functionalities for the Elite Prospects app, delivering key features that offer immediate value. The MVP concept would be a solid foundation, with room for adding new features in future updates. With that in mind, we also explored additional concepts that present exciting opportunities for the future development of the app, offering potential enhancements to enrich the user experience.
Were part of the features considered for future opportunities:
Direct messaging
Research highlights a need for secure, centralized communication, particularly for minors.
Career opportunities
A feature to allow coaches, event organizers, and others to post opportunities in a streamlined and efficient manner.
Quick videos
For players to share videos and engage their audience, with popular videos gaining prominence and potential for team or league shares.
Dynamic Island
To ensure seamless access to essential notifications like game start times, score changes, and player highlights.
Widget
A flexible and convenient option for staying updated on the latest hockey action without opening the app.
