Redesigning the Experience of Finding and Reserving a Tennis Court
why?
As a frequent tennis player, one of my biggest pain points is the experience of finding and getting on an available court. During one especially frustrating experience, I drove to 3 different tennis centers around Austin and in the end had to wait 20 minutes before I could even get on a court. After brief conversations with fellow tennis players, I realized I wasn't the only one with these pain points. I decided to take on a side project to explore the ways in which this experience can be improved by applying a design approach.
For this project, I am collaborating with Kevin Brown, a designer and tennis player also interested in making this part of the experience a more enjoyable one.
OBJECTIVE
Improve the experience of finding and reserving a tennis court.
Research Plan
- Create interview questions to help understand the hitting routines of individuals who play tennis on a regular basis (2 + times a week)
- Conduct interviews
- Synthesize research findings
- Conduct followup interviews (CURRENT STAGE)
interviews
The goal of the interviews was twofold: 1) to better understand how tennis players who play on a regular basis typically find and organize a hitting session and 2) to understand what pain points existed and why. We conducted five interviews with individuals who play tennis at least two times a week. The players ranged from serious players who played on multiple leagues to players who played regularly for leisure. After the first interview, we went back to our initial list and iterated on certain questions based on the flow and feedback we received during the interview. The remaining interviews were much more successful as a result of this. Some of our interview questions included:
- How often do you play tennis?
- Is it as much as you would like to be playing? If not, why is that?
- How do you typically coordinate with your hitting partners about playing tennis? Can you walk me through the entire process? From deciding who you're hitting with to getting onto the court?
- Which location do you play at the most?
- If you have a main court, why is it that you choose to play there more than anywhere else?
- What is the most frustrating part about finding/reserving a tennis court?
- Who do you typically play with? Individuals / league?
Synthesis
After conducting the interviews, we went through an affinity diagraming exercise to help us organize our findings. Through the exercise, we began to see trends that provided us valuable insight into the routines and pain points of the tennis players we are designing for.
Key Actionable Insights:
- Players who play on a weekly basis typically hit with a handful of the same people on a recurring basis.
- Players who play competitively typically meet their regular hitting partners through a league or tennis group.
- Location and availability are two of the biggest factors for players when deciding which facility to play at.
- Frequent players call the tennis center on average 2 days in advanced to reserve a tennis court.
- Most players find the experience of calling a tennis center to make a reservation awkward, tedious, and unenjoyable.
Personas
From these insights, three distinct personas began to emerge. The personas naturally ranged from the non-competitive but frequent player, to the competitive league player, to the competitive league player who is also the captain of the team. While these personas all shared common trends, there were several pieces of insight that contributed to three unique player types and hitting routines.
followup interviews
We are currently in the process of synthesizing the feedback from the interviews. However, we have already learned that in order to really understand the pain points of finding and reserving a tennis court, we will need to also interview tennis center managers, who may have more insight into why they do or don't use a court scheduling tool. We are in the process of scheduling these interviews.
Last updated: 8/20/15
