The AthleteHUB app is designed to help Senior National and Next-Gen Athletes easily access content from a variety of sources to advance in their sport
Problem
Picture this: you're a senior national team athlete, fully immersed in your sport, giving it your all on a full-time basis. But amidst all the training and competition, it can be a significant challenge to access relevant resources and information to support their athletic journey. With their focus primarily on training and competition, they lack the time and inclination to conduct extensive research across various platforms. The current landscape is overwhelming, requiring athletes to navigate through multiple websites with different layouts to find the necessary resources. Despite their commitment, the scattered nature of available information diminishes their ability to access critical support efficiently.
Therefore, there is a pressing need to streamline access to resources for senior national team athletes. A centralized platform is required to consolidate information, making it readily accessible and user-friendly. By addressing this challenge, athletes can enhance their performance and overall experience, leading to increased awareness and utilization of available services. Ultimately, this initiative aims to empower athletes, ensuring they are well-equipped and supported on their journey towards athletic success.
Our Client
AthletesCAN is the association for Canada’s national team athletes. AthletesCAN invests in athlete leadership development through effective representation and education. The organization has created resources to build and formalize athlete feedback mechanisms across the sport system. AthletesCAN has been working hard to build strong partnerships and find new ways to make sure athletes have a say in decision-making within and beyond the system.
This new website will increase the value add of being a member, drive membership growth, and help them get more exposure.
From the onset, Bound State Software provided inspiring ideas to bring our project to life. Bound State respected all budget constraints and timelines throughout the project. We would use them again without a doubt and would recommend their service to any non-profit organization looking for a human and professional approach for their web solutions!
Process
Planning
The beginning of each project always follows a similar plan. During our discussion, we cover the project goals, the significance of this project, our definition of success, and how it aligns with their North star. We define the starting point, current challenges, and envision the end result. We discuss the users, their motivations, and what outcomes they are looking for. We use user journeys to figure out how people might use the app.
Categorization
The goal of the card sorting exercise was to place each resource in a logical category, so we went through a simple process to organize them. Our initial goal was to have resources only in one category, but after receiving feedback from users later in the project, we pivoted and allowed resources to belong to multiple categories, increasing the likelihood of them being found.
Design
After our brainstorming sessions, deep dives into their brand identity, and thorough research into similar brands, we rolled up our sleeves and dove into crafting some initial designs. It's all about making sure we're on the same page and that our designs reflect their vision.
Through conversations with AthletesCAN we landed on the some adjectives: Clean, Concise, Professional, Sporty
We followed their brand guidelines while also capturing the vibe they wanted their users to feel when they interact with the app. Then, we swiftly transition from wireframes to mockups, giving them a sneak peek at how the features might come to life before we dove into development.
Features
Resources
The HUB is capable of hosting and providing a variety of resources, such as e-learning modules, external links, files, and dynamic content.
Accessibility
The HUB needed to comply with WCAG 2.0 standards because part of the user base consists of para-athletes.
Search
We envisioned users utilizing the HUB in a couple of ways through our user flows. One way is to browse the categories, while the other is to search for a specific resource. To provide a snappy, powerful, and friendly experience, we utilized Algolia's search service.
Profile and membership
From the HUB, users can update their profile and become a member of AthletesCAN
Languages
The HUB offers content in both French and English for text within the app and dynamic resources
