I was asked to explore the functions and the user-experience of a web-based messaging system for the Women's National Basketball Players Association. The direction given was minimal, stating only that Administrators need to be able to enter messages, polls, and specific bulletins, then customize groups of players who needed to receive those updates. Updates were delivered to players as active notifications through a WNBPA mobile app.
Knowing the functionality would change as they learned how players would be using the tool, I focused a lot of my attention on building modular elements and actions on a grid that would work well together in many different configurations.
Using these interface elements plans as a starting point, the plan was to use these modular specs to build out a similar system for the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc.
Players Directory
Administrators needed to be able to select individual players and message them through the app, or contact them via email.
Administrators could also see stats for the SportsBlog activity for each player.
Players Directory Special Instructions
Although this project was not that long ago, Sketch hadn't been invented. Same goes for a lot of other pre-production tools that we use today.
My instructions for developers were overlays within a PSD that gave functionality and style directions.
Messages Archive
Every message sent can be reviewed to see who was supposed to receive the message. Deeper linking revealed detailed stats with read receipts.
Composing and Sending a Message
Messaging modals make it simple to enter teams names, individual player names, select from an alphabetical list, or send a message to everyone in the league.
Polls
Polls were the primary driver for this project. By being able to compose and send quick, interactive questions to players, league administrators could get a pulse on the attitude in the league regarding key initiatives.
This dashboard showed the general information collected, as well as player comments about the poll question.
This page shows two interface options for this page. The top option shows their poll choice only. The bottom grid shows comments.
Bulletins
Think of bulletins like a flyer on the fridge in the company breakroom. Only this one is virtual. Bulletins go to everyone.
Alerts
Anytime an administrator is about to delete anything, they have to confirm. These modals make it clear they should reconsider.
Bulletin Comments
At the end of the day, people are interested in performance.
