🏃 GBDA210 · Academic Project · 7 min read

From PDF Schedules to Confident Bookings

Finding a swim class shouldn't require downloading a PDF. I led research, strategy, and product design to redesign municipal recreation discovery.

Role PM & UX Designer

Timeline 10 Weeks

Team 6 People

Tools Figma, Notion

Relocate mobile app interface showing discovery and booking

⚡ TL;DR

Legacy portals, outdated PDFs, and calling facilities for basic info created slow decision-making and accessibility barriers. We redesigned the experience around three personas—explorers, planners, and athletes—so residents move from confusion to clarity and hesitation to confidence. Usability testing showed faster discovery and higher booking confidence versus legacy portals.

42% Faster Discovery (Testing)

Projected +31% Booking Confidence

Projected +54% Filter Usage

🏃 Community Recreation

🔍 Discovery: 42% faster

💪 Confidence: +31%

🎯 Filters: +54% usage

👥 6 People

🛠️ Figma · Notion

🗓️ 10 Weeks

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The Story

Recreation, Rediscovered. Legacy portals, outdated PDFs, and calling facilities for basic information created slow decisions and uncertainty about what was actually available.

Our research surfaced the real-life challenges: legacy portals with outdated information, PDF schedules that required downloads just to see availability, and phone calls to facilities for basics. That created friction at every step of discovery and booking.

Residents told us they needed clarity—availability, accessibility details, costs, and schedule confidence. They wanted to know what was nearby without navigating redundant forms or downloading files.

Our goal became clear: make recreation discovery fast, accessible, and confidence-building. A platform that turns confusion into clarity and hesitation into confidence.

"I just want to know if the pool is open before I drive across town."
— Survey Respondent

50+ Survey responses gathered

10+ In-depth interviews

4 Municipal portals audited

The Challenge

How Might We

Help residents discover, plan, and book recreational activities without navigating legacy portals, downloading PDFs, or calling facilities directly?

🧼

Maintenance Blind Spots

Facility upkeep updates lived on social media or PDF bulletins, forcing users to gamble on availability every visit.

🧭

Navigation Sprawl

Legacy IA forced people through redundant forms and unclear labels, especially painful on mobile.

📅

Planning Overhead

Comparing schedules meant juggling tabs, PDFs, and phone calls before any slot could be confirmed.

♿

Accessibility Gaps

Filters for accessibility, cost, and language were missing, limiting participation for families and newcomers.

Who We Designed For

These personas kept us focused on real needs instead of the wish list municipalities usually bring to the table.

🗺️

Peter

The Explorer

Wants to try new activities, discover what's nearby, and browse visual schedules or maps.

📝

Lisa

The Planner

Needs clarity—availability, accessibility details, costs, and schedule confidence.

🏀

Timmy

The Athlete

Focuses on routine and staying up-to-date. Needs fast access to alerts and timely change notifications.

Research & Discovery

To understand the real-life challenges residents face, we ran a rigorous mixed-methods research process. It revealed both user-facing and municipal-facing challenges and gave us a holistic view of the recreation ecosystem.

Why These Methods

📋 Listen Widely

We needed breadth fast across many facilities and user types. Surveys gave us patterns in booking behavior and decision-making that shaped where to go deeper. Diary studies would have been richer but we didn't have the timeline.

🔍 Map the System

Portal audits let us compare apples to apples across municipalities. We chose portal audits over competitive analysis because the real benchmark was existing government tools, not commercial apps.

🧪 Prototype Fast

Low-fidelity testing reduced attachment to ideas and got honest feedback before we invested in polish. For a 10-week project with multiple stakeholders, fast cycles kept everyone aligned.

👥 Test and Refine

Interviews uncovered emotional drivers and pain points that survey data alone couldn't reveal—especially around accessibility and trust in "your bookings" vs. templates.

What Users Taught Us

"The map is hidden. I didn't know I could switch views."

Problem: Poor discoverability of a critical exploration tool. Opportunity: Make the map/list toggle prominent and intuitive so explorers can switch views instantly.

"Is this my schedule or a template?"

Problem: Users couldn't trust what they were seeing. Opportunity: Persistent state and clear labeling ("Your Bookings") to build confidence and eliminate ambiguity.

"Filters are the most useful thing—why are they hidden?"

Problem: Filters lived in an overflow menu, making them hard to find. Opportunity: Surface filters next to search for faster refinement and higher engagement.

The Solution

Features That Emerged From Research

We focused on the four that had the biggest impact on our personas. For Peter (Explorer), discovery and map; for Lisa (Planner), visual schedules and clear "your bookings" state; for Timmy (Athlete), timely alerts and facility status.

🏟️

Facility Status

Live maintenance banners keep visitors informed before they leave home.

For: Everyone

🔍

Smart Search & Map

Search by facility, activity, or neighborhood. Map and list toggle surfaced so explorers like Peter can switch views instantly.

For: Peter (Explorer)

🗓️

Visual Schedules

Color-coded availability, bookings, and closures. Addresses Lisa's need for clarity and schedule confidence.

For: Lisa (Planner)

🧩

Inclusive Filters

Filter by cost, mobility access, and language. Placed next to search after testing showed hidden filters were a major pain point.

For: Accessibility & discovery

🔔

Timely Alerts

Notifications for schedule updates, bookings, and maintenance. For Timmy and other routine-focused users.

For: Timmy (Athlete)

Additional scope we designed but deprioritized for the MVP: guided onboarding, city dashboard analytics, and inline feedback loops for municipalities.

Design Process

From rough sketches to tested prototypes, we moved fast but kept research artifacts visible so every iteration stayed grounded.

Phase 01

Paper Prototypes

Quick pen and paper explorations helped us test flows without getting attached to pixels. We could iterate three times in one session.

Phase 02

Low-Fi Wireframes

Clickable wireframes walked users through filters, search, and discovery. Grayscale kept feedback focused on flow, not aesthetics.

Phase 03

High-Fidelity Screens

Polished UI with a bright palette and bold typography we scoped after testing. Color and spacing were tuned for outdoor use on mobile.

Walk the Relocate Prototype

Preview the end-to-end experience, from discovery to booking confirmation.

Open full prototype ↗

Reflection & Impact

"Designing Relocate taught me how deeply municipal systems affect everyday routines. I learned to balance user needs, government constraints, accessibility considerations, legacy system limitations, and multi-persona journeys."

Impact Metrics

From moderated usability testing and comparative task analysis vs. legacy portals.

⏱️ 42% Faster Activity Discovery

Faster discovery of relevant activities compared to legacy municipal portals in task-based testing.

✅ Projected +31% Booking Confidence

User-reported confidence when deciding to book (Likert-scale, post-test).

🔍 Projected +54% Filter Usage

Filter interaction in testing after surfacing filters alongside search.

How We Measured Impact

Because Relocate was a new product concept, impact was measured through moderated usability testing and comparative task analysis, informed by existing municipal workflows.

📋

Baseline Benchmarking

We audited 4 existing municipal recreation portals and timed how long common tasks took — finding an activity, checking availability, and completing a booking. These benchmarks became our "before" metrics.

4 portals audited Task timing Heuristic evaluation

🧪

Moderated Usability Testing

Participants completed identical tasks on our Relocate prototype and rated their experience across three dimensions: clarity of information, ease of decision-making, and confidence in completing a booking.

10 participants Think-aloud protocol Likert-scale ratings

📊

Comparative Task Analysis

We compared task completion times and success rates between legacy portals and Relocate. Filter engagement was measured by tracking how often participants interacted with the surfaced filter UI vs. the hidden overflow menus of existing tools.

Time-on-task Success rate Filter interaction logs

Result

Testing showed that Relocate significantly reduced friction in discovery, improved clarity around scheduling and availability, and increased user confidence when booking recreational activities.

All metrics reflect projected outcomes based on usability testing and research insights.

Activity Discovery Time

Legacy portals Relocate 42% faster

Booking Confidence

Hesitant, unsure Confident, informed +31% increase

Filter Engagement

Hidden filters Surfaced alongside search +54% usage

What I Learned

🗣️

User Voices Drive Decisions

Sharing verbatim quotes persuaded stakeholders to prioritize accessibility and inclusive programming early. Real words cut through opinion.

🔄

Weekly Workshops Scale Understanding

Weekly workshops raised shared understanding and sped up critique cycles, making each iteration sharper than the last.

🎯

Personas Keep Scope Tight

When scope creep threatened, returning to Peter, Lisa, and Timmy helped us say no to features that didn't serve real needs.

🔮

If We Continued...

The roadmap ahead

Municipal Data Pilot

Partner with a real city to test data integration and validate the platform in production.

🏛️ Pilot

Administrator Dashboard

Build the city-facing dashboard so program administrators can track engagement and demand.

📊 Analytics

ADA-Compliant Navigation Patterns

Iterate on accessibility filters and navigation patterns based on user feedback to cover more needs and edge cases.

♿ Inclusion

Deeper Personalization

Predictive scheduling based on interests and partnerships with local community groups to enhance discovery.

🎯 Personalization