🏃 GBDA210 · Academic Project · 7 min read

Making Community Recreation Easy to Find and Book

Our city portal buried the information people needed to stay active. I led research, strategy, and product design to overhaul the experience so families, athletes, and newcomers could plan with confidence.

Role PM & UX Designer

Timeline 10 Weeks

Team 6 People

Tools Figma, Notion

Relocate mobile app interface showing discovery and booking

⚡ TL;DR

Legacy city portals buried recreation info in PDFs and redundant forms. We redesigned the experience around three personas—athletes, explorers, and planners—to surface live schedules, accessibility info, and neighborhood context. The result: a platform that meets people where they are.

50+ Survey Responses

62% Abandon Rate (Before)

42% Wanted Drop-ins

The Story

Recreation keeps people active, social, and grounded. But the tools that exist today often leave people feeling unsupported.

We ran interviews and gathered survey responses across students, parents, and league organizers. The frustration was universal: schedules hid in PDFs, accessibility info was missing, and maintenance updates only appeared on bulletin boards.

Residents told us they would show up when we spelled out gear, cost, and commitment up front. They wanted clear information instead of mystery PDFs. Most visitors bailed before picking a slot because schedules required downloading files just to see availability.

Our goal became clear: design a recreation platform that meets people where they are, whether they're booking a league or discovering a new neighborhood.

"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

🗺️

User journey map — Under construction learning motion design ⚠️

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.

♿

Inclusion in the Dark

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.

🏀

Timmy

The Athlete

Needs dependable tools to secure recurring practices and monitor facility status for his team.

🗺️

Peter

The Explorer

Wants effortless discovery of new activities with filters he can trust and itineraries he can share.

📝

Lisa

The Planner

Coordinates family schedules and accessibility needs, demanding clarity and timely reminders.

Research & Discovery

Our empathize-to-test loop let us pressure test ideas quickly. Workshop artifacts became guardrails so every iteration stayed anchored to real needs.

📋

Listen Widely

50+ survey responses and deep interviews surfaced the biggest "I give up" moments across different user types and age groups.

🔍

Map the System

Audited four municipal portals and documented where communication fell apart between facilities, websites, and residents.

🧪

Prototype Fast

Paper sketches to clickable wireframes, testing flows before styling. Speed mattered more than polish in early rounds.

👥

Test and Refine

Five moderated sessions confirmed where guidance was missing and revealed unexpected navigation patterns.

Why These Methods

📋 Listen Widely

Quantitative data revealed patterns, but quotes like "I just gave up" became our rallying cry for stakeholders.

🔍 Map the System

Competitive analysis showed the problem wasn't unique—every city struggled with the same legacy patterns.

🧪 Prototype Fast

Low-fidelity testing reduced attachment to ideas and encouraged honest feedback from users.

👥 Test and Refine

Think-aloud protocols caught confusion that click analytics would have missed.

What Users Taught Us

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

Map/list toggle sat too quietly. We elevated it with contrast and microcopy so explorers could hop views instantly.

"Is this my schedule or a template?"

Testers wondered if the calendar was theirs or generic. A "Your Bookings" title and persistent state solved the ambiguity.

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

Filters hid in the overflow. We surfaced them beside search for faster refinement and higher engagement.

The Solution

Features That Emerged From Research

Nine features emerged from our research, each one addressing a specific pain point we uncovered. Every feature ties back to a persona need.

🏟️

Facility Status

Live maintenance banners keep visitors informed before they leave home.

For: All personas

🔍

Smart Search

Browse by facility, activity, or neighborhood vibe.

For: Peter (Explorer)

🗓️

Visual Schedules

Color-coded availability, bookings, and upkeep in one panel.

For: Lisa (Planner)

🧩

Inclusive Filters

Filter by accessibility, cost, and equipment needs.

For: Lisa (Planner)

📍

Local Discovery

Map overlays pair facility info with neighborhood cues.

For: Peter (Explorer)

💬

Feedback Loops

Inline prompts collect feedback so cities can act on demand.

For: Municipalities

🧭

Guided Onboarding

Goal-setting during signup tailors recommendations.

For: New users

🔔

Timely Alerts

Notifications keep bookings, alerts, and updates in one hub.

For: Timmy (Athlete)

📊

City Dashboard

Analytics show municipalities which programs need support.

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

"Keeping research artifacts visible helped us balance municipal constraints with a fresher, community-forward UI that users actually wanted."

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 Timmy, Peter, and Lisa 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

Expanded Accessibility Filters

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

♿ Inclusion

Team Coordination Features

Add social features so teams and families can coordinate schedules and bookings together.

👥 Social