LeagueSwype

How We Increased User Engagement...

Backstory

Fantasy sports are at an all-time high! Luckily, LeagueSwype streamlines payments and helps commissioners manage multiple leagues. However, LS had a pretty serious user drop-off problem and an overall low level of user engagement. My team and I assessed the previous site and hypothesized why users weren't sending money with LS. Then, we did multiple rounds of user sessions which led to key design decisions that increased engagement.

The Low Hanging Fruit

Made Adding Funds Easier

No one was adding funds into the site. We had users walk through the process and discovered they were confused about transaction fees.

Original Screen

The original copy was unclear and made it hard for users to deposit the correct amount to cover dues and fees.

My Redesign

This calculator told users exactly how much to load which set them at ease and tested without error.

Alleviated User Concerns

The previous explanation of the LS/Skrill dynamic caused concern whereas my new copy kept it short and sweet regarding the partnership. Also, I added a checkbox to confirm users felt comfortable moving forward.

"Can we forego the need for Skrill altogether?" I ask an e-betting regulations expert. The answer was no, so we had to optimize the LS experience despite the potentially confusing partnership.

Incorporated More Hand-holding

We used dashboard notifications to provide users with confirmation of completed tasks and direction on next steps to guide them and move them through the conversion funnel. This tested well and using LeagueSwype started to become a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Bringing Real Value

Our user participant, John, demonstrating how he uses his CBS Sports app

During user interviews, we discovered that these features didn't solve any actual pain-points or bring much value to our users. Eventually, we replaced them with better features and created a more meaningful experience.

Removed Unimportant Features

We studied the results of old user sessions and noticed that the features shown below confused users about the purpose of LeagueSwype.

Solved Real Pain Points

We interviewed a spectrum of fantasy players from the casual type that participated in 1-2 leagues per year, to heavy players that played in 12 leagues per year, across multiple sports, while acting as commissioner in up to 5. We found LS brought the most value to commissioners running multiple leagues.

A visual representation of our 8 users

For the Commissioner

We A/B tested two different ways to keep track of who owed money: a) an in-depth look with analytics and data viz b) something fun and simple. We hypothesized that users would prefer something fun and simple, since their goal was to make keeping track of payments easier and less tedious.

Analytics

"Analytics" gives users a detailed look into the league bank by using data viz and statistics to show who's paid and who hasn't along with individual league performance.

Commissioners felt this was overkill and made them think too much especially when managing payments for multiple leagues. We didn't keep this feature.

Also, we kept another feature concept, "Templates", which made creating the payout structure for a new league quick and easy.

Increasing Usability

Users wanted to easily send a payment from the dashboard so we added a dedicated button that would appear when they had a payment due.

Users weren't sure how to send a payment reminder so we added some instructions to guide them.

After initial testing we allowed users to click and edit their message and were able to shed an extra button and screen in the process.

Screens / Flows

Future Improvements

After handing off our final deliverables, we provided future recommendations for a few items that would increase LeagueSwype's long-term success. These included the following...

Personal Reflection

Even though we alleviated user concerns around the involvement of the 3rd party payment processor, we initially investigated paths that would forego the need for a 3rd party altogether. Being able to successfully boil down all of the jargon and present an overview of the complex federal regulations increased my confidence as a researcher.

Another thing that I learned on this project was that I'm most fulfilled when my designs contain an element of fun and excitement. In creating the trash-talking "payment reminders" concept, I was thrilled when the client agreed that we nailed the product vision. More importantly, our users lit up with excitement while testing the feature which satisfied my need to create something that instills joy.