experience
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Redefining THE DATA COLLECTION EXPERIENCE FOR IPL AND OTHER CRICKET MATCHES
overview
Ever wondered where the score of a live cricket match comes from? CricStats is a proprietary software developed and maintained by wTVision used to record and keep track of the score and other metrics of live cricket matches.
CricStats acts as the heart of hundreds of matches every year including the Indian Premier League (IPL), all matches under BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) and some state leagues. Any place broadcasting or displaying a live score, including the stadium displays, source their information from CricStats.
context
wTVision had approached me in 2022 planning a redesign as part of their platform and architecture overhaul. It was long overdue due to the software being more than a decade old when the UX industry was still not mature and UX principles not widespread. It reflected in the ugly and unusable nature of CricStats.
my role
Lead Designer - Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Component Library, Prototyping
team
Mahen Gandhi, SWE
Sarthak Tripathi, SWE
Sarthak Tripathi, SWE
duration & status
3 months, Currently Live
nature & client
Commercial, wTVision
A Hassle-Free, Efficient & Smooth Data Collection Experience Built for Instant Broadcasting.
"Chandan's ability to ask questions not only demonstrates his curiosity but also highlights his commitment to understanding all aspects of product design."
"Chandan's innovative thinking and proactive approach allowed him to identify the root cause quickly and implement a solution effectively. This trait was evident when he delved deep into the user's pain points, ensuring that every design decision he made addressed their needs and concerns."
Sarthak Tripathi,
Operating Consultant, Wave Equity.
Operating Consultant, Wave Equity.
chapter 1:
understand
Why Redesign?
Leveraging Expertise to Scale UP, Bottlenecked By Design & Architecture.
wTVision was currently serving some of the largest clients in the country but to scale up by a magnitude, they had to expand their employees and infrastructure. This included overhauling the architecture, expanding physical equipment and offices, and of course a more modern and user-friendly design.
The first meeting with the team
The first meeting would play a pivotal role in my understanding of the project and it’s expectations as well as helping the team understand what can be expected to happen over the coming months of the project. Below was my agenda for the aspects I should grasp for a smooth kick-off.
Establishing Context
Understand how CricStats fits into the larger picture of collecting and broadcasting information.
Understand how the market functions and the stakeholders involved.
Understand the motivations and goals of the stakeholders for the redesign.
Understand the expectations and outcomes of the project.
Understand the relationship between operators and the current design of CricStats.
Understand their preferred process of working and evaluation metrics.
This redesign was not about fixing broken things. It was about innovating for the best possible solution.
Although exciting, a side-effect of this was that the project very open-ended and lacked direction. The people that knew the product inside-out were not technically fluent, and the technically fluent people were new to the product.
Takeaway
The people that knew the product inside-out were not technically fluent, and the technically fluent people were new to the product.
The Caveat
Identifying Challenges
Complexity Wasn’t Even close to Being my Biggest Enemy.
Although the following observations can’t particularly be categorized as bad, they certainly posed an additional layer of complexity in ensuring the best possible output.
Only 2 people know the exact use cases and expected behavior.
Competition either doesn’t exist or is for a different specialty use case.
CricStats is utility-oriented than consumer-oriented.
CricStats is more information-oriented than feature-oriented.
The redesign will be used for at least the next 5 to 10 years.
Finding Opportunities
Translating Observations into Opportunities For Improvement.
Based off of operator feedback, I had to find themes to structure as opportunities for the redesign. You can see the past decade of evolution of UX as a field being reflected in these opportunities.
Lack of dynamic UI
The UI was designed in a way such that it stayed consistent no matter if there was information present in it or not, no matter if it was needed in a particular flow or not.
Improper usage of components
Since it was designed more than a decade ago, there were no established standards on what component should be used for the type of information being collected.
Lack of hierarchy or segregation
Due to the regard that it will be used by a trained operator, the original design lacked any particular hierarchy and resembled a collage more than a usable interface.
Scattered flow of information
While the source of some particular information need not always be situated near where the information is being used, there should be an effort towards continuity of the flow of information which was clearly absent here.
North Star Principles
High Level Direction for Consistent Decision Making
While designing for products of such complexity and scale, there might be multiple ways of solving a problem with their own pros and cons. Defining principles allows me to derive consistent decision making.
Improve: Usability, & Reliability
Eliminate: Long term memory requirement
Minimize: Short term memory requirement & Manual Overrides
High Level Audit
Critical Review of The Existing Interface, Apart from the Obvious Surface and Visual Flaws
This audit functioned as a meter for me to understand how much impact I can generate through a redesign founded on basic UX principles. Innovating for the ideal solution would become much less foggy with a clutter-free, semi-decent design.
01
Requires memorization of data before input/Redundant entry of information
02
Lack of affordance/labels on the action
03
Improper hierarchy or use of improper component
04
Inefficient or jumbled information architecture
05
Disconnected action and information/Lack of Information
06
Inconsistent indicators that require memorization
Measuring Success
Translating Pain Points Into Objective & Measurable Goals.
How would the criteria of success look like for the project? What criteria would enable me to push myself beyond a solution or let me know when to stop?
Usability: Can an operator intuitively know what action a button will perform or what metric a text is displaying?
Glanceability: Can you understand the state of the system and metrics at-a-glance?
Scalability: Can the modules be swapped, added or removed with minimal development efforts?
Adaptability: Can the design adapt to different screen sizes and scales?
Complexity: Are all processes and flows as simple as they could be?
Cognitive Efforts: Is the design demanding excessive memory and focus from the user?
chapter 2:
design
Respecting A Non Disclosure
Uh Oh! Unfortunately, an NDA is preventing me from speaking further. Feel Free to Reach out to me if you’re interested in learning more.
Over 12 revisions of the primary scoring page, a match creation flow that merges business goals with seamless operator experience, computer vision interfaces to configure for stadiums, splitting the interface to accommodate multiple operators, a component library for scalability, multiple ideations for modular layout creation, and much more.
If any of this sounds interesting to you and would make you curious, please hit me up at any of my socials, or shoot me an email. I’d be glad to walk you through the project on a call. Thanks!
