Phase 2 · Interaction Design Brainstorming
The first thing we considered when deciding the interaction for the app was what way the end-user would be physically interacting with it. Since our app is to be used on a touch device, we thought that direct manipulation would make the most sense for the base interaction style. Asking the user to manipulate the app through a series of commands seemed illogical. Based on the principles of directness our goal was to map the users expectations of physical objects, playbook armband etc. to the app and allow the user to interact with the digital version of the object in much the same way they would with the physical version. The biggest advantage we saw here was that we were hopefully able to significantly reduce the learning curve for the app; a main problem we had initially thought would keep coaches from adopting the new technology. New features that would not have been present in the coaches original playbooks, such as video and send to armband can be implemented in a similar way using commonly recognized icons such as a TV screen for play videos. Working further, however we realized that many functions of the app naturally lend themselves to the use of menus, additionally, the few tasks that would be represented by icons can also be represented by simple text labels. In the end we decided it would be best to use clearly labeled buttons that the user can click to navigate to the screen they want. Play making features still utilize direct manipulation, but other functions of the app use a system of touch menus and forms for input.
After talking with our clients we discussed the need for the app to be analogous to coaches existing playbook so that they don’t have to learn complicated new technologies. We also discussed the basic functionality and realize that coaches want to be able to not only refer to players as individuals, but as groups and want the armband feature to be broad enough to allow them to send plays to entire groups of players, what at the same time be specific enough to highlight the players role in the diagram. From a high school perspective, they liked the idea of having a player client that can be used on a variety of devices, and recognize that most, if not all players have access to some device be it a iPod, iPhone, or computer that will run the app.