From MVP to Scale:
Designing a Seamless Tennis Experience.
Overview
As Bleachr’s first full-time UX/UI designer, I played a key role in shaping their white-label tennis product, beginning with the launch of the 2017 Rogers Cup tournament app. This effort identified future feature enhancements and workflow optimizations, laying the foundation for long-term product strategy.
My Role: As the Lead UX/UI Designer on the team, I was involved in the creation and evolution of the tennis product's UX, UI, and product strategy. Key responsibilities included, but were not limited to:
Lead the UX/UI design effort for the tennis product
Improve design-to-development workflows
Develop a scalable navigation strategy
Integrate data-driven decision-making
The Approach
With only five months between the first contract signing and the tournament launch, I strategically built upon existing wireframes—applying consistent styling and resolving problematic design heuristics. This served as the MVP, creating a foundation for future enhancements based on real-world user data and tournament feedback.
The v1 Experience
MVP Execution
Redesigned & streamlined the first Rogers Cup app, refining UI while staying close to pre-existing wireframes and designs.
Introduced and implemented Zeplin for more precise design handoffs and InVision (acquired by Miro) to improve collaboration.
Key Takeaways
No established design-to-development process, leading to inconsistencies.
Lack of documentation, feature prioritization, and analytics for data-driven decisions.
Navigation challenges in a content-heavy app experience.
The Enhanced Experience - v2
Improving Team Workflows
Introduced feature documentation utilizing JIRA and Confluence to standardize communication and expectations.
Integrated AppSee analytics (acquired by ServiceNow) to inform product decisions with real user insights.
Led the effort to unify the illustration and icon system, mentoring a junior designer through the process.
Custom icons
Custom illustrations
Navigating Toward TennisOne
Developed a scalable navigation strategy, moving from a hamburger menu to a tab bar for better discoverability and engagement.
Focused on merging WTA, ATP, and tournament data into a seamless user experience.
Explored UX strategies for integrating rewards, fan engagement, and merchandising into the ecosystem.
Impact & Results
Rogers Cup app reached #1 in Canada’s App Store for sports apps.
Streamlined internal processes, improved team collaboration and efficiency.
Set the foundation for TennisOne, Bleachr’s long-term vision for a unified tennis platform.