The PoolDay App allows swimmers to find their unique pool anywhere in the world .

As a competitive swimmer growing up, I always had my go-to pool for team practice. After moving to New York and a long hiatus from the water, I got the desire to get back in the pool. I discovered it was tough to find a pool with open lanes (let alone the right pace lane). While there are pools listed on various sites such as Yelp or Google Maps, my challenge was to create an iOS app that offers a solution for the world's swimmers. 

DISCOVER

The Research

I conducted secondary research, competitive analysis, surveys, and interviews to discover people's pains, processes, needs, and motivations around swimming in pools.

Quantitative Insights 

Qualitative Insights 

DEFINE

Personas & Empathy Maps

It was discovered that there were 3 types of Personas; The Athlete, The Parent and The Traveler. Each with their own set of motivations, objectives, & pain-points. I created an empathy map for each persona to better emphasize with their needs. 

Features Prioritization 

Based upon this research I created a Features Matrix to organize priority on certain features in order to meet the needs of the users.

The priority list of features included: Search from address or current location, Map and List View, Favorites (My Pools), Popular Times feature, Water Quality feature, Reserve a pass, Reserve a lane, Book a swim lesson.

IA App Flow

I created an app flow to map out the possible paths and interactions  "The Traveler" may take when finding a pool  on a business trip.

DESIGN

Wireframes & Prototype

I created sketches on paper and then created low fidelity wireframes in Sketch with interaction annotations that detailed the triggers, rules, feedback, and modes within the flow. 

Initial Usability Test

I did an initial user test in Invision with 4 participants.  I tested  3 specific user goals:

a)Search for a pool from a given address

b)Filter the pool results by rating

c)Add a pool to favorites

During the testing it was discovered that there were issues with finding the favorites icon and the amount of visual feedback once added. Overall the flow of the product was validated. I was able to hear the user's thoughts and  observe the user's behavior while moving through the product. This allowed me to gain insight iterate quickly before moving on to the UI.

DELIVER

Brand Identity

The water is a place of rejuvenation, meditation, and healing for many swimmers.  I used bold flat shapes of complementary colors to reflect that relationship. 

UI Design

Key Interactions

I used Principle to animate key interactions within the experience.

Popular Times Feature

70% of swimmers are lap swimmers. It is common experience to have to wait for a lane to open, or to not be able to get into the water (after travel and changing into a swimsuit) because of unavailable lanes.

The Popular Times feature allows users to be able to gauge crowd size and availability based on days of the week and times.

"I know how crucial this information is. If I can’t get a lane, I don’t want to go.”

- Felice (Usability Testing Participant #2)

Search Feature

It's important for the user's to be able to discover pools in unfamiliar locations, especially when traveling internationally and unfamiliar with the language. User's can search for pool locations based upon a given address or current location, and each pool clearly displays distance away.

Search for a pool from an address or your current location.

The map view offers the best solution for finding a pool in an unknown location or on the go.

CONCLUSION

Next Steps

-develop and test reserve a lane feature

-develop and test book a swim lesson feature 

-develop heart rate sync with wearable

-develop a sharable community within PoolDay