From teeny tiny details to extremely important decisions, FOOTBALL is not different to UCD process
The extensive planning process that goes into user experience design can be complicated for beginners to understand. Today, we bring in a colorful football analogy to break it down into bite-sized chunks!
- Similarities in both, FOOTBALL and DESIGN.
When planning for a football team strategy, the first step is to complement your skills and shadow your shortcomings. The second step is to study your opposition, understand their strengths and weaknesses, and then revisit step one. In UX design, this is the market research and competitor analysis stage. Before drawing a single line on paper, we must understand the ecosystem that we want our product to thrive in.
Parallelly, the in-house fitness expert is ensuring that the team members are in good shape to play. The coach runs several trial games to test out the gameplay strategy and, if needed, improve it. It is similar to the user interview and testing stage in UX design. The data collected via research is validated by interviewing actual users. It is essential to follow this step to cross-check any assumptions about users.
2. Balance in PLANNING and EXECUTION
While we can plan for many outcomes, hindsight often teaches us better lessons than success ever could. If the match is won, the process bore fruit. If it is lost, we know there is space for improvement. Did we ever doubt Sir Alex Fergusson when Manchester United lost a game? Planning and processes are undoubtedly essential, but the magic of trial and error makes them effective.
To all the young designers out there, don’t be overwhelmed! Both UX design and football have one certainty — no matter how green you are at the start, you can always improve with practice. And what better way to do it than to play with a strong team? Football is not a one-person sport, and neither is design. You are the sum of the people around you, so it is vital to surround yourself with passionate, talented teammates who can guide you in your journey.
Let us highlight one difference between UX design and football.
A football team competes against an opposing team to win, whereas, in UX design, your team might have to compete with itself. You might have to axe some ideas, question yourselves, even reinvent the game altogether — we can promise you that the legwork will not look pretty! Like Ronaldo says, “My only competition is me!”
But that is the beauty of the process. Victory is not solely against your competition; it can come in many shades and sometimes even be invisible! Don’t pause for a trophy at the end of the UX design process. Gather your learnings and carry on the good fight!
