PLAYMATE
PlayMate is a community-driven mobile app that connects people through sport. Pick a sport, set a skill level, and find a game nearby or create one. Profiles carry reliability scores and peer reviews, and game rooms handle scheduling, cost-splitting, and waitlists automatically.
The main barrier to playing sports consistently isn't motivation; it's the friction of finding the right person and trusting them enough to show up.
User interviews confirmed this: everyone already had a sports routine, but all struggled with coordination, skill matching, or trust when it came to playing with someone new.
The tools people use to organize sports; WhatsApp threads, Facebook groups weren't built for it. People want to exercise consistently and build social connection through sport, but the process breaks down at every step: finding a partner, coordinating time and place, and trusting a stranger enough to show up.
Scattered group chats turned into structured game rooms where profiles double as reputations, logistics run themselves, and a no-show penalty keeps everyone accountable.
Sneak peek from the prototype
"The organiser always ends up spending a lot of hours managing polls, chasing confirmations, handling last-minute cancellations. It kills the fun."
With the hypothesis and problem framed, user research validated the friction points and shaped the two archetypes the product is built around.
Two user archetypes, one shared friction.
4 semi-structured interviews with active sport players in Berlin and Istanbul surfaced two recurring archetypes. Both had an existing exercise habit; neither had a platform built for how they actually organize games.
Summer: The Social-Performer
Combines the traits of interviewees who prioritize community and finding a "tribe," using sport to combat social isolation. The app is designed primarily around her needs; she represents the segment with the biggest opportunity.
Daisy: The Efficiency-Reliability Seeker
Combines the traits of interviewees who get frustrated by logistics, cancellations, and skill gaps. The app is built to work for her too, without her edge cases overriding the primary user's needs.
Newcomers are more likely to exercise regularly if they feel a social commitment to a group; but they hesitate to join local sports because of a lack of trust. A map-based "game room" system reduces organizational friction more effectively than a group chat ever could.
Three steps, from cold start to trusted regular.
Set up your profile.
Pick your sports, set a skill level, and tell the community how you play. Your profile is your reputation. Reliability score and peer reviews build over time.
Find or create a game.
Browse open game rooms nearby by sport, skill level, time, and cost. Join in one tap, or create your own session and let others find you. Scheduling, cost-splitting, and waitlists are handled automatically.
Play, rate, repeat.
After the game, rate your teammates across reliability, passion, respect, and communication. The better you show up, the easier it is to get into future games.
Vibrant neo-brutalist.
A high-contrast palette with thick black strokes and raw, zero-blur drop shadows for a retro pop-art aesthetic.
Gamified interactions and playful isometric illustrations, built for an energetic, community-driven atmosphere.
A modular, cards-based layout for high scannability and clear visual hierarchy.
Four rounds, one prototype.
PlayMate went through four rounds of moderated usability testing: One on the low-fidelity wireframes, three across successive high-fidelity builds. Each run with 20 participants completing core tasks: Create a game, join a game, rate a teammate after a match, and review a profile. Findings were clustered after every round and fed directly into the next iteration.
The final round paired task-based testing with a structured heuristic pass across four themes.
Given more time, I'd push these three findings further.
The test rounds fixed the highest-impact blockers, but a few smaller signals kept recurring. Rather than shipping quick patches, I'd treat each as its own design sprint: validate the root cause, prototype alternatives, and measure whether the fix actually changes behaviour.
I'd explore filtering and sorting controls for the unrated list; collapsible sections, 'rate later' swipes, or a completion badge, and track task success as the list grows.
I'd replace the custom scroll indicator with platform-native patterns; peeking cards, pagination dots, or spring physics, and validate it feels native on iOS.
I'd test a collapsed header treatment: hide the logo on scroll, move it inside the profile area, or replace it with a contextual page title and measure screen real-estate satisfaction.
Information architecture.
Value before sign-up.
Onboarding walks new visitors through the app's value before asking for anything.
- —More Than Just a Game
- —Find Your Sports Circle
- —Explore the Neighborhood
- —Play with the Right Match
- —Sign up, log in, or continue as a guest
A personalized workspace.
Once authenticated, the app splits into five routes.
- —Home — dashboard with upcoming matches and unrated past games
- —Discover — map-based game search with filters
- —Create Game — launched as an overlay
- —Friends — recent chats, friend list, feedback on teammates
- —Profile — trophy case, ratings, match history, no-show log
Organising sport shouldn't feel like a second job.
PlayMate started with a simple observation: the tools people use to organise sports weren't designed for it. Through research-led design, iterative wireframing, and four rounds of usability testing, it became a structured answer to three human problems — finding the right partner, coordinating logistics without chaos, and building trust with a stranger before the game.
The result is a product concept that makes playing feel like playing again.