OUGD603 - Sports Scouting - Research

During my time at the Uniform Studio in Bold Street, Liverpool I worked for several days on a project that involved researching and collecting source material for a brief. As the studio had classified this brief from the public, I was not able to see the full extent of the work. However, instead they tasked me with collecting images and information about sports data and analytics for a discussion they would be having mid way through my time there.

When gathering the source material, this gave me the idea to start another brief of my own based on the findings so that they could be put to some use.

 The research for Uniform began with layouts used for sports websites that gather information and analytics. Much of what I found involved the different uses of sports data and how this influenced the financial business of different sports. For example, I found that the analytics gathered by these websites were all using live feeds to collect information in real time around the world. The data from these websites can help sports teams to understand their upcoming opponents abilities, track progress of athletes, influence gambling sites and inform the public on future events.

This made me think about how teams in sports could use information to their benefit and what platforms were likely to be used to track player progress.

 As the Uniform Studio brief involved content for an advertising campaign, I looked at different sports infographics and how abilities of players could be broken down into different statistical visuals. I thought about where these infographics might exist in the world of sport and which platforms people would most likely find them. This led me to research into the different websites of sports teams, more specifically, football teams in Europe.

Taking notes on different inspirational layouts and structures in these websites revealed some of the best and most stand out designs within the format. Most notable of these websites included Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint Germain and Lille OSC for their contemporary approach to web design.

The Idea

The proposed idea that came to mind from this gathered information was to find a way for young footballers in youth academies to get scouted more easily. The first thing that came to mind from this was to first look for existing apps that run on a similar principle to this. That is when I came across an article about a young footballer from Germany who was scouted when he attended a trial that had been advertised on an app called Tonsser. The app seemed to be in it's beta stage for UK users, but had found wide success in other parts of Europe when connecting footballers with coaches, scouts and trial events. Therefore, I decided that the idea would involve design for an app that allows players, coaches and scouts to connect more easily. This idea could potentially be a beneficial solution to clubs who spend money on sending scouts around the country in search of new players. It could also narrow down the options of players and coaches when finding a local team, signing up to events and managing progress, all from a handheld device. Having found several different visual approaches to sports data, this could prove useful in the design process of this brief over the next few days.