Enhancing the Played Platform: UX Research Case Study and Feature Gap Analysis
Role: User Experience Designer
Skills: UX research, Competitive analysis
Timeline: October - December 2022
Research and discovery
Played is a digital platform for booking and scheduling activities, serving providers who manage events, customers, and payments. The goal of this research was to improve competitiveness and usability by uncovering pain points, identifying feature gaps, and aligning product strategy with user needs.
Through 5 in-depth customer interviews, competitive benchmarking, and stakeholder workshops, I defined two core personas:
Time-Strapped Organizers who want to reduce manual work managing bookings, schedules, and communication.
Growth-Focused Providers aiming to increase participation and engagement.
Insights were derived from user feedback, sales/support data, and competitor analysis to ensure a balance of functional and emotional needs.
Customers with multiple venues and activities
Customers with single venue and activities.
Key Findings & Insights
Despite strong payment processing and customer support, users struggled with:
• Rigid scheduling tools and limited editing options
• Weak mobile experience
• Limited branding customization
• Complicated refund and multi-booking management
Competitive analysis revealed that other platforms excelled at flexible scheduling, mobile-first design, and robust customer management, while Played lagged behind in these areas.
Without addressing these usability gaps, Played risked losing market share to competitors offering smoother, more flexible workflows.
How can Played be improved?
I synthesized findings into high-impact design recommendations, prioritizing features by user urgency, business value, technical feasibility, and competitive differentiation.
High Priority
Frequently reported pain points, directly impact core tasks, quick wins
🤝 Improved Customer Management
Streamline refunds, cancellations, and automated reminders.
📱 Mobile App Experience
Launch a mobile-friendly interface for on-the-go booking.
🕑 Enhanced Schedule Management
Simplify activity creation, updates, and editing.
✏️ Storefront Customization
Allow visual branding customization for providers.
⚙️ Third-Party Integrations
Seamless syncing with popular calendars and payment providers.
Low Priority
Strategic long-term improvements, require more development effort
📊 Advanced Analytics
Interactive dashboards and exportable insights.
📖 User Education
Tutorials, onboarding guides, and self-help tools.
⭐️ Reviews & Ratings
User-generated feedback to build trust and visibility.
👍 Loyalty Programs
Incentives and discounts for repeat customers.
To secure buy-in, I aligned each recommendation to measurable business goals like reducing support tickets or increasing booking volume, and illustrated opportunities created by competitor gaps. This shifted discussions from subjective opinion to data-backed prioritization.
Wayforward
The immediate roadmap focuses on onboarding improvements, scheduling flexibility, customer management, and mobile optimization rolled out incrementally using an Agile UX approach.
By delivering high-value features iteratively, we’re able to test, learn, and adapt, ensuring both user and business needs are met. The vision is to evolve Played into a mobile-first, automation-driven platform that saves time, drives participation, and stands out through customizable, provider-friendly experiences.
(The product is still in development stage)