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
Summary
This UX research project aimed to identify user pain points and opportunities to enhance the product’s competitiveness and usability.
Through in-depth user interviews, competitive analysis, and stakeholder collaboration, two key user personas were developed, highlighting needs around scheduling, customer management, and mobile experience. Research insights informed high-impact design recommendations—several of which were prioritized for immediate development.
Key outcomes included a redesigned onboarding flow, improved scheduling tools, and a mobile-first strategy, all focused on increasing participation and reducing manual effort for providers. The research also helped align cross-functional teams around user-centered priorities using an Agile UX approach.
Research Goals & Questions
Goals:
Understand how users interact with Played in their day-to-day tasks
Identify key pain points and areas for improvement
Benchmark Played against competitors
Key Research Questions:
What motivates or frustrates Played users?
How do Played’s features compare to competitors’ offerings?
Which aspects of the user experience are most valued or problematic?
Research Methodology
User Interviews: Conducted 5 in-depth interviews with key customers
Competitive Analysis: Hands-on exploration of direct and indirect competitors through demo accounts, secondary resources such as user review platforms and forums
Feature Audit: Mapped out patterns in Played and competitor offerings aligning with user requirements
Identifying use cases
Two different personas were identified for Played based on interviews conducted with 5 key customers - participants were selected for their active usage and strategic importance.
Understanding their motivations and frustrations helped in identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement. Their key goals are focusing on increasing participation and saving time on manual tasks like managing bookings & schedules, and customer communication.
Customers with multiple venues and activities
Customers with single venue and activities.
Interview insights helped define two key personas with shared goals: increasing participation and reducing manual work.
Competitive platforms were analyzed to evaluate key features, workflows, and user feedback.
Sales and support team insights were triangulated with user interviews to identify both functional and emotional user needs.
All data was synthesized into clear themes and actionable insights that directly informed product strategy.
Key Findings & Insights
What users value:
Seamless payment processing
Responsive customer support
Centralized, digitized booking workflows
Time-saving automation
Pain Points:
Frustrating scheduling tools and limited modification capabilities
Lack of UI customization for branding
Navigation issues on mobile
Difficulties with multi-booking management and refunds
Research and observations
Based on insights from the sales team, both direct (sports-focused) and indirect (general booking) competitors were identified.
Demo accounts were created to explore features and user flows in real-world scenarios.
Supplemented findings with user reviews and UX best practices from secondary sources.
Key Strengths Observed Across Competitors
Seamless payment processing
Efficient booking management workflows
Common Gaps & Opportunities
Limited customization options
Lack of third-party integrations (e.g., calendars, payment tools)
Underdeveloped analytics and reporting tools
Missing or weak marketing features
Inefficient customer management systems
The different patterns identified in both the audits were mapped into three sections - Likes, Wants and Ideas which were then used to to inform Played's product development strategy.
Key trends among competitors included: Seamless booking flows, flexible scheduling, robust customer management, and strong mobile experiences—features users highly valued.
Identified gaps included limited support for ticket transfers, refund complexity, lack of detailed analytics, weak accessibility, and minimal branding customization.
Opportunities for innovation included wishlist-based recommendations, better waitlist handling, loyalty programs, improved support resources, and enhanced messaging with read receipts and search capabilities.
How can Played be improved?
To achieve the main goal of both the use cases - increasing participation and automating tasks, following recommendations were done for Played based on the observations.
Features were prioritized based on:
Frequency and urgency of user pain points
Business value: potential to increase user retention and reduce support load
Technical feasibility and alignment with current product architecture
Strategic differentiation in a competitive market
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.
Stakeholder alignment
Initially, there was some skepticism around the value of qualitative insights and concerns about development scope. To address this, we aligned user impact with business goals—such as reducing support queries and increasing booking volume—and illustrated how competitor gaps presented opportunities for differentiation. Some suggestions were supported with user data which helped shift the conversation from opinion to evidence, ultimately securing alignment and buy-in for the proposed improvements.
Most of the suggestions affected the onboarding, which was then decided to be reviewed as the first step.
Wayforward
Currently, the project scope primarily encompassed key feature enhancements - addressing scheduling, customer and booking management, and refining the mobile app experience. These decisions were rooted in addressing existing customer pain points and navigating technical restrictions, including limitations imposed by external services and API requisites.
The team opted for an AGILE UX approach to foster seamless cross-functional collaboration, ensuring alignment in creating a unified product. Given the intricacies of the product's multifaceted flows and numerous features, the method of tackling one feature at a time with successive iterations and integrating testing rounds proved effective in managing incremental changes.
(The product is still in development stage)