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Match Viewer - UCLA Athletics
A website offering detailed statsistics and breakdowns for UCLA tennis players to enhance performance analysis and strategy development
OVERVIEW
Who is Bruin Sports Analytics
Bruin Sports Analytics (BSA) is a student-run UCLA club that promotes sports research, journalism, and consulting through data-driven insights. As a designer on the Tennis Consulting team, I worked directly with UCLA Athletics to build tools that help players track performance and grow their game.
THE PROBLEM
Disconnected Performance Data
When we connected with UCLA Athletics, one thing stood out—players didn’t have a simple way to view their own performance data. Stats were scattered or hard to interpret, making it tough to track progress or spot areas for growth. There was a clear need for a streamlined tool that could turn raw numbers into meaningful insights.
OUR SOLUTION
The Vision for UCLA Athletics
To tackle this challenge, we’re creating a centralized website that brings together all tennis stats, schedules, and performance data in one easy-to-access platform. This site will enable players to effortlessly track both individual and team progress, analyze in-game stats, and make informed, data-driven decisions to boost their performance—whether they’re in their dorm or heading to their next match!
USER INTERVIEWS
What do Athletes Need
Before designing, we focused on understanding the needs of UCLA tennis players and coaches. While we had initial ideas, we validated them by engaging directly with the community. Through conversations, we identified pain points and opportunities to improve performance analysis and schedule management. We prioritized diverse perspectives to ensure a well-rounded, user-centered design.
USER PERSONAS
Who We’re Designing For
After speaking directly with real users, we created detailed personas for the two main groups who would be using the platform: a student-athlete and a coach. These personas helped us better understand their unique goals, challenges, and daily habits, allowing us to design a solution that meets both their needs—from quick,easy access for busy students to clear, data-driven insights for time-pressed coaches.
ITERATIONS
Bringing Ideas to Life
These lo-fi and mid-fi designs focused on quick, clear access for players and easy backend updates for analysts. We kept layouts clean and navigation simple, striking a balance between usability and flexibility that shaped our core design decisions.
USABILITY TESTING
From Screens to Feedback
We turned our mid-fis into a working prototype and tested it with 5 athletes and 2 coaches. Their feedback helped us simplify navigation, clarify key actions, and make the platform more intuitive for both groups.
VISUAL CLARITY ISSUES
Users found the graphs hard to read because the rows weren’t clearly separated, making it difficult to track data across.
SOLUTION
We added alternating fills to every other row, improving visual clarity and making the graphs easier to scan.
INCONSISTENT VISUAL STYLE
Inconsistent fonts and colors made the interface feel unpolished and harder to navigate.
SOLUTION
We created a clear design system with consistent typography and color use for a more cohesive, user-friendly experience.
STYLE GUIDE
Creating a Style Guide
A key priority in designing this website was aligning the visual style with UCLA’s clean, professional brand. We developed a cohesive system for color, typography, and layout—centered around UCLA’s signature blue—to ensure the interface felt modern, user-friendly, and visually consistent. This design foundation supports both usability and future scalability.
SOLUTION
Introducing Match Viewer
MATCH VIEWER DEMO
In the demo, users log in with their UCLA accounts and land on a personalized dashboard displaying their current stats. From there, they can easily view detailed performance data from previous games, giving them a clear picture of their progress over time.
REFLECTION
What I Learned From Match Viewer
The Match Viewer project came with a tight deadline, which gave me valuable experience working on a small, fast-paced design team. Collaborating closely with clients, designers, and developers under time pressure taught me the importance of clear communication, quick decision-making, and adapting designs based on real-world feedback. Here are some key lessons I took away from this intense but rewarding process.
NEXT STEPS
Expanding Match Viewer
Our goal is to grow the Match Viewer platform to support the many other sports within UCLA Athletics. By adapting the product to fit different teams’ unique needs, we hope to provide coaches and athletes across the university with the same data-driven insights and streamlined experience. This expansion will allow us to make an even bigger impact on performance and training across multiple sports.
THANK YOU
Thankful for My Team <3
Big thanks to my project manager (Jerry) for reaching out and bringing me onto the team; to my fellow designer (Jenson) who I crashed out with several times and to the incredible tagging and development team (Alex, Armaan, Tony, Cadence, Cameryn, Rit, Nick, Michelle, May, Lucas, Jimmy, and Frederick) who taught me so much tennis lingo in just one week. I’m grateful for all the support and teamwork!