The Idea
I was first introduced to basketball in the fourth grade when my parents signed me up for a local youth basketball league. I had never played before, but quickly found a passion for the game. That passion only grew throughout grade school. My friends and I began following the NBA, playing the 2K video games, and started playing pickup basketball. By the time we were in high school we played pickup regularly at our local parks. We played so much that we decided to form a team and join a rec league. Since finishing high school we have continued to get together and play.
This past summer my friends and I started playing almost everyday. Meeting up at the park, picking teams, and playing some of our most competitive games. At the beginning of the semester when I began thinking of ideas for my senior project I was inspired by my summer spent playing pickup basketball. I wanted to create something that would enhance our pickup basketball experience.
The Product
Hooper is a smart basketball, wristband, and social platform that allows users to play pickup basketball games and view their real-time tracked statistics. Users can share their statistics along with photos and videos from their games to their friends and followers as well as view, comment, and react to others. Users can also connect with other pickup players to host and join games all within the app.
App Features
The Hooper App allows players to view their stats, play pickup games, and share with others on a social platform for basketball enjoyers.
User Research
Research on Hooper’s audience was gathered through interviews and a google form survey. Interviews were conducted of Hooper’s two primary audience segments, the casual basketball player, and the basketball athlete. Out of 13 conducted interviews, 9 interviewee’s were casual basketball players, and 4 were basketball athletes. Casual players are characterized as people that only play recreationally. Athletes are characterized as people that play for a team at the high school level and above. These interviews provided crucial insight from personal experiences of basketball players. Throughout the interview process, a google form survey was shared via social media to Hooper’s potential users. The survey consisted of 18 questions about the demographics, wants, needs, and experiences of pick-up basketball players. The survey garnered 171 responses.
Personas
Using the data from both the surveys and interviews, two personas were created to represent Hoopers target audience. Hoopers’ first persona, “The Average Joe” represents the casual basketball player. This user enjoys playing basketball, but does not necessarily play basketball competitively due to their job, lifestyle, age, or skill level. They might play in a recreational league with friends or coworkers, but only play once or twice a week. Hoopers’ second persona, “The Athlete’’ represents the competitive basketball player that also participates in pickup games. This user plays competitive basketball for a highschool, collegiate, or professional basketball team. They play some form of basketball almost every day. They play pickup basketball to hone their skills on top of the games and practices they participate in, as a member of a competitive team.
Hooper is designed to allow the casual basketball player to automatically track their individual and team statistics during pickup basketball games and view them on the Hooper app to create a more engaging basketball experience. With a target audience of both casual players, and athletes, Hooper uses technology enhanced basketball equipment to track real-time statistics automatically so the player can focus on playing the game and having a better experience. The “The Average Joe” and “The Athlete” personas best represent the audience segments Hooper was created to provide solutions for, when playing a casual pickup basketball game.
Competition
What separates Hooper from the competition is its value to the casual basketball player. Hooper will provide users with a brand new pickup basketball experience using smart technology to give them access to view real-time automatically-tracked statistics . With Hooper, a casual player will be able to share their statistics with others on a social platform made specifically for players.