Enhancing Digital Onboarding for Youth Sports Participation in London
Project Background
Nike and LYG identified a gap in the accessibility and usability of youth sports sign-ups. Previously, sign-up processes were fragmented and inconsistent, often requiring teachers to manually input large amounts of student data. Parents, too, found onboarding cumbersome, and students lacked an intuitive way to engage with their sports.
This project aimed to digitise and simplify the onboarding experience while maintaining a high level of data integrity, safeguarding compliance, and brand consistency.
Project Objectives
• Design an intuitive onboarding experience that caters to parents, teachers, and students while ensuring seamless navigation.
• Ensure safeguarding compliance while creating a safe and controlled environment for young athletes.
• Align onboarding UI with Nike and LYG’s branding, ensuring a recognizable and engaging experience across platforms.
• Improve data collection efficiency, reducing the manual workload for teachers and sports managers.
• Optimise the user experience for mobile and web, ensuring responsiveness and accessibility.
Research & Discovery
User & Market Research
To develop an effective onboarding experience, I analysed existing sports participation platforms and researched industry best practices related to safeguarding and digital registration. The key findings were:
1. Onboarding Needs to Empower Users
• Users needed to feel in control when providing personal data.
• Simplifying small actions (e.g., entering a name) enhanced engagement.
2. Safeguarding & Data Integrity Were Top Concerns
• The transition from paper-based sign-ups to digital raised trust and security concerns.
• Ensuring compliance with GDPR and safeguarding policies was essential.
3. Framing Effect Influenced User Decisions
• The way onboarding screens were presented impacted how users perceived risks.
• Clear, transparent messaging improved user confidence in the system.
4. Familiar Design = Higher User Adoption
• A recognizable UI and intuitive user flow increased trust.
• Users were more likely to complete sign-ups when the process felt familiar.
User Interviews, Planning & Structuring
User Interviews
I conducted qualitative interviews with teachers, parents, and students to uncover pain points in the current process. Key findings included:
• Visual Clarity & Accessibility: Users preferred a highly visual, mobile-first experience that minimized text-heavy sign-up forms.
• Parental Controls & Safety: Parents needed more transparency in how their children’s data was used and controlled.
• Friction in Data Entry: Teachers highlighted that uploading bulk student information was time-consuming and needed automation features.
• Preference for App-Based Engagement: Users strongly favored an app experience over web, citing ease of use and push notifications as key motivators.
User Personas
I created three core user personas based on research insights:
1. The Teacher (Sports Manager)
• Goal: Easily register and manage student participation without excessive admin work.
• Pain Points: Time-consuming manual data entry, lack of automation, difficulty in tracking student progress.
2. The Parent (Guardian)
• Goal: Register their child with minimal friction while ensuring their safety.
• Pain Points: Lack of safeguarding transparency, difficulty in updating details, unclear sign-up instructions.
3. The Student (Athlete)
• Goal: Join their desired sport without complex registration steps.
• Pain Points: Confusion about the sign-up process, lack of autonomy in choosing sports, limited app accessibility.
User Flow & Interaction Design
I developed detailed flow diagrams outlining each user’s path through the platform. These diagrams served as a blueprint for the final design, ensuring:
• A clear, progressive sign-up journey that minimized cognitive load.
• Safeguarding measures such as age verification and parental consent flows.
• Multi-user compatibility, allowing different account types to interact seamlessly.
Wireframing & Prototyping
I iterated through multiple wireframe versions to refine the onboarding process:
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
• Sketched out various layout ideas to ensure all key information was visible without overwhelming users.
• Focused on hierarchy and accessibility, ensuring the most important actions were clearly highlighted.
Medium-Fidelity Wireframes
• Developed responsive wireframes for mobile, tablet, and desktop versions.
• Conducted usability tests to refine interactions before moving to UI design.
• Ensured task completion rates remained high across different user types.
UI Design & Branding
Design System & UI Kit
Before implementing high-fidelity designs, I established a design system incorporating:
• Nike’s bold, energetic branding with LYG’s recognizable identity.
• Scalable UI components for consistency across mobile and web.
• Accessibility-focused color and typography choices to ensure clarity.
High-Fidelity Designs & Responsiveness
• Created fully responsive UI designs for all onboarding screens.
• Designed distinct UI variations for different user types while maintaining consistency.
• Ensured seamless brand integration by balancing Nike’s aesthetic with LYG’s identity.
Final Handoff & Development Collaboration
Developer Hand-off & Collaboration
• Provided comprehensive UI kits with detailed interaction guidelines.
• Led handoff meetings with the onshore and offshore dev teams, ensuring clarity in implementation.
• Conducted design reviews throughout development to maintain quality.
Launch & Post-Launch Feedback
• Ensured all final designs were approved by Nike and LYG.
• Provided post-launch recommendations for future feature enhancements.
• Gathered user feedback to refine onboarding flows further post-launch.
Impact & Outcomes
✅ Streamlined Onboarding → Reduced sign-up time by 40% across all user types.
✅ Higher Engagement → App usage increased by 35% in the first three months.
✅ Improved Safeguarding → Transparent data processes improved parental trust and compliance rates.
✅ Increased Participation → More students signed up due to the ease of use and improved UI.
Key Takeaways & Reflections
This project reinforced the importance of user-first design in sports tech. By integrating frictionless sign-up flows, strong safeguarding measures, and a visually engaging experience, we made the Nike x LYG platform more accessible, efficient, and engaging for young athletes.
Moving forward, this work served as a benchmark for future youth sports initiatives, showcasing the power of thoughtful UX and data-driven design in increasing sports participation.