At-A-Glance
I grew up playing sports and rooting for my favorite professional teams. I developed an appreciation for the dedication, hard work and incredible skill required for high level competition. I’m especially drawn to how female athletes continue to push for equality and greater media visibility. Research shows a recent surge in the popularity of women’s professional sports. Specifically, the WNBA and NCAA Women’s Basketball. It’s more valuable than ever by reflecting a meteoric rise with record attendance and ratings. To capitalize on this unprecedented growth, I created a responsive website dedicated to all things women’s basketball.
My Role
User Researcher, Product Designer, Visual Designer, Brand Designer
Type
Solo Project
Sports
Industry
Tools
Figma, Figjam, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Maze, Zoom
Timeline
4 weeks
Main Objectives
Leverage popularity
Research shows a surge in the popularity of women’s professional sports. Specifically, the WNBA and NCAA Women’s Basketball. This meteoric rise attendance and ratings makes it more valuable than ever.
Bridge the gap
Despite the growing fanbase, women’s basketball still faces disparities in media coverage, sponsorship and recognition. Many existing platforms prioritize men’s sports, making it difficult for fans to connect deeper.
Deepen fan connection
The time has come for products dedicated to women’s sports. Queens Court provides top headlines, news, athlete analysis, stats and more.
Increase visibility
Beyond providing fans dedicated coverage, the site is a catalyst for increased visibility, broader audience engagement and support for women’s sports.
What women’s sports fans say…
Competitor analysis
I researched existing companies and active media platforms exclusive to women’s sports. I only discovered five. Only two are direct competitors – Just Women’s Sports (JWS) and espnW. These competitors lack in-depth news, player analysis, statistics and stories. They also don’t have dedicated mobile apps.
Dedicated platform for women’s sports fans
Latest news and highlights exclusive to women’s sports
No athlete spotlights and stories
No in-depth statistics and analysis
Live game or match schedules and scores
No mobile-first app
Dedicated platform for women’s sports fans
Latest news or highlights exclusive to women’s sports
Athlete spotlights and stories
No in-depth statistics and analysis
Live game or match schedules and scores
No mobile-first app
Dedicated platform for women’s sports fans
Latest news and highlights exclusive to women’s sports
Athlete spotlights and stories
No in-depth statistics and analysis
No live game or match schedules and scores
No mobile-first app
Dedicated platform for women’s sports fans
No latest news or highlights exclusive to women’s sports
No athlete spotlights and stories
No in-depth statistics and analysis
No live game or match schedules and scores
No mobile-first app
Research synthesis
Through synthesizing all of my research data, several pain points were discovered. I prioritized the most viable problems that can be solved. The most critical ones are highlighted below.
Men’s coverage is always there, but you have to “dig” for women’s sports content.
Leverage women’s basketball popularity since the bar has been raised and level of play exciting.
Dashboard of favorites – content preferences, feeds and filters for leagues teams, stories, athletes.
Social site for watch parties, live events schedule, location based ticket sales.
Locator for live sporting events, watch parties, calendar, tickets, etc.
Athlete back stories, history of past and current teams.
Access to in-depth pre- and post-game coverage… sites need more features dedicated to fans.
Athlete stories, rep their human side. Hot topics =
inequality, pay narrative, etc.
Ability to follow the career trajectory of women’s college basketball players who turn pro.
Main insights x4
Leverage Popularity
Fans are disappointed that major sports apps still prioritize men’s coverage despite the meteoric rise in women’s basketball popularity.
To address this, create an engaging and immersive website dedicated to women’s basketball coverage, in-depth news, player highlights, analysis, and more.
dedicated Coverage
Fans are frustrated by manually searching for in-depth content. Even setting alerts on sports apps, the algorithms are ineffective.
To address this, the system allows users to customize a built-in, social feed, giving them control over which leagues, teams and players they want to follow.
deeper Connection
Fans become disengaged with the sensationalism and domination of men’s sports in marketing, media and platforms.
To address this, an interactive player comparisons tool will be featured where users select any two players to see how their stats compare is a head to head format.
Promote visibility
Fans are confused that despite incredible talent and growth in viewership, women’s sports are still overshadowed.
To address this, providing a website dedicated to women’s basketball, promotes visibility of the sport, creates sponsorship opportunities and market share.
User persona
I created the below user persona based on my findings. Jordyn is a former basketball player and fan of women’s basketball. She doesn’t want to manually search the web to find in-depth coverage, headlines, highlights and players she’s interested in.
Jordyn Jacobs
Age:
36
Occupation:
Project Manager
Location:
Denver, CO
Fan of:
WNBA, Unrivaled League, NCAA WBB, March Madness
Overview
Jordyn grew up in a household where sports were part of daily life. She excelled at basketball, her favorite. After an injury sidelined her, she focused on academics. Now, with a busy career, digging through men’s sports coverage makes her disengaged with women’s basketball. She doesn’t have time to search for the coverage she enjoys.
Frustrations
•
Becomes disengaged due to platforms prioritizing men’s sports over women’s
•
Feel isolated as a fan due to the lack of media coverage of women’s sports
•
Sets up alerts on popular sports platforms, but annoyed with irrelevant algorithms
Goals
•
To easily find women’s basketball news, headlines and highlights
•
Save time with quick acess to the content and coverage she wants
•
Become connected to a community of fans
SMART goals
How might we leverage the popularity of women’s basketball to deepen fan connection with a product that provides dedicated coverage, player analysis, and exclusive highlights?
Website features
To this point, I’ve researched, conducted interviews, analyzed direct competitors and created a user persona based on my findings. The next step was to brainstorm ideas for main features of the site. Below are the most viable based on my research.
Latest News: Attract users with top headlines and articles focused on their favorite players and teams.
Player Comparisons: Select any two players to compare their stats and achievements in a head-to-head format.
Dynamic Player Bios: Profiles contain background info, current team and stat charts from college to the pros.
Stats Analysis: In-depth statistics with filtering options for season, career and recent games.
Alert Settings: User sets alerts for favorite content and prioritizes how it’s displayed on their homepage.
Social Media: Realtime feeds of who users follow. Displays a mixed grid of posts from these handles.
Lifestyle & Culture: Fan-focused marketing, branded merch, event giveaways, sponsored ad campaigns, etc.
Task Flow
User Scenario
During the WNBA and NCAA Women’s Basketball seasons, Jordyn wants quick access to news, highlights and player analysis. She becomes disengaged without a platform that provides in-depth women’s basketball coverage. She doesn’t have time for a manual web search to find top news and league standings.
To stay connected, Jordyn follows her favorite teams and players on social media. While scrolling on Instagram, Queens Court is suggested on her feed. It’s a platform dedicated to women’s basketball, so she decides to see what it’s all about.
Wireframes
I sketched out low-fidelity wireframes to represent three different task flows. Each set of screens shows how the user completes steps within the tasks.
Why “Queens Court”?
The name Queens Court celebrates the strength, skill and rising visibility of women’s basketball. It’s a nod to both royalty and the court, where incredible female athletes claim their rightful space and inspire future generations.
Branding
The Queens Court brand embodies empowerment and visibility of women’s basketball. It draws inspiration from the authority of royalty paired with the energy of the game. A bold purple and gold palette, crown brandmark and dynamic imagery convey pride and and momentum.
Key Iterations
I conducted moderated, low-fidelity usability testing of the Home and Player Profile pages. I gathered important feedback from users and prioritized the most vital iterations. Below are the changes I implemented.
Home Page
Before
Users felt the home page needed more video content since Headlines and News is article based.
After
By turning the What’s Trending section into video only content provides users a balance of articles and videos.
Player Profile
Before
Users were unsure that the Player Journey timeline was relevant since that same info is in the bio and stats.
After
Removing the Player Journey opened space to add to the Recent Games chart from 6 to the last 10 games.
A/B Testing
Player Comparisons Feature
To validate layout decisions for the Player Comparisons feature, I conducted A/B testing on two low-fidelity wireframes. Both versions allowed users to compare players side by side using statistics and accolades.
A
Included a WNBA/NBA toggle, shooting performance charts, and multiple stacked data sections.
B
Streamlined the layout by focusing on key stats (PPG, APG, RPG, 3P, FT) and Awards & Honors.
Results
•
80% of participants preferred Option B for its simplicity and readability.
•
Users described Option A as “too crowded” and felt the WNBA/NBA toggle was unnecessary for their goals.
•
Displaying shooting performance charts were stated as “not visually helpful” compared to straightforward numerical stats.
Insights
•
The preference was to place emphasis on relevant stats to minimize cognitive load.
•
The overall feedback guided the final design toward a cleaner hierarchy.
•
Users value quick, at-a-glance comparisons over detailed visualizations.
Reflection
Here are some important things I learned throughout the process of creating Queens Court.
Responsive Design
Designing for multiple devices challenged me to consider hierarchy, adaptability and user context. This ensures an intuitive experience across screen sizes.
Project Constraints
Working within defined boundaries taught me to focus on delivering meaningful impact over complexity, prioritizing features that create the most value for users.
A/B Testing
Effective design isn’t about adding more, it’s about what matters most. Omitting unnecessary elements provides a clearer, more purposeful user experience.
Branding and usability
Building the Queens Court identity reinforced how visual design and usability work together – each element serving both aesthetic appeal and functional clarity.
View prototype
