Our client runs a membership program that provides digital training assistance to its members for skating. They are striving to instill a lifelong love for skating in both children and adults. The program is equipped with teaching modules on skating, from fundamentals to advanced techniques. These include multiple disciplines ranging from figure skating to hockey. It also aids in cultivating positivity, confidence and developing personal strength in people through various other activities. As part of membership, participants have access to an expert curriculum with certified, passionate instructors. The program is backed and monitored by many responsible bodies in the US skating domain and hence is very popular among skate enthusiasts in the USA.
Client Requirement
The program had developed a set of learning modules that includes progress tracking to achieve the purpose of assisting members effectively. However, most of these modules were in non-digital formats, which was not the modern way of digesting the content.
Recognizing this drawback, the client decided to opt for a mobile solution and help bridge the gap, making their extensive learning modules more easy and attractive to access.
Digitizing their record book feature allowed skaters to access techniques quickly, track their progress through the curriculum, and see when a director has approved level completions, which was one of the main requirements.
Apart from these, they wanted users to track practicing time, add frequently practiced skills in a calendar format, enable users to take part in monthly challenges, and provide off-ice exercises with interactive checklists. A significant feature was the addition of an element of gamification with badges and “trophy cases” that can be earned upon completing modules and challenges. They intended to offer additional benefits for the members using the platform to keep them motivated, stay engaged, and return for more.
Challenges Faced
Our client wanted to reach a maximum number of users and hence to develop mobile applications for both android and iOS users. This gave an expanded scope for the project.
With their existing system on maintaining memberships through the website, they wanted the app to authenticate the user through their database, using the APIs they provided. It added a little bit of friction to the process during the early developing phase, but we managed to eliminate that quickly and move with the developments.
They also were highly interested in introducing a gamification feature to keep users engaged and persist with what they love with a lot of enthusiasm. The need was to be available in both android and iOS devices with similar experience. During and after the initial development phase, their team came up with lots of changes to these elements. This is because the final outcome and the end-user experience of these elements were not completely visible until they were fully implemented within the app. It was our responsibility to adopt those changes each time without making the platform’s mechanism chaotic.
