The Players’ Tribune
Homepage Redesign
What is The Players’ Tribune?
Founded by MLB player Derek Jeter, The Players’ Tribune is a new sports media company. TPT strives to truly represent the voice of the game by publishing first-person stories directly from athletes.
What did I do?
I was selected as one of the Design Residents for New Enterprise Associates and got matched to one of their portfolio companies called The Players’ Tribune. I worked closely with Art Director Alex Kayaian and another NEA Product Fellow Ann Baum to improve the overall product experience of TPT.
MOBILE WEB FINAL DESIGN
DESKTOP WEB FINAL DESIGN
INITIAL RESEARCH: USER PERSONAS
I created the 3 personas from “stalking” our super users on Facebook and Twitter. It was a pity that I was not provided the resources to actually interview them.
I realized that catering to more “Robin”s instead of “James”s was what would make TPT a more successful product. I decided to make that the focus of my redesign.
INITIAL RESEARCH: GOOGLE ANALYTICS
DESIGN GOALS
1. Mobile-first approach
The focus of the design should shift from desktop to mobile experience
2. Sports vs. Series
How to highlight articles divided by sports and those divided by series needs to be optimized
3. Recent vs. Popular
The balance of recent and popular articles needs to be reconsidered
SKETCHES
WIREFRAME 1
MOBILE WIREFRAMES 2 & 3
DESKTOP WIREFRAMES 2 & 3
MENU WIREFRAME 2 & 3
FINAL THOUGHTS
Show value in a company without product culture
In a company like The Players’ Tribune where there was not a product culture, I learned to find my allies to help me maximize my contributions and prove my own value.
I also learned to pick my battles wisely and focused on more valuable projects when working effectively with the product manager and engineers.
Use data to make better designs and gain support
During this internship, I learned to add another dimension to my work with data.
I spent a ton of time digging into Google Analytics to understand the users of the product and their behaviors before and during my design. Using data to build a common ground really helped me gain support from others when showcasing my design work.