Optimized Drafting Experience with Counterpick

UX and UI Design for a Fantasy E-sports Platform

As part of my Capstone class, I collaborated with peers to design a user-centered solution for the LCS fanbase through the CounterPick project.

Through research and an iterative approach, I focused on the design process, product scoping, prototyping, and usability testing. Additionally, I conducted competitive reviews and human factors research, created a conceptual map, and synthesized research findings into viable product ideas.

My role

  • UX Design

  • UI Design

  • User Research

Deliverables

  • High-fidelity designs

  • Conceptual map

  • Feature matrix

Timeline

  • 7 weeks

Research & discovery

For LCS fans, their experience is hindered by one-size-fits-all platforms.

The motivation for this project came from ongoing conversations with League Championship Series fans. As the attention of existing platforms turned to more traditional fantasy games such as the NBA and NFL, it left LCS fans to use a drafting platform that didn’t meet the unique needs of their game.

As a researcher, I was tasked with identifying the pain points and player needs. In-depth interviews with our target audience uncovered how we improve their experience and be the go-to platform. Through this initial research, we determined two user segments, each with distinct challenges.

Defining our challenge

Casual players were motivated by surveillance and entertainment, while expert players sought excitement and detailed stat-tracking. Our findings formed the following key insights about our users' needs:

  • Have access to beginner-friendly guides and tutorials

  • Build sustainable community interactions

  • Access up-to-date player statistics

  • Seamless experience across multiple devices

With the varying needs of our user segments, I faced the following challenges:

  • Supporting varied playing styles

  • How might we provide a gaming experience that supports varied playing styles while helping each user group achieve their goals?

  • Simplifying the drafting experience

  • How might we simplify a complex information architecture with constantly changing data into a robust yet easy-to-digest structure?

Working towards solutions

To support varied playing styles, we prioritized the core concepts and developed a scalable MVP.

Prioritizing the core concepts for our platform eventually led to developing a minimum viable product. We valued cross-compatibility, but felt confident that we could help more users by starting with features such as beginner-friendly onboarding and advanced analytics.

High effort and low impact feature sets would be considered in future stages.

To streamline the draft experience, we aligned core features with user needs and iteratively refined the design

I created a concept map to visualize complex, interconnected concepts within our platform. Eventually, we would use the concept map as a communication tool when creating our prototypes.

We continued to refine Counterpick, conducting heuristic evaluations and one round of user testing with fantasy sports players. This informed subsequent iterations and helped us refocus on key user interactions, interface feedback, and content hierarchy.

The Optimized Draft Experience

Using our cumulative research insights, we designed a platform with improved visibility, engaging content, deliver tailored player stats, and guide users to success while having fun.

Lessons learned

Prioritizing core features that provide the most value

Creating a new fantasy LCS platform requires focusing on user needs and key features rather than design consistency in early development. Prioritize impact and user experience over uniformity.

Continuing the product development life cycle

Building a solid foundation of knowledge about our users' needs and pain points enabled us to create early prototypes for user testing. However, we recognize the importance of ongoing iterative testing as we continue to design new features.