Below are several updated assignments after altering my focus to the women's World Cup.
Assignment 1.2: Executive Summary of Your Thesis Project
The World Cup is the popular soccer tournament that takes place every four years in various locations around the world for both men and women. However, when referring to the event, it is usually with the men’s tournament in mind. The history and reputation of soccer surrounds the men who play it, but there is something to be said about the rising popularity of the women’s game. Especially here in the United States where the women’s team undoubtedly outperforms the men’s team in World Cup success. My thesis project will expose the existence of these female athletes, and will be meant to inspire women and girls. This website will visualize the inequalities of the women’s World Cup compared to the men’s, but will also show where woman outdo their opposite and should receive the respect they deserve.
Assignment 2.1: Requirements Analysis
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Those who enjoy soccer here in the United States find it difficult to follow throughout the year because of its lack of popularity, especially women’s soccer. The women’s World Cup gets very little hype and coverage, if any, even though soccer is the fastest growing women’s sport in the world. The first World Cup was only 20 years ago in 1991, as opposed to the men’s World Cup, which was in 1930. It took over 60 years to organize the same game for women to play. This is one of several disproportionate facts between the two genders, and my plan is to create a website that visualizes these differences. As a woman, it may be disheartening to see how far behind the women’s World Cup is from the men’s, but it’s inspiring to see the rapid advancement from the women’s side.
TARGET AUDIENCE
My site will appeal to women of all ages, especially those who have either participated in or have some involvement in sports. Because I have played several different sports growing up, I know exactly what it feels like to be inferior to the men’s team. The research that I have done so far has been inspiring and motivating for me, and should reach other women in the same way. Users who visit this site do not need to know the rules of soccer or who the best teams are. The information will educate them and guide them throughout the site.
PERSONAS
USER #1: HartleyAge: 25
Profession: Public Relations
Location: San Francisco, CA
Computer Experience: Advanced
Profile:
Hartley grew up in Portland and moved to San Francisco about 2 years ago. She does PR for technology companies in the Bay Area, and in her free time she explores the city on her bike, tries out new restaurants and bars, and follows her favorite sports.
Behaviors:
· Huge sports enthusiast, but only follows men’s sports
· Uses Twitter for the most updated information
· Involved in many women’s organizations, including her local sorority chapter
Needs:
· Knows nothing about female sports, but respects them
· If she knew more about them, she might follow female sports
· More information that is easy to quickly ingest and accessible
User Goals (Hartley comes to this site to…):
· Learn more about women’s professional soccer quickly
· Find something she can easily share with her other female friends
· Gain more respect for female athletes
USER #1: RobinAge: 52
Profession: Teacher
Location: Lewiston, ID
Computer Experience: Intermediate
Profile:
Robin teaches P.E. to children of all ages with learning disabilities and other issues that prevent them from the public school system. Her three children are all grown, so she spends her time working out, gardening and sewing.
Behaviors:
· Uses a computer daily to check email and prepare for class
· Follows college sports only by watching them on television
· Interested in soccer, but doesn’t really know how to find information about it
Needs:
· Easy to navigate site, that can be easily shared by email
· Needs to know how she would find a website about women’s soccer
· When big tournaments are so she can know to try to follow them
User Goals (Robin comes to this site to…):
· Spend the time to read about women’s professional soccer
· Find something she can easily email to her friends or sisters
· Find something interesting she can share with her classes
USER #1: BetsyAge: 21
Profession: College Student
Location: Spokane, WA
Computer Experience: Advanced
Profile:
Betsy is finishing up her last year of undergraduate school, studying sports marketing. She plans on attending graduate school in San Francisco next year. Betsy currently is just focused on her studies, but enjoys watching her school’s basketball team and spending time with friends.
Behaviors:
· Spends a lot of time on the computer watching television episodes and YouTube videos
· Played soccer in high school but doesn’t really follow it anymore, unless it’s the men’s World Cup
· Follows college basketball
Needs:
· A site that would be engaging enough for her to stay and want to learn more
· Something she can quickly ingest, but interesting enough that she would share it with friends via Facebook or Twitter
· Something she can relate to
User Goals (Betsy comes to this site to…):
· To check out the interesting design
· Learn something new about women’s soccer
· Give herself a reason why she would care to follow women’s soccer
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
After adjusting my focus to more on the women’s World Cup I had to find new competitors. Fortunately for my project, there really are not a lot of sources for women’s World Cup soccer, and there is nothing in the form of data visualization or interactive infographics. Below are the websites I could find that referenced the history of women’s World Cup soccer or provided information about the sport.
2011 FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
www.ussoccer.com
This is part of the US soccer official website and can be found when navigating under tournaments. It focuses on the upcoming women’s World Cup, which will be held this summer in Germany. The site features articles that have to do with the US women’s soccer team. In the right column you can see the US’ upcoming schedule and their group standings. There is not a lot of information about the other teams since this is a site focusing on the US. A nice feature is the share icons in the top right, which are easily accessible.
FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP GERMANY 2011
www.fifa.com
This is part of the FIFA official site and can also be found under tournaments. What I like about this site is it is very visual. There are a lot of photos and videos about the tournament. Similar to the US soccer site, this one also focuses on news about the tournament. The information that I think is valuable is below the fold where you can see what team to watch for, where the stadiums are located in Germany, and which teams are in what group. These areas on the site are more about visualizing data, which is what I’m aiming to do with my project.
WOMEN’S SOCCER WORLD ONLINE
www.womensoccer.com
This website is all about women’s soccer – every league, every country, and every tournament. There is a lot of information buried on this site. The homepage is set up like a blog where the latest story is featured first, so you can see that it hasn’t been updated in a couple years. There is a lot that could also be said about the design, but for the most part it is very outdated. It’s unfortunate to see that this is the women’s soccer website, and it isn’t a very impression website.WOMEN’S WORLD CUP
www.cnnsi.com
This is part of the Sports Illustrated CNN website, but it is from the 1999 tournament. This tournament was a historic moment is women’s sports history – the spectators were record breaking and the US beat China in a close game of penalty kicks. The site’s design looks like it is from 1999, and the information isn’t relevant anymore. The reason I chose this as a competitor is because there is information about the tournaments history and statistics.
Assignment 3.1: Derive a Set of Use Cases or Scenarios
User #1: Hartley
1. Hartley discovers this site after her friend shares it with her on Facebook.
2. She clicks the link and is taken to the homepage of On the Pitch.
3. She navigates through the different infographics.
4. The one she is most interested in is the comparison between how much money the men’s World Cup champions make vs the women’s.
5. She wants to share this specific infographic with a friend on Facebook so she clicks the share button, and chooses Facebook.
User #1: Robin
1. Robin discovers this site after her daughter emailed her the link.
2. When she gets to the homepage she is most interested in reading about the history of the women’s World Cup because she didn’t even know there was one.
3. She sees how well the US women’s team has performed over the years, and she wants to know more about the team.
4. This is where she is taken to an infographic about the US women’s soccer team, showing how much better they perform than the men’s team.
5. She wants to email this graphic to her sister, so she clicks on the email icon, which opens her email.
User #1: Betsy
1. Betsy also discovers the site when one of her friends posts it on Facebook.
2. Her friend had shared the data about how the US women have 2 players on the top 100 all-time soccer players list, and the US men have none.
3. Betsy found this statistic amusing and had to see for herself. She checks out the data, which leads her to more information about the US women vs the men.
4. She doesn’t have time to look at the rest of the site so she bookmarks it for later use.
Assignment 3.2: Derive a List of User Requirements
1. Data that visually tells an interesting story about the women’s World Cup
2. Navigation should be clear or explained if needed
3. Design/data should be easy to comprehend
4. Design should reflect the sport of soccer
5. Basic and interesting rules about soccer
6. Possibly a twitter feed that has live updates about women’s soccer and/or the World Cup
7. Reason for looking at this site when the World Cup is not currently happening (i.e. Qualification information for teams prior to the World Cup)
8. Information should be easy to share via social media outlets
