There are very few competitors in the foosball space, but the target market of competitive foosball players is correspondingly small. While this presented some research challenges, it was ultimately a very warm and rewarding population to work with, who were thrilled to help a project designed for their sport.
There are very few (well, one) foosball training apps currently available, so I began research exploration of foosball training resources, sports training mobile apps, and apps with features relevant to our product.
I interviewed several competitive foosball players to better understand practice habits. The emerging themes unilaterally pointed to a desire for more time to spend practicing foosball. The realm of competitive foosball is mostly male, many with professional and family responsibilities that limit the amount of time they can spend kicking a ball around.
Nearly all of the players I spoke with had a strong desire to improve, and were willing to put the time into effective practice to make that happen... if only they could find that time in their busy days.
The patterns and themes that emerged from this research lead to 3 primary areas to target in the app:
We can't put more hours in each day with a mobile app...but our research insights point to opportunity for foosball players to get more out of the hours they do have - a way to make practice more effective, and to let every minute of count towards overall training goals.
These research results and insights lead to 3 recommended areas to address in the app design:
