Gameday White-Label App

SportsLabs with NCAA

Strategic and scalable redesign to boost user engagement and attract new university clients.

Sportslabs aimed to revamp their Gameday white-label app, used by 30 universities, into a single source code solution capable of handling dynamic branding for each institution, with unique colors and sponsors. The project focused on enhancing user engagement and introducing tablet-specific designs.

CHALLENGE

I developed a flexible design system that allowed easy branding customization through a CMS, improved usability with light mode and updated hierarchy, and introduced tablet-specific designs for a more engaging user experience.

SOLUTION

ROLE

Lead Designer

TIMELINE

1 year

SCOPE

Tablet and phones for iOS & Android

Key Responsibilities

  • Introduced New Device Support: Designed tablet-specific layouts to improve user experience across larger screens.

  • Improved Branding Processes: Defined templates for consistent application of school colors and sponsor images, reducing time-to-market

  • Led Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partnered with product, engineering, and sales teams to ensure alignment on goals and feasibility.

  • Developed a Flexible Design System: Created a scalable system to support dynamic branding and streamline updates through a CMS.

The Process

The redesign process was rooted in understanding user needs, addressing pain points, and creating a flexible solution that aligned with both business goals and user expectations. Each phase built upon the last to ensure a thoughtful and impactful outcome.

RESEARCH & DISCOVERY

Led in-depth analysis of user data and collaborated with key stakeholders to define the most critical screens for redesign.

DESIGN & ITERATION

Directed the design process, ensuring iterative feedback loops and cross-team collaboration.

EXECUTION

Worked closely with product and engineering teams to ensure the designs can update dynamically through the CMS without needing new app versions.

Design Foundations

I began by reviewing the existing app in all its variations and identifying the key changes needed. These insights formed the foundation of the redesign.

Through usability studies and analytics, I identified the most important information for users and redesigned the main navigation to present this data in a clear, easily digestible format.

DATA-DRIVEN NAVIGATION

The original typeface was thin, tall, and narrow, which, paired with the dark background, created accessibility challenges and made reading difficult. I selected a typeface with thicker characters and bolder numbers to enhance both accessibility and legibility.

TYPOGRAPHIC OVERHAUL

I transitioned the app from a dark theme to a light theme, enabling diverse branding combinations that better reflected individual school identities and pride. This shift introduced a new level of brand personalization previously unavailable.

THEME TRANSITION

Data Driven Enhancements

By analyzing the analytics of the existing app, we identified the most viewed screens and prioritized them in the redesign. These key screens informed the guiding principles for the rest of the app. With 34,000 daily users and 100 new users joining daily, our goal was to enhance user engagement between games by delivering a more enjoyable and seamless experience.

MEDIA ENHANCEMENTS

As the most popular screen, accounting for 44% of user sessions, we focused on improving usability and engagement:

  • Designed custom sport icons for better visual clarity.

  • Streamlined content to reduce cognitive load and improve navigation.

  • Introduced clear headings to organize past, present, and future events.

GAME CENTER ENHANCEMENTS

As the second most-trafficked screen, used by 30% of users as their primary destination, we focused on improving clarity and functionality:

  • Enhanced live video indicators for better visibility.

  • Added clear distinctions between audio and video clips.

  • Introduced a Picture-in-Picture (PiP) viewer for the iPad version to optimize the larger screen experience.

SCORES & SCHEDULES ENHANCEMENTS

Game Center accounted for 23% of users’ primary screen during sessions and nearly 60% during live games. To improve the experience across its diverse viewsI implemented the following updates:

  • Designed a dynamic, sport-specific scoreboard to elevate real-time engagement.

  • Optimized secondary navigation placement for easier access to key features.

  • Refined color and image hierarchy to enhance clarity and usability.

Icons & Illustrations

To support the user interface and branding, I also designed custom icons and illustrations that were clear, intuitive, and adaptable across different screens and devices. These visual elements helped reinforce the app’s branding and enhanced the overall user experience by making navigation more accessible and visually engaging.

A True White Label

With over 30 universities across the nation built on the same codebase, we had to create designs that would allow each of them to show off their unique school spirits with maximum amount of flexibility across all device sizes.

Results

The redesign resulted in a 15% increase in user engagement within the first month, with six new universities signing on. Many of these new clients cited the app's unique flexibility for branding as a key reason for their decision to adopt the platform.

Personal Retrospective

TECHNICAL LEARNINGS

By working closely with developers, I gained a deeper understanding of the technical limitations and challenges, which helped me become a more empathetic and effective designer

HIERARCHY OF INFORMATION

I learned the importance of designing with hierarchy and accessibility in mind, ensuring that color schemes and branding choices never compromised the clarity or usability of key information.

tl;dr

The Gameday app redesign prioritized scalability and branding flexibility for over 30 universities while improving user engagement through strategic enhancements to navigation, content hierarchy, and visual design resulting in an increase in users and new clients.