UX Design of a Self-Organizing Volleyball Tournament

One of my hobbies is volleyball.  I used to play about once a week or less, but lately I just can't get enough of it.  I play mostly through the Ann Arbor Rec & Ed and a Meetup.com group called the Ann Arbor Adventure Club.  I play enough with the Adventure Club that I was asked to help organize a doubles volleyball tournament.

Organizing one of these things is a bit trickier than you might expect, especially if you want everyone to have a good user experience!  Also, this group has some unique constraints that hindered a previous attempt to organize doubles volleyball.  In particular, people want the events to be low cost and casual (i.e., drop in when I can).  There are other leagues that cost more and require more of a commitment.

Anyway, by the time I was done organizing this thing, I realized that I had essentially done a small user experience design project -- complete with a visual interface (a printable form - see below).  It gets it's first test on Sunday, but I thought I'd capture what I had done while it's still fresh in my mind.  I'll come back and do another post to let you know how well it worked.

Goals (i.e., Requirements / Constraints)

1. High-quality doubles play: If you can't bump, set & spike somewhat consistently, please take yourself off of the list -- the Thursday night games are oriented towards all levels.
2. Resiliant to "no shows": The first four people to show up will just start playing. Then the next four. After that, we will rotate people in order. Because of this, there won't be fixed teams -- you'll be randomly (sort of) paired with teammates. Still, it would be nice if you would update your RSVP if you know you can't make it.
3. Mostly playing, with some rest: With 2 courts, 8 will be playing at one time. You'll be playing at least 2/3 of the time if all 12 show up. To maximize playing time, there should be no breaks between games (or just very short ones). If you need a rest, let someone play your slot and then you can catch the next one.

Process Design

1. When you arrive, sign in on the spreadsheet (see below).
2. We will use Ann Arbor sand league rules (no set overs, cannot set receive serves, no tipping, carries, etc.). Call your own and your partner's fouls.
3. Once 4 arrive, players 1-4 start playing on the court of your choice. Play 2 games to 21 (first to 21 wins, do not have to win by 2). Players 5-8 start playing on the other court. Players 9-12 wait.
4. When your game is done, each player tallies their wins and losses on the spreadsheet. Each game counts. For example, if players 1 & 2 split the first match against players 3 & 4, they would each mark down 1 win and 1 loss.
5. After the first match is over, players 9-12 would play against players 1-4. If we don't have 12, or if somebody from 1-4 needs a rest, just keep going in order. So if we have only 11 and player 4 needs a rest, it would be players 9, 10, 11 & 1 against players 2, 3, 5 & 6 (players 7 & 8 would wait).
6. One important rule is that you must have a different teammate for each match.
7. Keep rotating for a couple of hours. Always the players with the fewest number of games played get to go next. Ties go to the player who signed in first (e.g., player 4 goes before player 5 if they've both played the same number of games).
8. At noon, we'll set up for the championship match. The player with the best record plays with the second best player against the 3rd and 4th best players. The second court will have the 5th & 6th ranked players against the 7th and 8th for in a consolation match.

Visual Artifact Design (printable sign in & tracking sheet)

The goal of the sheet below was to embed the process described above.  Some specific design details include:

• You are automatically assigned a number by signing in.
• The first 8 players have their teammates assigned automatically by the sheet.  This also serves to teach the players how to fill out the form.
• The "Games Won" columns indicate what you should fill in (a value between 0 and 2) and embed some of the format information (2 games per match).
• As each player fills in their teammate and games won information, it will become visually apparent who plays in the next game -- it will be the left-most, top-most empty cells.  I think this feature will significantly add to the user experience since I think the most likely point of confusion will be figuring out who plays next. (Remember that we're playing with flexible teammates and schedule).
• The match columns headers are rotated 90 degrees to allow room for descriptive labels within the constraints of the page width.
• A double grid and thin lines clearly indicates where to enter match data.  I might consider alternating light grey rows to make this even more clear in the next version.