Brief

Designing the end-to-end experience for a platform connecting youth athletes with verified mentors and coaches. Tmwrk earns commission on bookings while empowering the next generation of athletes through meaningful mentorship and accessible coaching.

Goal

  • Design an intuitive platform for parents to find trusted coaches and mentors for their young athletes.

  • Enable location-based search, with filters for sport type, availability, pricing, and coaching style.

  • Build trust through coach profiles, ratings, reviews, and verified credentials.

Market Research

To ground the product in real-world need, I began with industry research around youth athletics and mentorship platforms.

Key findings:

  • Private youth coaching is a $7B+ industry and growing.

  • Access to qualified coaches is uneven, particularly in rural areas.

  • Parents cite trust and affordability as primary concerns.

Competitive Analysis

I explored comparable platforms offering 1:1 coaching or mentorship (e.g., CoachUp, Lessonface, and TakeLessons) to assess how they handle:

  • Booking workflows

  • Coach verification

  • Pricing transparency

From this analysis, I identified an opportunity to differentiate by integrating localized access, verified mentor networks, and design-driven trust features.

User Interviews & Persona Creation

I conducted 1-on-1 interviews with:

  • Two parents managing multiple kids' extracurricular schedules

  • One college athlete mentoring younger players

  • One high school athlete navigating recruiting pressures

These interviews revealed that mentorship often extends beyond performance. It also addresses confidence, resilience, and balance. Based on this, I created a primary persona:

Sarah – The Supportive Parent
Age: 38
Profession: Media Buyer
"I just want a coach who truly understands Ella’s potential and makes her excited to keep playing."

Goals:

  • Find a skilled coach who connects personally with her child

  • Make the most of limited time and budget

Frustrations:

  • Difficulty verifying coach qualifications

  • Scheduling challenges

MVP Feature Priorities

Based on research and user needs, the MVP focused on:

  • Location-based coach discovery

  • Transparent coach profiles with verified credentials

  • Integrated scheduling and messaging tools

  • Flexible pricing and session types

  • Ratings and reviews for accountability

Sitemap

To keep the app organized and user-friendly, I mapped the primary experience into three core flows:

  • Home – Recent sessions and featured coaches nearby

  • Search – Location and filter-based discovery

  • Profile – Personal dashboard for families or coaches

Secondary navigation includes account management, session history, and support.

Wireframe Sketches

Two initial flows were created:

  • Coach Discovery Flow: A user scrolls through top-rated coaches, taps to explore a profile, and schedules a session.

  • Search & Filter Flow: A user enters sport type, location, and availability to view a filtered list of qualified coaches.

Task Flow

To focus the MVP, I prioritized these task flows:

  • Parent searches for a coach and reviews their qualifications

  • Parent books a session with integrated calendar sync

Mid-Fidelity Prototype

With wireframes validated, I created a mid-fidelity prototype to visualize interactions. This included:

  • Seamless transition between browsing and booking

  • Coach profiles with bios, credentials, and intro videos

  • Calendar integration and booking confirmation UI

Style Tile Development

A modular design system was developed to ensure consistency. Elements included:

  • Soft neutral color palette to convey trust and clarity

  • 4-point spacing grid

  • Iconography and components optimized for mobile-first UX

High-Fidelity Prototype | Usability Testing

I tested the prototype with four users. Two parents and two student-athletes. All successfully completed key flows.

Feedback highlights:

  • Coach bios and intro videos increased confidence

  • Users preferred immediate calendar visibility during booking

  • Ratings/reviews were a must-have to feel secure

Additional Screens

I also designed onboarding flows, messaging UI, and payment interface to support the full booking journey.

Engineering Handoff

I delivered:

  • Annotated Figma files with interaction states and breakpoints

  • A scalable component library using design tokens

  • Specs for animations, feedback states, and accessibility

Worked closely with engineers to align UI structure with their React component framework.

Accessibility & Performance

  • WCAG-compliant color contrast and typography

  • GPU-optimized transitions

  • Screen reader and keyboard support

Takeaways

Tmwrk redefined how youth athletes connect with coaches, bringing trust, access, and simplicity to a fragmented space. By focusing on design systems, verified credentials, and seamless scheduling, we helped build a more equitable path for young athletes everywhere.

More usability testing is planned with parents new to online coaching platforms to iterate for broader adoption and scale.

Thank you for reading.