SportPilot. Hosting Rodeo Sport Events, All in One Place.
*Sensitive client info is fictionalized for confidentiality.
Project Overview
Background.
A vast potential market, yet scattered existing workaround tools in a niche industry.
Huge Business Opportunity. Underdeveloped Market.
In the U.S., there are 7,500+ registered riders and 650+ rodeo events annually, totaling over $30M in prize money.
Complex Domain Challenge. Outdated Software.
As a niche traditional industry, rodeo sport has many rules and norms that are not explicitly written in public.
Final Design.
A unified end-to-end rodeo event hosting and racing experience from 0→1 for producers and riders (B2C).
Real-time edits, entry tracking, and payout coordination—designed to support fast operations during live events.
A high-level snapshot of key areas, using modular sections and data visualization
Guided flows, and fewer errors
Jump straight into ongoing events — no more digging through spreadsheets or messages.
Key Impacts.
What did I contribute as a sole designer?
a user-centered MVP design successfully got 100% clients sign-offs
Balancing business constraints and design requirements
Improved operational efficiency for users
Suggested success metrics: task completion rates & user satisfaction scores
Project Goal
Design Brief.
Design a unified solution that works seamlessly across event stages and locations.
This project began with two experienced rodeo producers/riders, our clients, who knew exactly what their peers needed but didn't know how to build it.
In Reality (Current State)
Stuck with disconnected tools
User Expect (Desired State)
An integrated, easy-to-use digital tool
In my 2 months of project timeline, I conducted quick user research, ideated lo-fi wireframes and high-fi prototypes, validated with clients quickly, and finally handed it off to developers, including an organized style guide and component library.
Design Process
Methods.
What approach did I take?
To align stakeholders, I led a structured process:
Understanding Problems (User Research)
User/expert Interviews
Competitive Analysis
JTBD Analysis/Workflow Diagram
Crafting Solutions (Concept Development)
Hand Sketches / Low-fi Wireframes
Quick Check-ins with Clients
Final Solutions (Hi-fi Interactive Mockups)
Hi-fi Prototypes
Walk-thru and Validate with Clients
Test/Iterate (Handoffs)
Final Changes → Client Sign-offs Deliverables Handoffs
Problem.
As event hosts, rodeo producers were stuck juggling scattered tools, costing them time and money.
Existing Workaround Solutions
There were workarounds.
However, this patchwork led to data entry errors and messy communications with riders.
Customers & Their Needs.
Who are the people involved?
Producers
(Primary Users)
"I need an efficient way to set up my events and handle everything from entries to final results in one place."
Riders
(Secondary Users)
"I just want to quickly find the schedule, check my race class, and see what the payouts are."
Viewers
(Tertiary Users)
"I want to see live results as they happen and feel like I'm actively participating in the event."
Research.
Identify high-impact areas in the workflow.
Through quick user/expert interviews, I mapped out the entire rodeo race workflow and broke down the workflows into different stages: planning, before, during, and after the event.
Rodeo Race Workflow diagram for 3 user Personas
It helped me to uncover interaction dependencies and align with stakeholders(clients and developers).
Prioritization.
The initial stages were more ambiguous yet had a greater impact on users.
My goal was to build an MVP version of a revolutionary rodeo event system with the limited dev resources and time.
Design Focus 1:
On-Site Event Management
Speed, clarity, and feedback are everything.
Design Focus 2:
Pre-Event Setup
Guided workflows to reduce overwhelm.
To achieve my goal, I narrowed down my design focus to these two key areas to ensure meeting deadlines and clients' expectations.
Design Focus 1: On-Site Event Management
Challenges.
Producers had to constantly switch between software while overseeing events on-site.
📌 What producers needed to do
Stay on top of both event operations and riders' entry management.
🤯 Why was it hard
Producers had to switch between separate Excel sheets for each category (draws, ads, inventory), resulting in slowdowns and missed details.
Design Iterations & Decisions.
The first iteration was okay, yet could be improved.
📍 My design goal was to reduce the time spent navigating between disconnected files and lower the error rate.
Iteration 1: Events Page
Iteration 1: Events Page - Entries/Draws Table View
🔨 How I implemented it:
I introduced a new structure: Events → Draws / Entries. This gave producers a straightforward mental model to follow.
The result: less jumping around, better focus, and smoother coordination.
🔄 My Iterative Process
Still, I continued to iterate based on user feedback to refine the experience further.
Final Solutions.
On-Site Event Management with fast edits, smooth operations
Wrap-ups
Takeaways.
I learned the importance of considering stakeholder communication, client management, and quick validations.
Incorporate Feedback Early-on
Unlike a regular project, I kept seeking feedback from developers and clients about the design. It prevented a lot of misunderstandings in the design phase and helped better alignment.
Design for Systems
The scope of this project was huge, so it is more important to prioritize what to build first (communicating with engineers and clients closely is key).
Please contact me for more of my work details, including
designing a mobile app for riders, a marketing website, as well as pre-event setup interfaces
B2C Mobile for Riders
Easy access to event schedules, results, and notifications on the go
Marketing Website
SportPilot's value proposition and drive product sign-ups
