ClubSphere
YEAR
2025
TIMELINE
3 weeks
TOOLS
Figma
PLATFORM
Web
INDUSTRY
Sports
TEAM
Self-initiated
ClubSphere is a passion project focused on designing a centralized operations platform for state and local football organizations. The platform brings together scouting, coaching, medical tracking, academy development, and performance analytics into a single system with the goal of reducing operational friction, improving communication across departments, and enabling faster, more confident decision-making.
This project was grounded in the context of the Central Florida Youth Soccer League (GCFYSL), an FYSA-affiliated league that has supported competitive youth soccer in the region for nearly 35 years. GCFYSL serves approximately 40 clubs and 400 teams each season, providing structured competition for players aged 9U through 19U across all skill levels.
Privacy consideration: To protect player and staff privacy, all identifiable names used in this case study have been replaced with fictional ones.
Designing clarity for clubs operating in chaos
SUMMARY
THE PROBLEM
Why fragmented tools were holding clubs back, and what they really needed
At the semi professional level, football clubs rely on a patchwork of disconnected tools including PDFs, word docs, spreadsheets, messaging apps, and whiteboards to manage daily operations. As information moves between departments, context is lost, updates become inconsistent, and decisions are often made without a complete picture of player availability or readiness. Without a shared source of truth, even routine workflows become slower, more manual, and harder to trust.
The goal was to design a tool that centralizes player and club data while supporting multiple roles without overwhelming users. The system needed to make scouting, availability, performance tracking, and risk easy to understand at a glance, while remaining practical rather than overbuilt. Just as important, it had to work realistically for non elite clubs, staying fast under pressure and easy to maintain for small staffs with limited resources.
RESEARCH
I met with two key figures involved in day-to-day operations at Central Florida Soccer. These two individuals helped ground design decisions in realistic needs, clarify where workflows overlap or diverge, and ensure the product supports multiple roles without forcing everyone into the same experience.
Different roles, competing needs
Miguel Gutierez | Player Scout
He evaluates local matches and tournaments and needs a fast, reliable way to capture and share player insights without slowing down his workflow.
😣 PAIN POINTS
• Easy to fumble the different apps
• Limited time between matches to report
• No easy way to compare past evaluations
• Reduce time spent rewriting the same notes
🎯 GOALS & NEEDS
• Quickly record during matches
• Keep track of players he’s scouted
• Share clear, consistent reports with staff
• Reduce time spent rewriting the same notes
😡 FRUSTRATIONS
• Important details get lost on their devices
• Duplicate scouting when no central system
• Hard to see how evaluations influence prospects
💪🏼 MOTIVATIONS
• Help the club make smarter, informed decisions
• Build trust with coaches through clear insights
• Stay organized while covering local matches
• Focus more on observing players, less other tasks
Steve Collins | Head Coach
He manages training and match preparation and relies on clear, up-to-date information about player availability, fitness, and readiness to make confident decisions.
😣 PAIN POINTS
• Player updates come from disconnected sources
• Medical/training data is often inconsistent
• Scouting insights are buried in emails
• Lineup decisions rely too heavily on memory
🎯 GOALS & NEEDS
• Quickly understand player availability
• Prepare lineups with ease using latest reports
• Reduce last-minute surprises related to injuries
• Communicate clear decisions
😡 FRUSTRATIONS
• Learning about injuries too late in the week
• Repeatedly asking staff for the same information
• Switching between spreadsheets, messages, etc
• Losing time between these tasks
💪🏼 MOTIVATIONS
• Field strongest squad every match
• Minimize injury risk and player burnout
• Build trust w/players from transparent decisions
• Spend more time coaching and less chasing info
As matchday approaches, Miguel and Steve work through a set of critical pre-match tasks to ensure players, staff, and logistics are fully prepared before kickoff. These journeys highlight the most critical workflows where clarity and speed matter most in day-to-day club operations.
It’s match week, lots to do
Steve Collins
Review Squad Status
Actions
- 1Opens team spread sheet
- 2Checks players availability
- 3Check injury updates from medical staff
Thinking
"I need to see who's fit and ready for this weekend. Hopefully no new injuries."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- Previously required checking 3 different sources
★ Opportunities
- Single source of truth for availability
Analyze Performance Data
Actions
- 1Review recent match reports
- 2Check training performance metrics
- 3Compare workload levels
Thinking
"Who's in form? I want players who are sharp but not overworked."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- Data scattered across files
★ Opportunities
- Consolidated player performance timeline
Build Match Lineup
Actions
- 1Goes to white board (or app)
- 2Draws players into formation
- 3Adjust based on fitness and discussion with staff
- 4Takes photo of board
Thinking
"This formation should give us the best balance against their style."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- Not always near a white board
★ Opportunities
- Simple way to iterate and expirement lineups
Finalize & Communicate
Actions
- 1Attach lineup email to players
- 2Add tactical notes
- 3Send to coaches, staff and players
Thinking
"Everyone needs to be on the same page before we get on the bus tomorrow."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- Hope the players and staff see it
★ Opportunities
- Instant visibility for entire coaching staff
Miguel Gutierez
Identify & Select Player
Actions
- 1Scout league match
- 2Search spreadsheet for scouting history
- 3If none is present, create new tab in excel sheet
Thinking
"This kid has caught my eye. Let me log this before I forget the details."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- Spread sheets can get bloated
★ Opportunities
- Simple UI to manage scouts
Rate Attributes
Actions
- 1Fills in attributes in spreadsheet
- 2Writes detail match report in word
- 3Reviews to age-group benchmarks
Thinking
"His vision is exceptional for his age. Needs work on physicality though."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- Subjective ratings lack context
★ Opportunities
- Standardized framework ensures consistency
Add Observations
Actions
- 1Write detailed notes in word
- 2Tag key moments and timestamps
Thinking
"I need to capture specific examples to back up my ratings."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- If we record any video, thats completely separate process
★ Opportunities
- Unified media + text observations
Submit & Sync
Actions
- 1Review complete report
- 2Uploads docs to OneDrive
- 3Sends coaching staff email of updates
Thinking
"Done. The coaching staff will hopefully see it by the evening."
Feeling
Touchpoints
⚠ Pain Points
- I have to remember to update and upload the right files
★ Opportunities
- Real-time sync as I update it
IDEATE
After understanding the team’s day-to-day workflows and the tools they use, I sketched early concepts focused on reducing friction. We approached this like a tactical session, starting on paper and quickly moving into wireframes the same afternoon.
This phase was collaborative. We walked through key tasks together, identified where tools overlapped, and explored how those actions could be simplified within ClubSphere. With limited time, we prioritized the most critical match-week workflows, ensuring early concepts focused on the highest-impact tasks. The wireframes below capture outputs from that session.
These insights directly informed the structure of the information architecture, the prioritization of key user flows, and the design of the Squad Hub as the system’s central touchpoint.
Reduce friction in tasks
IMPACT
From fragmented workflows to guided, end-to-end flows
While ClubSphere is not yet a production tool, we wanted to simulate what the experience would feel like if it were adopted in the future. I created low-fidelity Figma prototypes to model the proposed workflows, allowing Miguel and Steve to walk through real tasks and directly compare their current processes with how those same tasks could be completed in ClubSphere.
✅ Scouting a player became a single, continuous flow
Miguel required searching spreadsheets, entering ratings manually, writing notes in Word, uploading files to Drive, and sending links to staff. By consolidating these steps into one guided flow:
Select player → rate attributes → add notes & timestamps → save & sync.
Estimated impact:
• Reduced steps from 9–11 down to 4 (60% fewer steps)
• Eliminated 3 external tools (Excel + Word + Drive)
• Faster scouting-to-coach handoff during walkthroughs
✅ Match preparation shifted from manual assembly to guided flow
Previously, building a match squad required Steve and his staff to check availability in spreadsheets, reviewing recent match reports and training metrics, emailing updates to players and staff. By unifying these steps into one match-prep experience:
Review squad status → analyze performance & fitness → save & sync.
Estimated impact
• Reduced steps from 8–10 down to 4 (50-60% fewer steps)
• Eliminated 4 external tools (Excel + Word + Drive + Email)
• Faster lineup finalization during pre-match sessions
✅ Lineup exploration with a breeze
Previously, Steve and his staff experimented with lineups and formations for match days using a physical whiteboard or whiteboard app. This required drawing and erasing formations, making multiple revisions, and then capturing the final version by taking a photo or emailing it to the team. By moving lineup exploration directly into the tool, coaches can now experiment, revise, and share lineups in one place—without relying on temporary artifacts.
Estimated impact
• Reduced lineup iteration steps from 5–7 down to 2–3 (~50–60% fewer steps)
• Eliminated 2–3 manual handoffs (erase/redraw → photograph → send)
• Reduced version confusion during revisions
• Faster alignment across coaches and staff during pre-match sessions
✅ Consolidating tools reduced software and coordination costs
The staff relied on Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and shared OneDrive folders to manage scouting reports, availability tracking, and notes. This setup required multiple tools, ongoing file management, and frequent manual coordination to keep information aligned. By centralizing these workflows into a single platform, ClubSphere removes the need to maintain parallel tools for the same tasks.
Estimated impact
• Eliminated 3 common productivity tools (Excel + Word + OneDrive) for core football operations
• Estimated savings of $99 per year per staff member (approx. $499 for all the staff) in software licensing
• Reduced hidden time costs from file duplication, version conflicts, and manual sharing
• Lower onboarding overhead by training staff on one system instead of multiple tools
DESIGN SOLUTION
These high-fidelity screens showcase the visual language, interaction patterns, and information hierarchy of ClubSphere. The designs focus on clarity under pressure, using strong visual cues, consistent layouts, and role-aware interactions to help staff quickly assess player status, readiness, and context without unnecessary friction.
Introducing ClubSphere
The Squad Hub serves as the daily command center, providing real-time visibility into player availability, fitness levels, and performance context. Designed for speed, clarity, and low cognitive load for coaches & staff.
Squad Hub
The Player Profile acts as the single source of truth for an individual player, consolidating information contributed by multiple departments into one clear, role-aware view with timeline-style updates.
Player Profile
A visual snapshot of squad readiness leading into an upcoming match. Combining availability, fitness, and workload into a single, high-impact view. Designed to replace mental math and give coaches an immediate sense of squad health.
Match readiness overview
A detailed post-match analysis screen for individual players, featuring performance metrics, attribute ratings, key moments, and coach notes. Designed for quick review and sharing after matches.
Player match reports
A dedicated evaluation interface for scouts to rate player attributes during observations. Features intuitive rating boxes, real-time overall score calculation, and structured note-taking.
Scout player ratings
RETROSPECTIVE
What this project taught me about designing for constraints
This project gave me the opportunity to step beyond purely digital problem-solving and better understand how amateur football clubs operate day to day. Conversations with coaches and scouts highlighted how much of their work happens under time pressure, often while juggling multiple tools and relying on manual coordination to stay aligned.
Designing ClubSphere reinforced the importance of clarity over complexity. The most meaningful design decisions were not about adding features, but about reducing friction, surfacing the right information at the right moment, and respecting the realities of small staffs balancing short-term match preparation with long-term player development.
This project strengthened my approach to system-level thinking and designing for real-world constraints, and it reaffirmed my belief that good UX is less about novelty and more about making everyday decisions easier and more confident for the people using the product.