2022
Veo Technologies
Role: Product designer
Team: Player team, Me, PM, Tech Lead, Front-end, Back-end
Contribution: User Research, UX Design, UI Design, Prototyping, User Testing, Design System, Product Strategy, Handoff
Link: www.veo.co/product/player-profile
The Challenge
While the platform was widely used by coaches and parents, player engagement remained low. Players – who make up the largest user group – lacked dedicated features that addressed their needs. We saw an opportunity to change that by creating a space where they could take control of their own football journey.
Our Solution: Player Profile
We created an interactive Player Profile Universe where athletes could:
- Showcase their best highlights – Players could upload and update their best game footage directly from the Veo Editor.
- Curate their clips – They had full control over which clips to feature, tagging them to highlight different aspects of their playing style.
- Share their profile – A personalized link made it easy to share their profile with scouts, recruiters, and coaches.
- Complete the picture – Beyond video clips, players could add a short bio, favored positions, playing style, and graduation year – creating a comprehensive and compelling player resume.
Our Approach
Through research, we discovered that players have different motivations – some play for fun, others aim for a professional career, and many seek college recruitment opportunities. We focused on the college recruitment segment, designing a feature that would give players the best possible chance to showcase their skills and connect with scouts.
Video-First Approach
Since our target audience was players seeking college recruitment, it was crucial to understand the needs of those using video material and data to secure a spot in a college program. Through interviews with players, parents, and coaches, I gained deep insights into the recruitment landscape. One key takeaway was that college admission can be expensive, making football a valuable opportunity for securing scholarships. This high-stakes environment reinforced the importance of showcasing talent effectively.
Analyzing our data, it became clear that video was the most compelling way to demonstrate a player’s skills. Prioritizing video at the forefront of player profiles became a strong design direction for us, ensuring recruiters could quickly assess a player’s abilities.
Telestration
Another critical aspect of the design was making it easy for recruiters to identify the right player in a clip and understand what the footage was highlighting. To address this, we introduced a telestration feature that allowed users to mark themselves on the pitch with a single click.
Through our research, we identified a need for guiding recruiters’ attention throughout a clip. Instead of persistent overlays, which recruiters often find distracting, we opted for a simple approach: pausing the video to apply telestration before resuming playback. This solution provided clear emphasis while maintaining a smooth user experience and minimizing technical complexity.
Abilities
To further enrich the clips, we introduced ability categories based on insights from our interviews, which highlighted a strong demand for this feature. Initially, we made ability tagging a mandatory step when adding clips or highlights to a profile, as we believed it would enhance recruiters’ evaluations.
However, further testing revealed that this requirement created too much friction for users. As a result, we shifted to an optional model, making it an enhancement rather than a barrier, ensuring a smoother and more user-friendly experience.
Examples of how users manually created telestration before it became a built-in feature on the platform.
The current design of the telestration feature named “Player Spotlight”
Back when Abilities served as mandatory categories for organizing Highlights.
The Impact
The Player Profile significantly increased player engagement on the platform. It provided young athletes with a powerful tool to take charge of their recruitment journey, making it easier than ever to get noticed. Our work also highlighted the potential of this initiative – showing that, with further investment, it could become an essential part of the player experience and a game-changer for aspiring college athletes.
