Experience matters: Creating connections with athlete engagement portals
Sports events are complex undertakings. In addition to training and preparing for competition, players and managers must juggle travel, media, contractual and financial obligations. Many leagues also have strict policies, procedures and security protocols that must be observed — making athlete engagement critical
Not every athlete is a superstar with an entourage of assistants helping manage every aspect of their daily schedule. Athletes and competitors are already stretched thin, so having to juggle multiple apps and websites can be a distraction. In severe cases it can become overwhelming — and a lack of engagement can lead to travel or visa mishaps, feelings of isolation, or backlash from the athletes themselves.
What can sports leagues and competition organizers do to keep athletes and competitors engaged?
The dos and don’ts of athlete engagement
If a web portal came to mind, you’re not alone. For years, portals have been the go-to model for centralizing different apps, functions and resources in one location. The trouble is that badly-designed portals can end up directing users to multiple websites, often with their own usernames, passwords and user interfaces.
In this context, the user experience (UX) is just as important as it is on a consumer website. Why would a tennis tournament organizer make it easy to buy tickets, but make it difficult for a tennis player to enter the tournament? Players and spectators both bring that experience with them, and what happens before the competition affects what happens on the court.
So, how can we ensure that competitors focus their efforts where they belong: on the field of play?
Athletes are stretched thin with travel, media and financial obligations. A well-designed athlete engagement portal can reduce the burden — leading to more time for training and preparation and better performance on the field.
Providing the right functionality
First, any athlete engagement tool needs to have the right features to make it useful. These include:
| Functionality | Features |
| Communication |
|
| Personal profile |
|
| Entry, registration, and compliance |
|
| Scheduling |
|
| Travel |
|
| Financial |
|
| Maps and wayfinding |
|
Designing with user experience in mind
A well-designed engagement portal must provide centralized access to multiple solutions, but more importantly, the different systems delivering the functionality must be transparent to the user.
Because professional athletes, coaches and medical staff are constantly on the go, any engagement portal must be built with a mobile-first mindset. Designing with a smartphone app in mind ensures the maximum functionality in the most limited form factor. If it works on a mobile phone, ensuring the same functionality on a web-based version is easy.
Ultimately, the technology is just a tool, and the choices should be driven by the UX, the problems they solve and the functionality they provide.
Overcoming barriers to implementation
For professionals that are extremely busy with training, practice, advertising, endorsements and media appearances, how can you ensure smooth adoption? First, it’s important to define the type of culture and workflow in place at the organization.
Is it a paper culture? If so, a good first step would be to start moving toward a more digital and data-driven way of working. If there are multiple layers of hierarchy, this can degrade UX by delaying what otherwise would be a very simple workflow.
Are there privacy issues? When personal data, financial data or information like organizing documents or contracts can potentially be accessed through an app, safeguards must be put in place to ensure confidential information is not exposed.
If any of these is the case, a more significant cultural change may need to take place before any kind of app is adopted.
Addressing scalability challenges
Finally, the big question: How well will it scale? For large sporting events involving athletes, coaches, managers, trainers, volunteers, media, medical staff and more, you obviously can’t give everyone access to everything. To be effective, a permission-based system with well-defined roles is essential.
For example, a coach may need access to a player’s statistics, biographical information or medical record, but they don’t need to see financial data. Conversely, an athlete may want to provide their accountant or personal assistant with access to salary data, but keep the results of drug or anti-doping tests private.
The exercise of planning an engagement portal will require organizers, teams or leagues to examine their processes and policies in detail. It should not be thought of as a burden, but rather as an opportunity. More up-front planning will pay dividends down the road.
How participants and organizers can benefit
For athletes, the benefits are quite clear — and it starts with easier onboarding. A portal with good UX can ease the transition into the next phase of their career, helping engage and keep them aware of protocols, etiquette, guidelines, requirements and expectations.
It reduces the burden on athletes and competitors, enabling them to self-manage to a greater degree and providing better control over their schedule, travel and finances. This translates into more time spent on training and preparation, and better performance on the field of play.
For sports leagues and organizers, creating an athlete engagement portal is an opportunity to examine its policies and processes. It’s not just critical to ensure the portal functions properly, it’s an opportunity to improve efficiency, eliminate redundant or wasteful processes — and to reduce the overall administrative burden.
By thoroughly documenting and formalizing roles, permissions and data sensitivity, leagues can eliminate compliance issues and establish clearer communication channels with all stakeholders.
Finally, a thoughtful approach to athlete engagement is also an opportunity to promote continuing education, financial literacy, professional development and personal development. Sporting events are about creating value and uplifting everyone involved, and helping athletes prepare for life after their playing days should be a critical part of this mission.
Posted on: October 29, 2024
