Summary
USA Jump Rope is the largest jump rope organization in the United States, running events nationwide that culminate in the annual Jump Rope Nationals. Their processes were outdated and starting to show serious strain.
I partnered with RGLR Collective to conduct field research at Jump Rope Nationals in Florida. Through contextual inquiries with leadership, athletes, and staff, I uncovered critical inefficiencies in their paper-based systems. I designed and prototyped a mobile judging app on-site that would eliminate manual score runners and enable real-time score submission. The board approved the approach and we developed a roadmap for implementation.
Background
The challenge
USA Jump Rope’s operational systems were severely outdated. Their filing system consisted of “a filing cabinet in a storage unit in Alabama,” and the entire event ran on paper-based processes that were becoming unsustainable as the sport grew.
The opportunity
RGLR Collective brought me in to partner on a field research study at Jump Rope Nationals. The goal was to observe the event firsthand, identify problem areas, and propose solutions for modernizing the sport’s operations.
My role
Working as a two-person research team, I conducted rapid-fire contextual inquiries and designed solutions in real-time. Not knowing much about sports in general, I had to quickly become an expert while the event was happening.
Discovery
My research partner and I immersed ourselves in the event, conducting contextual inquiries with leadership, athletes, and support staff. One observation stood out immediately: each athlete competes at one of nine stations, observed by three judges. After an event, three “runners” physically walk to each station, write down the judges’ scores on paper, and carry them to a volunteer who types each score into an Access database.
This manual process created delays in posting results, transcription errors, and bottlenecks during high-volume competition times. We synthesized findings in real-time using post-it notes backstage, identifying patterns and opportunities.
Solution
Through affinity diagramming, we determined that digitizing the judging process would have the highest impact with the lowest investment. This single change could eliminate the runner system entirely.
I designed a mobile judging app that would let judges submit scores directly from their stations. The app needed to be simple enough for judges of all technical abilities while handling the complexity of scoring. I built a functional prototype in InVision to demonstrate the flow.
Results
After the event, I presented the solution to the board of directors. They approved the approach and we developed a roadmap for implementation, creating a clear path to modernize USA Jump Rope’s operations.
