Apex is a cognitive training tool for athletes who are trying to improve everyday by putting athletes head back in the game, where they can reflect and improve upon mental aspects of the game.
APEX
INSTRUCTORSCOTT LASEROW
INSTITUTION
TYLER SCHOOL OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
In November of 2022, I joined the Fox School of Business 25th annual Idea Competition with VR Coach. This competition allows students from any college to pitch their ideas to judges for a cash prize. The process starts with meeting business advisors, where you talk about your idea and they give their feedback on what to improve upon. Then you have to apply, where you answer questions on the application regarding your idea, showing how useful and impactful it is. The applications are reviewed by judges and those in charge of the competition choose finalists. Me, along with four other students were chosen as finalists. The next step was the live pitch event. I made a pitch deck and practiced my pitch over and over again with friends and advisors. The pitch needed to be 3 minutes or less, so it was a fun challenge to fit all the content into a small amount of time. I ended up winning 1st place in the undergraduate track, as well as crowd favorite. You can watch the competition here. 29:24 is when my pitch starts, 1:42:15 is when I was awarded 1st place, and 1:43:23 is when I was awarded crowd favorite.
Since I spent time working on the business model and user research throughout my entrepreneurship classes, I thought my senior thesis class would be a perfect time to work on the design and visuals for VR Coach. This is when I changed VR Coach to Apex.
THE PROBLEM
Club athletes do not get enough time to mentally practice
I needed to do some research and see if cognitive training could use some improvement, and since I think Apex is a great training tool, I decided to take a survey. When asked how many hours athletes dedicate to their sport overall, about 50% said 12 or more hours a week. When asked how much of that time is dedicated to mental training, 90% of athletes said less than 5 hours a week. When asked why these athletes spend very little to no time on mental training, they said that they did not have the proper tools, do not have the time, or made a note that their team chooses not to do it, even though athletes find it very useful.
USER PERSONA
THE SOLUTION
A very important part of Apex and its deliverables, was the interface of what the players video feedback will look like. Here is a player watching a game-like scenario in first person. As this player is watching their video, they interact with the buttons, text, and animations their coach intends for them to reflect on. It is important to emphasize the use of first person that Apex offers. Watching in this point of view is a revolutionary way to mentally train. When players watch film, it is typically in third person, but watching in first person, players can recognize familiar surroundings on the ice or field where they can implement the feedback their coach gives them. As an athlete, it is important to know how to execute certain skills, but it is more important to know when to execute those skills.
user journey
information architecture
NAME
After brainstorming a couple of possible names, I finalized with Apex because of the meaning and easy recognition of the word. Apex means the top or highest part of something, which relates to the whole premise of the app.
Logo Sketches
When I was sketching logos, I knew I wanted to infuse the A in Apex with a pointed shape that emphasized the meaning of the Apex. I also did some research on color psychology to see what colors would be best for a sports training app. Colors depended on the name of the app and felt that a deep red would work best with Apex. As I continued to review my sketches, it was noticeable that I was staying true to the same shape.
final logo
After multiple critiques from my professor and classmates, I finalized that I was going to use a triangular shape. I added a stroke to the shape to make it bolder and contrast off of the background as much as possible. Then after one final critique with my professor, we decided to pair the word mark with the logo mark because the gap in the logo leads the viewer to read “APEX” from left to right. Allowing the viewer to look at the whole logo.
ui kit
I wanted to design an interface that the user knew was interactive. I feel like gradients are a great way to show the user that the buttons are clickable. I wanted all the icons to relate to each other so they all have rounded corners like the logo does so everything felt related and in the same design system.
the Golden ratio
In order to create a user friendly app, I used the golden ratio. The golden ratio is a visual barrier that helped me design the visuals and interface of the players feedback screen when they are using a VR headset. It is important to understand what it means to design for VR. You need to keep the main content within the circle you see in the photo above. When designing for desktop and mobile, you can have the home button on the bottom left of the screen, but on a VR headset, those graphics that are not in the attention area will go unnoticed.
It was important that I made a reference to the golden ratio while I was designing and animating on the player feedback videos. I was constantly using it to make sure the scale of the text boxes were big enough to be seen, as well as the clickable rectangle that activates the coaches feedback.
Player feedback
COACHES FEEDBACK
WIREFRAMES
In addition to Apex videos, I decided to create a full players training app. The Apex app can be downloaded on your phone, desktop, or VR headset where players and coaches access their videos. I wanted to make this app as helpful and practical as possible, so I added special features that most training apps do not have.
home
The home page is where you land when you finish signing up, or when you open the app. I wanted the home page to bring the user to the main component of the app, the player videos. You can also check notifications to see if your coach left feedback on your videos.
apex reels
Apex reels is where users can go on their explore page and watch content, much like social media. Only this content is all sports related. Professionals can post impressive goals they score, home runs they hit, or touchdowns they score. Or, you can watch coaches and professionals can post their point of views so you can also learn from them.
Since I wanted Apex Reels to be as related to social media as possible. There is a feature where the user can post their own videos, and they can watch their followers videos so you can like, comment, and share them.
Team features
Team Features is where you can access your teammates videos. You can watch better players on your team to see the feedback your coach is giving them to maximize your potential of training.
Team Features also allows you to view team drills. Your coach will update team drills so players can study them on their own time, so there is no time wasted during practice to explain how to do the drills, and everyone can execute them without flaw.
Lastly, Team Features has the team line up and roster, so you can check who plays what position, who is paired in practice, and who is playing in the game.
Settings
Settings is just like any other app settings. You can make edits to your account, but you can also view your profile that has your stats and your expected number of points, goals, touchdowns, home runs, etc. to keep the user driven to reach that goal and unlock their full potential.
coachs’ interface
Customize for your team
vr interface
Apex has turned into one of my favorite and proudest projects that I have worked on throughout my time at Tyler School of Art and Architecture. I am extremely passionate about Apex because it is an original idea of mine, that I have had for over a year and will certainly try to take it further. Aside from Apex being centered and created out my love for sports, this project is a great representation of what I am capable of as a designer; including UI/UX, branding, video editing, and animation. Apex was the most challenging project as well, because it was hard to reference other layouts and interfaces given that this is an original idea that has not been done before. I have learned a lot while creating Apex, and will use these lessons to help me design every project I do after this one. Apex will not end here, one day Apex will revolutionize sports training and find its way into the hands of sport fans, revolutionizing sports entertainment.