With the main aim to educate and encourage more kids from all backgrounds to take up golf. The question was would a mobile app be the answer? And would it offer young golfers and their coaches the complete package of resources needed? The design would need to attract kids in way that would engage, educate and above all be fun.

Golphin’s mission is to inspire golf’s next generation, through a combination of innovative golf clubs designed especially for children, training, education, and age-appropriate competition. The company began by developing clubs which are easier for children to use, but soon wanted to become a leader in coaching and facilitated learning too.

The digital challenge

Golphin’s MyPathway2Golf programme began as a portal on the Golphin website, offering a range of resources such as training videos and challenges. However, few people – whether golf coaches or young golfers themselves – were using these resources. There was little engagement with the platform and the website, which was previously designed for the desktop, as a result it was inconvenient to access immediately after playing golf for young golfers, parents and their coaches.

Golphin didn’t know whether a website redesign or an all-new mobile app was the right way forward, and turned to Vidatec to help.

MyPathway2Golf needed to:

• Engage, encourage and educate children about golf, helping them to improve their skills and prepare for competitions.
• Offer golf coaches a structured platform for tracking students’ progress, uploading their own content and getting their students more excited about the game.
• Be convenient for coaches and children alike to access either during or immediately after lessons.

The approach

The first step involved running a Visioning Workshop to explore the different personas/users, to establish user needs, map user journeys and a high level solution. The Vidatec team quickly established that an app would be more dynamic and convenient for children and golf teachers alike.

Essentially two types of coaching styles needed to be supported: a more proactive approach where the coach could provide continuous feedback to their students; as well as the ability to track progress during the golf lesson to be discussed in the following lesson.

The app design and development needed to satisfy a range of reading abilities from children aged 6-12yrs. As well as taking into account that some children would have their own devices, but others would be using their parents’. Key features and functionality needed to be developed:

• High quality instructional videos, both pre-installed using Golphin resources and as well as the ability for coaches to upload their own videos.
• A range of skill challenges for children to complete, achieving Bronze, Silver or Gold scores for each and tracking their progress over time.
• Class scheduling and management for golf coaches, including the ability for coaches to input details about customised courses.
• Direct messaging from coach to student, allowing instant updated and remote coaching guidance.
• Personalised profiles for coaches and students.

The app also needed to offer coaches the ability to brand their coaching profile with their golf club logo. Added functionality provides young golfers the ability to create their own profiles and connect with other kids in their group, similar to a social media network. A ‘gamification’ approach to challenges, helps to incentivise kids to earn awards as well as providing a simple framework for friendly and constructive feedback to be shared without discouraging overall enjoyment and helping to improve personal performance.