In the spring of 2020, I took a Master of Industrial Design studio focused on design research, user experience and form development. For the majority of the semester, my classmates and I worked on a project sponsored by Golf Pride, one of the leading producers of golf club grips. We were given the opportunity to investigate ways the company could improve its products and user experience and research and develop a project proposal for a design intervention.
In order to cover as many stakeholders in the golf regripping process as possible, we divided up into teams to handle different parts of the research. We divvied up the work into categories and covered: market research, interviews with hobbyists, professional golfers, trainers, and retail store employees, and a user survey.
RESEARCH PRESENTATION
After a period of investigation, our team presented to Golf Pride on the culmination of our collective research as well as individual project proposals for design interventions. Because we all worked on different parts of the research and wanted the presentation to be cohesive and consistent, I took on the task of compiling our research and designing the presentation (for dual monitors).
MY RESEARCH
I was on a team responsible for interviews, and I went with a classmate to NC State's Lonnie Poole Golf Course to interview golf professionals. We obtained valuable insight from several employees, the highlights of which are shown in the slide above. Using our team's interviews and survey data, I developed a persona and synthesized our user research into a task flow analysis showing the most common paths a user can take through the regripping process.
PROJECT PROPOSAL: NEXT STEPS
In golf, grip alignment can make a big difference in performance, and Golf Pride makes a line of Align grips with markings to help installers fit the grip. For my project, I proposed a Golf Pride mobile app that would use augmented reality to help golfers who change their grips at home align them perfectly every time. I was able to start exploring with XCode to create a simple iOS app that harnesses the iPhone camera to use a simple AR overlay, before I realized that there was a simpler solution. For my modified proposal, I utilized Apple's built in level tool on the measure app along with a simple phone stand/guide I made out of modeling clay, and was able to accurately measure the angle of alignment relative to the club's leading edge.
