Why does a football association may need a sport mobile app? The supporters are always seeking for new information latest stats, standings, results, transfer news and much other information letting them keep in touch with important events connected with their favorite team.
Moreover, fans are looking for the slightest chance to be up-to-date. The idea to develop a mobile app for football team is not just a privilege but also a must have. We decided to provide supporters a chance to have their own digital fan club right in the pocket. When we decided to create a football association app, we considered the following features:
- Real-time notifications with the latest match results;
- Publishing of the latest news and stats;
- Publishing media content including videos and images;
- Live text broadcasting.
With so many events happening in the football world, we needed to establish a powerful and informative mobile platform. Defining the problem was actually the first step before we launched sport app development process.
Building a Sport App for Android and iOS: Crucial Steps
When our team came up with an idea to make an app for soccer club, the main aim was to develop an application that will highlight the latest information on different clubs from the Ukrainian Association as well as some general news and events from the fields. We decided to use the official information only provided by the Football federation of Ukraine without opting for any third-party sources or untrusted websites.
For this reason, the first step was to define the precise list of available data that would appear to be of great interest to both supporters and journalists. We conducted a detailed outline with the following points:
- Official news delivered by the Football Federation.
- Full information on all championships and tournaments taking place.
- Match results, calendar, news on a particular tournament, final standings, schedules and more.
- Full information on every team introducing its players, managers, results and latest news.
- Detailed players data describing their current results and stats (a number of goals, assists, presence, track record, etc.).
The outline made it possible for us to determine a set of features we needed to implement in the app as well as determine the cost to develop a mobile app for soccer team.
Key Features of the App
According to the outline, we decided to implement some of the following features to provide exceptional user experience. The list of all options and functions we wanted to see in the full version of our application was as follows:
- News section divided into categories for fast and easy navigation – the idea was to let users look for a necessary news with ease. We did not want them to browse through tons of useless information letting them skip to the desired category;
- Event calendar – the feature includes upcoming events and matches as well as stores information on previous games, results, and stats. Users are free to choose a necessary date and look through the information available;
- Players section – contains information on all official players as well as the entire team they play in;
- Real-time text broadcasting – the function lets users keep in touch with what is happening on the field in real time. The feature does not require too many resources letting users stay online with minimum traffic using mobile internet;
- Navigation – the idea was to implement a comprehensive navigation tool letting users search for any piece of information ranging from team and players data to news and stats;
- Favorites – every user has an opportunity to add any tournament or team to his or her favorites with only a couple of touches;
- About Football Federation of Ukraine – the section contains the official information about the federation as well as its history, contact information, the board of directors, etc.
UI/UX Development Stage
Many development teams underestimate the importance of UI and UX features when it comes to the design of a football app. On the one hand, the application should certainly focus on the information background. However, modern users are very demanding. They call for maximum usability and convenience. For this reason, we decided to enable some of the following improvements in the UI/UX development process:
- Firstly, we decided to deliver a better user experience saving users time when browsing the news. Our developers implemented an automatic slider that highlights the latest news in accordance with their importance to the user in spite of the category.
- We decided to add some changes to the news feed making it look a bit more attractive and less boring. As a result, our app’s news feed has different types of the information displaying.
- Users, who enter the app for the first time, will appreciate greetings from the head coach of the Ukrainian National Team Andrey Shevchenko. Rookies are asked to get onboard and start using the application.
We wanted to add some interaction and make our app more exciting and attractive apart from other football applications that feature boring design and fewer elements to interact with. This is actually the reason, why many users give up their current apps and opt for some more entertaining products and eye-catching products.
Time Spent Developing the App
The initial timeframe estimated by our specialists to develop the application for iOS platform from scratch was 300-340 hours. If you decide to build the app for a football team by yourself, you may cut down on the hours necessary to complete a less complicated application.
For example, you can reduce the time by excluding some sections that aren’t of great importance like the section devoted to the football federation of Ukraine highlighting its official information and history. This will let you complete the project in 180-240 hours featuring less complicated design. Developers can also think of some other sections and features that may be of no use for their target audience. Nevertheless, they should all be negotiated to meet customers’ requirements and expectation.
The Cost of the Development
Apart from keeping the things interesting, a brilliant sports app should also meet the following requirements of its users:
- Satisfy supporters’ curiosity – Supporters are eager to know everything about their favs round the clock. The key to success is to keep in touch with your target audience and some other tools;
- Capture users’ emotions – football unites millions of people from around the globe. Most of them know the history of their favorite team by heart. The developers should come up with something new and unique to encourage supporters to share their knowledge with others from the global community;
- Be social and Useful – integration with social networks is a must. On the one hand, fans love it to spend time in front of the TV watching the match of their favorite team. On the other hand, they should also have a chance to share their emotions and highlights of the match via Facebook, Twitter or any other social platform.
Considering the above-mentioned features, the development process appears to be rather complicated and pricey. The rates may vary depending on the level of team’s expertise and experience. You can always cut down on costs if opting for outsource developers.
However, if you are looking for a combination of affordable prices, high quality, Agile development approach and customer oriented way of working, LunApps is the best destination for you. Contact us for more information and samples of our work.