I have a fair share of our story with Fat Fingers:
The Athlete's Glitch
Our client team had an amazing NFL season. But with the start of a new NFL season, but our NFL team was buzzing for a different reason – the unveiling of our off-season updates to the beloved iPad app used by one of the major NFL teams.
Our app, which was primarily used for training and past game analysis, had undergone a major overhaul, and we were proud of the sleek new UI/UX designs. But just as the athletes started to get into the grind of their training, our office started receiving some unexpected feedback.
"Hey! The app is taking me to the wrong sections!" one message read.
"I keep hitting the wrong button. Something's off," said another.
Confusion took over our team. We had spent months meticulously planning, designing, and testing these updates. Automated tests had been executed to perfection, internal testing hadn’t shown a single glitch. What was happening?
Then, a video came in. It was from a coach, showing one of the top athletes trying to use our app. We watched intently as his fingers moved over the screen. The problem became immediately apparent: his fingers, sculpted by years of athletic training and naturally larger than the average, were simply too big for our redesigned interface. Every time he tried to tap a specific function, his finger would unintentionally touch the adjacent ones.
Turns out, in our endeavor to create a sleeker, modern UI, we had inadvertently shrunk the size of the clickable buttons and packed them tightly in a grid. This might have looked aesthetically pleasing and worked perfectly for our testers, but for the athletes with their robust fingers, it was a recipe for frustration.
We convened an emergency meeting. Our lead designer, Marcus, broke the silence, "Our primary users are these athletes. We should've considered their physical attributes in our designs. It's my oversight."
Our project manager, Clara, nodded in agreement. "We need to fix this and roll out an update ASAP. We can't have the team struggling with this during their crucial training period."
The next few days were a blur of coding, designing, and testing. With feedback from some of the players, we reintroduced larger buttons and ensured enough space between them, all while maintaining the sleek look of our new design. It was a lesson learned the hard way, but it reiterated the importance of understanding our users' needs and physical attributes.
The next feedback we got was from the star quarterback, "Perfect! Back in the game with this. Thanks, TechTouch."
The NFL season kicked off with roaring crowds, and our app, now more user-friendly than ever, was right there with the athletes, assisting them every step of the way.
The Athlete's Glitch
Our client team had an amazing NFL season. But with the start of a new NFL season, but our NFL team was buzzing for a different reason – the unveiling of our off-season updates to the beloved iPad app used by one of the major NFL teams.
Our app, which was primarily used for training and past game analysis, had undergone a major overhaul, and we were proud of the sleek new UI/UX designs. But just as the athletes started to get into the grind of their training, our office started receiving some unexpected feedback.
"Hey! The app is taking me to the wrong sections!" one message read.
"I keep hitting the wrong button. Something's off," said another.
Confusion took over our team. We had spent months meticulously planning, designing, and testing these updates. Automated tests had been executed to perfection, internal testing hadn’t shown a single glitch. What was happening?
Then, a video came in. It was from a coach, showing one of the top athletes trying to use our app. We watched intently as his fingers moved over the screen. The problem became immediately apparent: his fingers, sculpted by years of athletic training and naturally larger than the average, were simply too big for our redesigned interface. Every time he tried to tap a specific function, his finger would unintentionally touch the adjacent ones.
Turns out, in our endeavor to create a sleeker, modern UI, we had inadvertently shrunk the size of the clickable buttons and packed them tightly in a grid. This might have looked aesthetically pleasing and worked perfectly for our testers, but for the athletes with their robust fingers, it was a recipe for frustration.
We convened an emergency meeting. Our lead designer, Marcus, broke the silence, "Our primary users are these athletes. We should've considered their physical attributes in our designs. It's my oversight."
Our project manager, Clara, nodded in agreement. "We need to fix this and roll out an update ASAP. We can't have the team struggling with this during their crucial training period."
The next few days were a blur of coding, designing, and testing. With feedback from some of the players, we reintroduced larger buttons and ensured enough space between them, all while maintaining the sleek look of our new design. It was a lesson learned the hard way, but it reiterated the importance of understanding our users' needs and physical attributes.
The next feedback we got was from the star quarterback, "Perfect! Back in the game with this. Thanks, TechTouch."
The NFL season kicked off with roaring crowds, and our app, now more user-friendly than ever, was right there with the athletes, assisting them every step of the way.