Role:
UX researcher & product designer
Team:
1 developer
Duration:
3 weeks from concept to handoff
Tools:
Claude Code, Figma, MCP server
Platform:
Native Android & iOS
Business problem: App adoption. No one was using chat, the app's core feature, and Kurabu needed that before going after more clubs.
Users problem: Chats were messy, important updates got lost, and parents struggled to follow their children's teams.
What I did: I improved the information architecture and usability of in-app messaging and added access control. App adoption and active users went up, and messaging became a key feature in sales.
Solution’s impact
I interviewed customer support (club admin and member feedback) and stakeholders, and benchmarked popular messaging tools, to understand who our users are and how they communicate within clubs.
Want to contact and coordinate team members seamlessly
Want to check important info quickly and contact team mates
Want to coordinate with other parents
Members belong to multiple teams, parents need access to their children's conversations, and coaches need control over who sees what. As conversations grew, important updates got lost. Clubs filled the gaps with scattered tools like with email and WhatsApp, with no system built for these specific needs.
Before
What user actually want to do
Addressing how clubs really communicate would drive coach and member adoption, and give the app weight in sales pitches to medium and large clubs (1,000+ and 3,000+ members), bringing in more clients.
Max #Team/User
~6
Real team names
🏀 Basketball
🎾 Tennis
🧘 Yoga
🏊 Swimming
Chat types
Announcements
Only team leads can post, pinned for everyone
Team Chat
Everyone can post
Carpools & logistics
Everyone can post
Birthday & Gifts
Everyone can post
Other
Everyone can post
Prototype with filters by person and team
I tested with parents in two ways:
Result: 100% by team name
Only team leads can post announcements and pin a thread for the whole team. Everyone else can post in every other chat. Feedback from sales, leadership and key clients before development shaped these rules.
Same interface, different clubs
Strengthening club identity: Enabled custom branding options so each club feels unique
Multi-club members needed clarity: Prevent confusion for users belonging to multiple Kurabu clubs by making their active club immediately obvious.
Messaging became a reliable way for clubs to communicate inside their own app. Team‑based conversations and role‑aware access made it easier to share updates and documents in a GDPR‑compliant environment, without relying on external messaging tools.
↑
App adoption
Coaches and members moved team communication in-app
↑
App downloads
After launch
↑
Sales weight
Messaging became a key feature in sales conversations with medium and large clubs
Open live on mobile: messaging-app-iota.vercel.app
Tools: Figma MCP, Claude Code
Tech: HTML / CSS / JS
Demo Account Context:
