2018 Rydercup PowerBi App
DESIGN DIRECTION & UX/UI DESIGN
The Ryder Cup PowerBi app was a special app under partnership of PGA and Microsoft
The app was created not only to help team USA for the 2018 championship, it was also created to showcase the power of Azure, data analytics and Microsoft PowerBi.
With the power of PGA, Microsoft, Scouts and EY anything was possible and we were lucky enough to have Jim Furyk to work with as the captain of the 2018 team. The purpose of the PowerBi app was to not only unlocked the opportunity to help Jim and the coaches in the actual championship itself but to also helped Jim in determining what team to pick.
Finding the right team
Working closely with Jim Furyk we could see what areas needed improvement, what data he needed front and center and what other fun facts or facts in general would help him in determining the key players to make Team USA.
After a few sessions with Jim, we were able to fine tune the app in order to help him see the relevant information to make the informed decisions for his team.
Building for Team USA
Building the app for Writer’s cup was very unique because it wasn’t quite the typical design process. Initially there were high-level wire frames that were created they were very rough and help to just define what data points would be.
Because there were so many different partners involved in this application and sharing information quickly was extremely important it was important to be effective. Also, with limited time available to meet with Jim it was of the upmost importance to be as efficient as possible ingesting feedback on design when possible.
UX
PowerBI for the win
Seeing the importance of getting it in front of the right people that mattered most and making sure it looked as close as possible to the final product or two key important pieces of this application that I had to take in consideration when designing.
Because of that I jumped straight from really rough wire frames in design software to designing the actual UI and final UX in PowerBi by itself.
By no stretch of imagination had PowerBi been typically used in that way or known as a software to design app like UI in, but I wasn’t going to let it defeat me. With the limitations as hand, I took the opportunity to push through and try to make the best application possible because I wanted to set a bench mark for what PowerBi was capable of.
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CREATED IN POWERBI
When it all comes together
As far as the design itself, I ran with a simple top-level navigation and dashboard like style for the homepage to ensure all top-level information was front and center. For the secondary pages, I added a left panel sub navigation as some of the pages needed the additional navigation due to large amounts of data being displayed per page. For some of the Data visuals, we needed to create custom PowerBi visualizations which I supported through design direction. For the ones that I could repurpose and modify I did. For color theming it was important to make it ‘Team USA’ colors but not overwhelm Jim or the other coaches when using the app, so applying the background and transparent tinted panels were key in compartmentalizing while making it still lightweight.
FINAL UI
This example of PowerBI became a poster child of what was possible with PowerBi. It not only inspired people outside of Microsoft but also motivated and inspired people that worked within Microsoft, from the PowerBi team and leadership, to Azure and Business teams, and it was even shown it to Satya himself.
