The United States Equestrian Federation manages and promotes horse showing competitions both nationally and internationally. It recognizes 11 breeds and 18 different disciplines that millions of people and horses compete in every year. Despite being a extremely widespread brand that represents US athletes at home and abroad, the USEF has had almost no set brand system or user-friendly digital platform. On top of that, the process of registering for shows, competing, paying membership bills, managing important documents, and many other things required in the day-to-day lives of riders and trainers is archaic and cumbersome. As a competitive rider myself, I saw a lot of opportunity for an improvement. This project, completed for the class GD400 while at NC State College of Design, aimed to identify and design for key pain points that users experience when engaging with USEF.
I created an app that not only combines the functionalities of older USEF apps, but also enhances the horse showing experience by introducing new means of staying up to date on show schedules. One of the biggest pain points of horse showing identified by riders of all disciplines is making sure that they are at the right show ring at the right time, even when the show schedule itself is consistently unreliable and changing. The primary new function of this app concept is to be able to give live updates on show rings so that riders and coaches can know where and when they are competing in a class. In addition to this key feature, the app allows riders and coaches to do everything else that the USEF facilitates: registering for shows and classes, paying show bills, accessing results and rankings, and storing certifications and records. The app design also reflects a new brand system that associates with the equestrian community.
