DABBLE
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The idea of Dabble, previously Flutter, was undoubtedly intriging. After watching the video presentation the guys at Dabble published, we were committed to delivering the demands of the guys on time, and with perfection. You can watch the presentation i the video below.
The guys at Dabble wanted us to improve on their idea, improve the UI/UX and clean up the overall ideal of the app they had in mind. The idea was very simple; allow friends to make bets against one another in the most simplest way possible. They wanted the app to be built as a native iOS app.
How We Made It
Fuelling USERS’ Experiences
We wanted to give each user the chance to monitor their live bets in an interactive way, but also create an opportunity for other users to find new friends within a live bet. It turns out there was one major feature that helped make this possible; user comments with the ability to view commenters' profiles.
Application development has finally burst out of its box
Unfortunately, too many user-centred apps focus on non-essential features, which in turn renders the users passive consumers of whatever is thrown at them. This is unsatisfying for social media users, and it wasn’t going to be satisfying for us either. We decided to give the users more, even though the app, feature-wise, wasn't very complicated.
The client wanted all bet-associated screens to load instantly. We made sure all the organisation of data was done in the backend and preloaded even before the user navigated to the bet screen. On the live bet screen, bet info such as the usernames of the participants, bet description, odds, stake, deadline, bet category and comments would be available to the user.
Tapping on a commenter's photo would take the user to that particular user's profile. They could then add that user as a friend. If that user was already a friend, they could view their current bets.
As Natural as POSSIBLE
If an app is a pain to use, users' will gravitate to another on. Dabble needed to fit seamlessly into the user's betting experience, and be a snap to use between them. The emphasis of the design, then, was on a clean, streamlined interface with no redundancy.
Simple, clearly-marked icons and uncluttered menus make navigation a snap. Flat design elements make the app seem a natural complement to the OS, and keep the focus squarely on the content the app provides.
Helping Sponsors Reach Fans Too
Advertisers get the opportunity to reach out to the global audience of football fans while targeting their content with precision. With all the different ways fans interact, it’s good to have the infrastructure to properly match efforts to goals.
What every fan knows about a football match is that it can completely change in the blink of an eye. Fans react instantly; we wanted to make sure advertisers could keep up. Top Soccer Fan allows advertisers to do so practically in real-time, with easily created advertisements as well as in-game and post-game offer opportunities that app users can react to immediately. Advertisers can also create interactive experiences for fans, by means such as sponsoring awards for “fan of the month” and other incentives.
Cross-platform development
In the same way we are committed to making Dabble available to all international users, we wanted to make sure all users of both iOS and Android would be able to experience the fun of Dabble.
We successfully developed an API which means, in the future, when the guys at Dabble decide to introduce an Android version of the app, we'd be able to utilise the existing API. Creating a centralised home for data and all backend functionality is always a good thing.
Get lost in the experience
We wanted to create the same feeling a person gets when their favourite sports team wins a competition – the excitement, the relief, the urge to embrace the stranger next to them with abandon – but in a subtle way.
We wanted the easy design of the navigation, the excitement of the bet-creation feature, and the feeling that’s created through real-time bet deadline updates, to be an undeniable win for betters and bet watchers alike.
An app that’s all about the stats
On every users profile, you are able to see stats presented in a nice bar graph which show how many bets they've proposed, how many bets they've won, and how many bets they've taken.
Each indivdual account starts out with 500.00 credits they can use to make bets. Updates are instant, so for example, if a user sends a bet offer to a friend, the win/lose amounts are deducted as soon as the friend accepts the offer.
THE RESULT
In the end, there were a number of features we could have added in the first version of Dabble. However, not all of the ideas made the cut. Why? Because we put user experience first. Not all of the ideas resonated with the guys at Dabble. Filtering out noise and finding the best ideas helps us make our product even better – allowing us to create something that’s extremely effective and elegantly designed. This solves a fundamental business challenge. A better user experience means more user engagement, and more engagement means more scope to nurture relationships with customers.
In many ways, creating an app is a bit like bringing a new life into the internet world. Each app's soul comes with the realisation that it needs to evolve and mature on its own. We’re looking forward to see how Dabble grows and what new challenges we'll be presented with. We feel privileged to be a partner in building Dabble's online business, which we believe has so much potential for even more rapid growth in the future and well beyond.