Foob — a football platform rebuilt on research in the Netherlands and the US

Ever faced a situation where the design has to change mid-project? Is that a failure or a chance to do better? This is the story of how we reinvented a football platform — and how research carried us through the changes and let us adapt fast. From segment discovery to UX polish: in the end, +22% conversion to registration and 60% of starters reaching payment. As a bonus — what a business gains when design collaboration goes beyond the original scope.

I led this project as art director at Anthracite — a studio building digital products through design thinking for startups and IT companies. That’s how we met FOOB, a business for football enthusiasts.

0:0 Warm-up

FOOB organizes amateur football — leagues and seasons, for teams and individual players. And it’s not just about the game: FOOB has its own bar where players gather after matches.

The platform — a website, a registration form and a PWA — is over ten years old. Metrics had been sagging for years, and to avoid losing ground to younger competitors FOOB decided: time to change. That’s how they came to us.

0:1 Problem and task

The main problem: the platform generated almost no leads. The site didn’t hold visitors’ attention, and a weak registration form failed to turn them into customers. My scope: run the research, find customer segments with their pains and barriers on the way to the product — and rebuild the platform with new UX/UI based on the findings.

0:2 Metrics and analytics

FOOB had no real analytics — sales lived in Excel and a CRM. So we quickly hooked up Google Analytics to see how people behaved on the site and platform, and Hotjar to dissect sessions in detail. That let us verify the bottlenecks in the sales funnel, honestly compare the old design with the new one later, and lay the groundwork for A/B tests.

The moment we turned tracking on, the first discovery arrived: absolute conversion of 0.01% of visitors reached the registration form page and dropped off at payment. The trend only kept confirming itself. It was obvious: the site couldn’t onboard new customers, and the form’s weak UX scared most people away — leaving nothing but cold leads.

So we rebuilt the sitemap, mapping out every existing page — more than 100 of them, since FOOB operates in many cities — and fixed potential bottlenecks, dead loops and outdated pages. For comparison — an alternative site navigation with all the issues bypassed and the user’s path to the goal several clicks shorter.

In parallel we ran large-scale user research in the US and the Netherlands — FOOB operates in both countries.

0:3 Research challenges

FOOB had been on the market a long time, so first we had to find and validate the existing segments — and figure out which was the most attractive. Starting with research was essential: we simply didn’t know whether footballers’ motivations differ between countries.

Goal

• Find the existing customer segments and define their high-level jobs
• Analyze the segments and propose where FOOB can compete most effectively
• Formulate insights and hypotheses for UX/UI improvements to test later

Framework

We wanted to close as many questions as possible in a single interview, without clinging blindly to one canonical framework — so we’d be sure to gather enough data for analysis. So we assembled a modular approach from the most effective elements:

• JTBD — for the interviews: first validating segments, then working with the business-priority segments and unpacking their full job tree. This helped us form and test the first hypotheses — about the motivations, barriers and triggers that shape the decision to use the product;
• CustDev — to gather extra facts about customers’ football habits and preferences;
• Monadic testing — to evaluate two design concepts separately and get unbiased feedback on impressions and preferences;
• And the cherry on top — a quick usability test of the current flow at the end of every interview: we asked participants to register as a team or solo. It surfaced unusual bugs on different devices and showed exactly what confuses customers in the current flow.

Recruiting

• The client provided a list of happy and unhappy customers — 50% of respondents;
• We recruited more via Facebook targeting — football enthusiasts using no solution at all;
• Competitors’ customers were recruited through Instagram;
• And to stretch the budget we tapped personal channels — making sure respondents didn’t know each other.

0:4 Insights

Most respondents fell for football in early childhood — and carried the passion through life. Understanding that deep attachment is the key to how FOOB should talk to potential customers so they actually listen.

Job stories and segmentation

First Time Activation: the first contact with FOOB — newcomers’ motivations, barriers and desired outcomes.

Migrants to the Netherlands or the US
Newcomers look for ways to socialize and make friends through football — to feel a sense of community and settle into the new environment.

“[When] I arrived in a country new to me, [I want] to socialize in a community and find people with shared interests, [so that] I feel like I belong — less loneliness and confusion”

Barriers: the language barrier, gaps in playing level, fear of playing against professionals, and not knowing where to find decent pitches.

Competitive players
Those seeking competitive football value a guaranteed, fair and safe game where winning means something — and confirms their skill.

“[When] we deliberately looked for football with a competitive mode, [I want] to win and have a good referee watching the game, [so that] I feel the thrill of a real match”

Barriers: waiting lists and the difficulty of finding partners at your level.

Convenient logistics
When choosing where to play, people look first at proximity and accessibility — no time wasted on the commute.

“[When] I was looking for a place to play football, [I want] it to be within cycling distance, [so that] I don’t waste extra time on the road”

Barriers: unclear venue information, no pitches in the city, and commutes that run too long — ideally under 15 minutes by bike.

Continue Playing: the regulars’ experience — motivations, barriers and what keeps them in the game.

Competitive players / teams
Competitive players need wins that mean something — proof of their skill and their team’s strength. They look for organized competitive play.
Barriers: insufficient reward for winning and team no-shows break the experience.

Players without a team
Solo players need organized football to level up their skills without the stress of assembling a squad — the emphasis is on structured play.
Barriers: partners are hard to find and the social dynamics can be intimidating.

Second Level Job: the deeper motivations of experienced users — what actually keeps them with FOOB.

Fitness enthusiasts
For them football is a way to stay in shape and enjoy movement and company.
Barriers: injury risk, cancelled matches and pitch limitations get in the way of playing regularly.

After the game
Players value the post-match socializing — connections and community matter as much as the score.
Barriers: the social side of football isn’t for everyone, and a cancelled match also means a cancelled evening.

Defining FOOB’s segment

To pick priority segments we weighed: purchasing power, usage frequency, job significance, segment size and competition from existing solutions. FOOB’s ideal segment — players who seek social connection in football, and those driven by competitive excitement.

Not FOOB’s segment: players who need football purely for skills or fitness, without the social component. They’re already well served by solutions that put the game above the socializing. And for the fitness-first crowd, padel or tennis may fit better — less dependence on a team.

With the analysis done, we finally understood who we were designing for. That lets you create value for the right segment — the one whose job FOOB can nail better than the competition.

0:5 Design process and putting the research to work

With the most promising segments defined, we gathered every hypothesis in one place. We called it the “hypothesis pool” — at some point it felt like we were drowning in it. To stay afloat, we sorted everything by ICE: Impact, Confidence, Ease of implementation. And started designing from the most impactful and most feasible.

Every block of the site closes a specific hypothesis — so design decisions stand on user insights and validated assumptions. On the home page we introduced storytelling: each block plays its role — answering a need or removing a barrier, guiding the person toward a clear action.

The visual style: big bold type for clarity and readability — the important things catch the eye instantly. The decision came out of benchmark analysis: we wanted FOOB to be impossible to confuse with anyone else. And a strict grid keeps the layout structured and orderly.

The meaning of the trophy

Hypothesis: the trophy is a tangible embodiment of the team’s shared effort and season-long commitment. It symbolizes collective achievement and strengthens team spirit.

A balanced game

Hypothesis: people need safe, moderate participation in their leisure — it’s their “me time”. They value fair play and reliability, and that’s what makes the downtime enjoyable.

The tradition of team progress

Hypothesis: people take pleasure in watching their team progress — supporting that momentum becomes a tradition. Some play in several teams at once: that’s how deep the commitment runs.

After the game

Hypothesis: people are driven by nostalgia and continuity — keeping up a pastime from their youth is a huge pleasure. They value an inclusive environment of like-minded people and the chance to socialize after the game — regardless of education or nationality.

0:6 UX flow

We compressed the registration-and-payment flow into a two-step form: information unfolds gradually, step by step, without overwhelming. Instead of nothing but radio buttons and dropdowns — visually lively elements that make every block of the form easier to grasp.

We took separate aim at the drop-off point: the unexpected price on the final step. We reworked the presentation: the full team cost is now clear upfront, and it can be split between players — the amount stays manageable for everyone. A transparent, surprise-free price means less shock and fewer drop-offs at the critical registration step.

0:7 The second design iteration and reinventing the UX flow

When the first iteration went into testing, the client grew worried it might not resonate enough with the male audience. Although FOOB is open to everyone — there are women’s leagues and mixed matches — we decided to explore an alternative version of the design.

The main difference between the versions was the site’s UI, so we ran a monadic test — a method where each respondent evaluates only one concept, avoiding bias. For meaningful feedback we carefully curated a pool of adjectives — “modern”, “warm”, “sporty” — and watched which version came closer to our design goals. Respondents for the two concepts were recruited on different platforms for a wider sample.

In the second phase we dared a bold reinvention of the UX flow. It went fast — the hypothesis pool came to the rescue: we pulled out other hypotheses and assembled a second, alternative flow from our findings. Registration turned into something resembling an e-commerce checkout, and the storytelling from the first design merged with a bolder visual style.

The two design versions drew different reactions. After discussing the results with the client — whose core audience, women’s league aside, was male — we chose the second version. It matched the client’s vision and guaranteed the design would land with FOOB’s main audience.

0:9 Final results and beyond

The whole project, research included, took two months. Close collaboration with the business gave us a deep understanding of its needs — and let us make decisions efficiently. Per the test results, after simplifying and improving the UX, conversion to registration grew to +22%, and 60% of those who start now reach the final step — payment.

Over the course of the collaboration we got so deep into the product and its users that we went beyond the scope with extra ideas: community development, collaborations, welcome events. All to enrich the user experience and strengthen FOOB’s bond with its audience.

One proposal shipped while the project was still running: the client agreed to create a network of WhatsApp chats for every city. Now football enthusiasts easily find a substitute for a match — a better experience and higher satisfaction with the service. We had originally planned the feature for a future app, but what mattered right now was different: the business working and users happy.