UAF ID - Discovery Phase for a Unified Mobile App for Ukrainian Football Fans

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The Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) is Ukraine's national football governing body, uniting professional leagues, national teams, youth and amateur football, and fan communities.

UAF wanted to create a one-of-a-kind mobile app that brings fans, players, and parents closer to the game, and needed to validate the idea before investing in development.

Our team ran a full Discovery Phase: user research, MVP definition, interactive prototypes, and a scalable architecture, giving UAF a clear, development-ready roadmap.

Services

  • Discovery Phase
  • UI/UX Design

Industry

  • Other

Location

  • Ukraine
Our client

About the company

UAF is Ukraine’s national governing body for football. It brings together professional leagues, national teams, youth and amateur football, and fan communities.

UAF organizes competitions, manages official football data, and works with clubs, players, fans,  and media.

Project goal

About the project

UAF wanted to create a digital product with no direct analogs on the market: a community and tools that bring fans closer to football and give them a sense of belonging. The audience included fans, players, football enthusiasts, and parents who take their children to training.

The app was meant to combine match schedules, player and team statistics, video content, tickets, and official merchandise in one place. It would also serve amateur players and parents of young athletes. UAF asked us to define what the product should be, who it is for, and how to build it step by step.

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Challenges

1

Too many apps for one hobby
Our research showed that active fans rely on several apps at once: one for news, another for live stats, another for streams, another for discussions. Our task was to bring this experience together in one app.

2

Invisible amateurs and women’s leagues
Grassroots football, youth academies, and women’s futsal have almost no digital presence. We designed tools to give them visibility and progress tracking.

3

Fans abroad
Many Ukrainian fans and players live abroad. They struggle to follow matches, buy official merchandise, and stay connected with the community and with Ukrainian football.

4

Heavy traffic on match days
UAF holds a large amount of football data that is not yet organized. The system had to handle the sharp traffic peaks that come with live matches without slowing down or failing.

5

A realistic MVP
The client’s wish list was very large. We had to turn it into a focused first release that fits the budget and timeline and has clear success metrics.

Our Process for the Discovery Phase

We began by reviewing the materials UAF had prepared, including earlier research, data sources, and strategic goals.

We then studied the football market and agreed with the client on the goals of the MVP and of the full product.

We analyzed existing football and sports apps to see which features already exist, which pains remain unsolved, and what we could learn from the best international products.

To base decisions on facts rather than assumptions, we ran two types of research:

a survey of about 500 fans, launched together with UAF through its social media, which showed where fans get information and what frustrates them;

10 in-depth interviews with fans, coaches, and players, each about an hour long, focused on what works in Ukrainian football and what is missing.

Based on this research, we described the key user roles (personas), including active fans, players, parents of young athletes, and fans abroad.

We turned early findings into hypotheses, confirmed them with the survey, and mapped every proposed module against validated user pains and business goals.

We deferred features that didn’t clearly solve a pain or drive ROI (such as ticket sales), resulting in a lean MVP and a separate post-MVP roadmap.

We built user stories and a story map for each persona, then created interactive wireframes in Figma and FigJam for onboarding, statistics browsing, the Match Center, and community interactions, keeping the interface intuitive despite the heavy data load.

Our Solutions Architect designed a microservices architecture, with diagrams in Draw.io:

Core stack: Node.js (Nest/Express) and PostgreSQL.

High-load modules: Redis caching for the newsfeed and match calendar for instant load times.

Integrations: custom middleware (Python/Node.js) connecting to TicketBox and the UAF Shop.

Data and AI: event-driven architecture (Kafka) for behavioral data, with Python/FastAPI planned for a future AI chatbot.

Key features

Digital Fan Passport (UAF ID)

A single account that stores a fan's preferences, such as favorite clubs and regions, to personalize the content feed and to confirm identity for voting and surveys.

Match Center

Official news, schedules, and live text commentary in one place, so fans do not need to switch between several apps.

Tickets & Merchandise

Integrate ticket sales and the official UAF shop so fans can buy a ticket or merchandise without leaving the app.

Gamification & Voting

Daily football quizzes and interactive votes (such as "Lion of the Match") with prizes, keeping daily activity high even in the off-season.

Short video and stories

Reels and stories about teams and players, including archive moments like a famous player's first goal. Administrators publish content to keep it moderated.

Live Match Chat

Fans can talk to each other during matches and broadcasts, building a shared stadium feel.

Amateur & Academy Hub

Digital profiles, match protocols, and tournament tracking for youth, grassroots, and women's football, plus a map of pitches and clubs for those who want to play.

Transparency Hub & Fan Feedback

A verified module where fans can sign official petitions, send questions or complaints to UAF, and receive a response, fostering a healthy, moderated community.

Fantasy Football & Leaderboards

Regional amateur leaderboards and virtual leagues for deeper long-term engagement.

AI Football Assistant (post-MVP)

A smart chatbot for instant stats, ticket purchasing, and personalized content, so fans never need to leave the app to find an answer.

Results

Validated Audience Insights

Analytical reports with survey statistics and interview transcripts, proving real audience pain and demand.

Competitor Analysis

An overview of similar products and sources of inspiration.

Clear MVP Scope & Execution Roadmap

Complete MVP business logic, a partial post-MVP description, a prioritized feature list, and a 12-phase project plan with an estimated timeline.

User Personas, User Stories & Story Map

A detailed picture of how each user type interacts with the product.

Interactive Prototypes

Clickable UX/UI wireframes for all core user journeys, ready for stakeholder approval.

High-Level Technical Architecture

A microservices blueprint (Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka) designed for high loads and third-party integrations.

Technologies and tools

Figma
FigJam
Miro
Draw.io
Google Forms & Sheets
Notion
Jira
Confluence
Zoom
Google Meet

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Team

Business Analyst

Project Manager

Solution Architect

UI Designer / UX Designer

Value delivered by SoloWay

01 06

Budget Protection & Risk Mitigation

By validating the concept with 500+ fans and identifying risks upfront, we helped the client avoid over-engineering and heavy investment in unproven features.

02 06

Architected for Scale

We delivered a microservices architecture plan built to survive national match-day traffic spikes, not just screen designs.

03 06

Data-Driven Confidence

We replaced assumptions with hard data. Knowing why fans uninstall apps or refuse to buy tickets helped us design a product that solves real problems.

04 06

Built for Monetization

Ticketing, e-commerce, and loyalty integrations were part of the architecture from day one, supporting strong ROI.

05 06

Speed to Development

Ready architecture, interactive prototypes, and a 12-phase plan give developers an unambiguous blueprint to start coding immediately.

06 06

A Team That Dives Into Your Business

We study the client’s domain in depth and solve the underlying business problem, not just the stated tasks. This is why UAF valued our team’s involvement and the insights we brought.

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    Meet our client partner team
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    Olena Salii

    Business Development Manager, Outsource, Ukraine, 12 years of experience

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    Jana Lukan

    Client Partner, Outsource, Ukraine, 8 years of experience

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    Luba Khomyn

    Chief Communications Officer, Outsource, Ukraine, 13 years of experience

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    Ivan Prokipchuk

    Chief Business Development Officer, Outsource, Ukraine, 7 years of experience

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