Fairway | golf improvement platform
Helping golfers understand, practice, and improve their game.
Project Type: UX/UI Platform, AI, Personal Project
Role: UX/UI Designer
Industry: Sports, AI, Self-Improvement
Tools: Figma
Methods: Informal interviews, Competitive analysis, Usability testing
Overview
Fairway is a golf performance system designed to solve a simple problem: golfers are surrounded by data but lack actionable instruction. Modern launch monitors give you "shot data like launch angles and spin rates, but for the average player, these numbers are meaningless without a coach to translate them.
The Insight: The Interpretation Gap
The research identified the primary pain point: golfers record data but lack the experience to translate those numbers into a plan. This leads to practice without a purpose.
There is a massive disconnect between the round and the range because tracking tools don't communicate with training routines.
Golf is an incredibly difficult sport to master, especially when players don't know how to actionably improve their game with a purpose. Fairway is designed to address those pain points while making sure golfers of all level feel welcome.
The Pivot: From Dashboard to Co-Pilot
Initially, I explored a dashboard model that mimicked professional equipment such as a trackman simulator. Testing showed that amateurs felt more confused. I made a critical pivot from an industry standard model to a collaborative partner model. I utilized Claude to build a high fidelity prototype to quickly make my system come to life. This pivot created a design that was more than a statistical design. It became a system for all golfers to utilize the statistics rather than just looking at a screen of numbers.
I designed an AI caddie to act as a companion for the players. At any time, the user can access the AI caddie for assistance from basic suggestions all the way to a specialized coaching plan. This ensures that every golfer has a unique experience in their growth. For example, if a user hits three consecutive poor shots, the system automatically triggers a reset drill to keep the user in a positive learning flow. This shift from automation to user agency ensured the player remained in control while receiving expert guidance.
Automation vs Understanding
Early in the conceptual phase, I explored a smart round mode where the system would automate the majority of the user's decisions. While this was an interesting technical exercise, it felt disempowering during the design process. I realized that if a user doesn't understand why a suggestion is being made, trust in the system disappears.
I decided to pivot the design logic. I moved toward a model that explains its reasoning and invites the user into the decision making process. I intentionally traded seamless automation for user agency. By designing a system that shows the why behind a recommendation, the concept shifted from being an intrusive coach to a collaborative partner prioritizing trust.
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Outcome
The final concept demonstrates how a complex system can feel approachable when it is organized around user understanding rather than feature accumulation. Fairway avoids fragmenting into separate, disconnected tools and instead integrates the entire experience into a single, adaptive system.
Higher Drill Completion: Qualitative testing showed users were significantly more likely to finish a practice session when the data was framed as a directed drill rather than a stat sheet.
Reduced Cognitive Load: Subjective testing showed a marked decrease in information overwhelm, allowing users to focus on physical execution.
Reflection & Next Steps
This project was a deep dive into the theory of structured complexity. It challenged me to move beyond the idea that UX is just about making things simple and instead focus on making things complex and easy at the same time.
With high fidelity prototypes now in place, the next phase of this concept is about rigorous validation and refining the underlying system logic.
Technical Pathing: Mapping out the requirements needed to translate this conceptual UX into a real world build.
Inclusive Coaching: Exploring how the system could adapt to different physical limitations, making the personalised coaching even more inclusive and accessible.