Sensai
A conversational coach designed to increase the career span of a tennis player
The Context
Professional tennis player’s ambitions are much bigger than winning a Wimbledon title. Tennis is a big part of their lives, but it is not everything. Our challenge was to look at beyond the court. With the increase of social media, pressure and stress also are at the peak. Mental health has long been considered taboo in sports. Only recently, players like Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams started to speak out about their struggles with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues causing a decline in performance, physical injuries, affecting their relationships, personal life,
and future prospects in the game. This often leads to players retiring early. Our question was How might we enable tennis players to have a longer career span?
We designed Sensai. A is a companion, coach and partner for people who play tennis. Whoever they are, wherever they go.
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Research, ideation, product design, data visualization, UI, branding and motion design
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6 weeks
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Collaborated with Sonali Mehta throughout the project. Mentored by Blake Hudedlson
Sensai changes the world of tennis. A reminder that our sporting heroes are just as human as you and I.
Conversations with Sensai are a reflection of human relationships, understanding intent and deciphering tone of voice.
Human first
It brings together two forces; the player and the coach. When both these forces intersect, they form one powerful being.
Player + Coach
Choose from a wide range of curated activities such as guided meditation, emotional analysis and real-time feedback.
Find an activity
Sensai supports players and allows them to visualize their journey, behavior and performance over time.
Tracking progress
THE RESEARCH
Learning about tennis & the player
Tennis requires physical and mental toughness, quick reflexes, agility, and endurance. Many people enjoy the challenge of mastering the skills required to play at a high level. But what separates the greats? During research, we aimed to answer “what do tennis players have to say about their life, aside from what they deliver on court?”.
A professional player’s tennis life
What does a pro tennis player’s tournament journey look like? What are the milestones and setbacks in in this journey? We mapped Roger Federer’s 2021 Wimbledon journey to analyze the actions and emotions leading up to this comeback.
Experience Map: Roger Federer’s 2021 Wimbledon Journey
Understanding needs & expectations of tennis players
We had the opportunity to talk to professional athletes, their coaches and physical trainers. We discussed the unspoken challenges of tennis and the core essence of what made the game so loved by humans.
Quotes from Interviews
Hierarchy of needs
Applying Maslow's hierarchy to tennis helps recognize tennis players’ basic physiological and safety needs, as well as their social and psychological needs, recognition, and personal growth. It explains the motivations and goals of tennis players at different levels.
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A professional player is placed the highest since one cannot reach this level without mental conditioning
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These players are stuck at this level and struggle to have all their needs met to reach the next level
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These players aim to learn the game of tennis. They are just trying to survive with their skills.
Insights and uncovering things left unsaid
The most recurring theme in the interviews was around the idea of being fit enough to play, especially for significant games. Although players and coaches did not explicitly mention mental fitness, they indirectly conveyed its significance through their language, indicating it as their unidentified, or rather unspeakable, fundamental need.
Work / Life Balance
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Mental Fitness
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Expectations
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Off – Court Training
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Work / Life Balance 🧠 Mental Fitness 🧠 Expectations 🧠 Off – Court Training 🧠
Underlying needs identified
The player and the team
A tennis entourage can have a significant impact on a player's life by helping them perform at their best, manage their career, maintain their mental health, and manage their personal life.
Who influences the tennis player’s life? Who does their team comprise of? How do each of their lives and goals compare to each other?
The Tennis Entourage
Player Scenario
Stories and the journey
Writing out scenarios, or job stories allowed us to map out our application’s flow driven by the triggers behind each action, the motivation and goal, and the user’s intended goal. These stories were framed like: When _____ , I want to _____ , so I can _____ .
When I download the app, I want the app to understand my painpoints, so that the app can personalise my experience with Sensai
When I take a session, I want a summary of my session highlights, so that I can keep a dairy of my sessions.
When I talk to Sensai, I want to visualize the conversation, so that I can stay focused and feel connected.
BRANDING
Taking tennis beyond the court
Our brand brings together two forces. One is the player, one is the coach.
When both these forces intersect, they form one powerful being.
Sensai is driven by a single, universal idea. Mental health is for everyone, everywhere. Fame, power, status and success will fail you if you don’t train your mental game.
This is expressed through our identity. A vibrant green – a symbol of both success and progress – replaces the red so beloved by sporting institutions. Sensai, is a play on Sensei, which means teacher in Japanese culture. Synonymous to mastery, patience and authority.
An unashamedly direct tone of voice attempts to break the stigma and be instantly understood by anyone, anywhere, in any language. It’s amplified by an attention-grabbing headline typeface, incorporating letterforms inspired by scripts from the game of tennis.
Fusing entities, colour, imagery and adding dimension through neumorphic elements makes the identity immediately recognisable and endlessly flexible. So they can work anywhere that Sensai does.
Fame, power, status & success will fail you.
Tone of voice
REFLECTIONS
Our initial direction got rejected 😅
We began our research direction by thinking about how we could extend a tennis player’s career. Initially, we anticipated our opportunity area to be in using emerging technologies to aid rehabilitation and predict injury through data tracking. However, when we spoke to our stakeholders, we realized that while they wish a player’s career span was longer, the underlying need to achieve this same goal was different. We thought the need was physical aid, but it was really mental help. And so, we pivoted!
Our initial direction