PICK-UP BASKETBALL DESIGN RESEARCH PROJECT

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As part of a collaborative, human-centered design project, my team and I used anthropological methods, such as participant observation and semi-structured interviewing, to investigate the lives of those who play recreational pick-up basketball at our university's campus gym. Once we had played a few games, interviewed many players, and even read scholarly articles on the history of basketball and it's intersections with class, race, and gender, we analyzed our data uncovered four major themes: inclusion, precedence, game fluidity, and court etiquette. After narrowing our themes, we went back out on the court and asked players what they felt was a more pressing issue. Our ethnographic observations led us to notice that the court was largely controlled by a white, male demographic, and many other player demographics, such as women and international students, were underrepresented on the court. A group of women players I interviewed, for example, said that they had been kicked off of courts before, despite being mid-game, and oftentimes did not feel welcome to jump into a game.

In order to help alleviate this issue, our design team developed 'inclusion nights,' where specific courts would be dedicated to the underrepresented demographics, to give them a safe and welcoming space to play basketball. We developed a marketing system (see advertisements below), and proposed it to the director of the gym, who was interested in pursuing the idea in the future.