PickFind
Group Members
- Heymian Wong
- Nina Guo
- David Ku
- TA: Anh Nguyen
Problem Statement
Recreational basketball players face the challenge of finding pick-up games to participate in. Traditionally, pick-up games are casual gatherings of ball players that happen to be at the same court at the same time. One of the beautiful features of basketball is that a game can be organized quickly, with just a few materials and a collection of players with knowledge of the basic rules. However, games often fail to form when there are too few players or courts are unavailable. Additionally, players tend to prefer playing with others of similar skill and/or friends that they already know. A web interface that coordinates the search for pick-up games would improve the number of rewarding pick-up game matches between recreational basketball players.
Recreational players face numerous challenges that could be solved with an effective web interface to enhance their current process for finding rewarding pick-up games.
- Players aren't sure when court time will be readily available or when or players will be at the court.
- Organizers cannot quickly recruit available players to join their games. Currently, the organizer would need to call each player personally to find out if they would be willing to join a future game.
- The best games are played when there are sufficient players that all are of nearly equivalent skills levels.
- Uncertainty discourages players from coming to the court when they do not know whether a rewarding match can be found.