The IFAB
Laws of the Gamein your pocket
Since 1886, The IFAB - The International Football Association Board – has been the universal decision-making body governing the Laws of the Game of association football.
The organisation puts great emphasis on the accessibility of these Laws, their correct understanding and moreover their consistent application globally.
platform
web 
app
contribution
research, ux, ui, development, support, maintenance
Problem
how to deliver sameexperiences for all
The Laws of the Game are amended annually.
The IFAB wanted to devise a golden source available worldwide, bringing these Laws to where they’re most needed – on the field of play in the form of an app.
Up until this point, referees, other match officials and anyone interested, had had to rely on printed versions of the Laws they needed for clarification and so had to search for them online.
They could never be quite sure if the version they found was correct and most importantly up to date. The printouts could be unreliable, cumbersome, outdated in form for use and study, and not forgetting being eco-unfriendly.
Solution
design, development,launch maintenance
After analysing and understanding the hassle of using printouts on the field of play, together with The IFAB we planned the implementation of the first official Laws of the Game app.
Our task was to design, develop and launch digitalised Laws. It had to be always up-to-date, available to everyone using Android and iOS devices, and in a multi-language format. It was to give quick and easy access to the Laws, most importantly to the referees, both on- and offline. It had to present all the recent changes against the previous edition, and to make the amendments easy to follow, study and explain.
Outcome
printed Laws savedin one application
Since its launch in May 2019, the Laws of the Game app has been downloaded in over 190 countries in 6 continents. Reaching people in almost every corner of the world, the mobile app increases the level of knowledge about the Laws and creates a positive image of The IFAB within the football community.
Benefits? Correct decisions made by the referees, respected by coaches and players, and understood by fans and experts.
our contribution
what we have donefor this project
research and understanding
To design the UX we had first to understand the exact needs of both the Law-makers and the Law-users. Next came the understanding of the structure of the Laws of the Game. Here, usability was the key to transferring the structure of the legal code onto the application to make the app accessible and easy to use.
user experience in hand with design
At the beginning we designed a native app for both Android and iOS devices, and in four language versions to run simultaneously. We then came up with the form of an e-book reader equipped with a note-taking function, adding to favourites and a Q&A section.
mobile app, backend development
We developed a mechanism for comparing the amendments recently made to the Laws (against the previous year) along with their explanations. We coded the entire logic and flow into the form similar to an e-book reader.
support, maintenance and enhancement
We supported the app for over 600k users in over 190 countries worldwide. Taking the users' feedback, we enhanced it to the version 2.0. We implemented a new way to present the Laws and their amendments, gave the app a new design and additionally launched with new functionalities. They included new navigation, themes and changes to the font size.