VAR platform
VAR approval platformfor football
The project originated with The IFAB - The International Football Association Board - to be next passed on to the largest football federation in the world, whose mission is to make football truly global. VAR approval is a complex, global, multi-stage process specific to sports organisations that are in charge of it. That is why it is best managed with a dedicated solution.
platform
web
contribution
research – including process mapping, UX, UI, web design, web development
Problem
How to make sports project management
approval easy and fun
VAR stands for Video Asisstant Referee.
Before the VARs and VAR teams can start their work on the pitch they need to be certified and qualified by the international football governing bodies. Competitions, individual games, replay operators, among others, must undergo the same procedure so that VAR can be put into use.
The approval process requires many people to control the certification progress of individuals, venues, competitions, and to process large amounts of data. Running such a process manually, without a central database and by many people, across many locations, using e-mails, spreadsheets, pdf files, telephones and other forms of communication created significant risks.
Solution
research, process mapping, design,development, launch maintenance
After analysing and understanding the biggest problems of running VAR approval in spreadsheets and e-mails, together with the IFAB we mapped out the global process that would then be carried out on a dedicated management and approval platform.
Our task was to design, develop and launch a digital platform to manage the every aspect of the process from one place, and implement an approval system automating the entire process. The all-in-one system limits manual actions to the minimum – including the resources needed, additional files and spreadsheets. It aligns communications and cuts the number of human mistakes almost to zero, as a new stage in the process cannot be started if the previous one is incomplete.
Outcome
global process of certificationmade easy and transparent
Both horizontal and vertical task management, along with the entire communications for VAR approval are handled using the platform, and can be managed by one person or a small team.
By automating the process we made its management easy, and the process itself transparent. By design, it became almost error-free as a stage in the process has to be marked as complete for the next one to begin.
Depending on the permissions, the entire process or separate stages can be controlled and reviewed globally by a small team in an easy way, from one place.
our contribution
what we have donefor this project
understanding and project mapping
Before we could design the UX we first had to understand the complexity of the VAR approval process. We had to map out the global process with all the stakeholders, levels and stages that would make up the framework and make it adaptable and transparent at the same time.
user experience in hand with design
The UX had to be friendly for users of different technological competence. Our primary task was to make the digital platform easy to use and manage, while providing the process overview and control at both the global, stage and task-level. The users had to be able to use the platform for almost all of their communications on the subject of VAR approval.
web, backend development
We developed mechanisms for project management, approval and certification that make the collaboration easy, task- and stage-management simple, and globa overview possible thanks to using a single dedicated web platform.
support, maintenance and enhancement
We supported the global launch of the platform and watched with increasing satisfaction VAR being implemented for all major competitions and games of football worldwide. We also enhanced the platform to meet the amendments made to the Laws of the Game and make the game truly global.