Fusion: Recreation Management Software
Colleges and universities across the globe use recreation management software to manage recreational facilities, programs, and operations on campus. During my tenure at Texas A&M Rec Sports, I was tasked to configure and manage 100+ programs (products) each semester on behalf of the department. These programs were to be sold through Rec Sports' e-commerce platforms—Rec Connect, the web platform, and the Rec Sports app, the mobile platform.
Method
After sufficient time working within Fusion, I identified efficiency and growth opportunities that could be implemented in our Fusion instance to mitigate back-end practitioner frustrations and promote end user experience. Opportunities for improvement were as follows:
Information Architecture
- Glut of expired products still public
- Existing product classifications were bloated, unequitable, and confusing
- Some products had similar names
- App registration processes not uniform
- Glut of expired products still public
- Existing product classifications were bloated, unequitable, and confusing
- Some products had similar names
- App registration processes not uniform
Product Descriptions
- Descriptions were not universal
- Icons/Product images were not universal
- Descriptions that were present were bland, not inspiring conversions
- Descriptions were not universal
- Icons/Product images were not universal
- Descriptions that were present were bland, not inspiring conversions
I then conducted a competitive analysis of over three dozen colleges and universities throughout the country to assess other opportunities for improvement within the Texas A&M University Fusion instance. Most notably, I looked at how other American universities applied their product descriptions, if at all. I ultimately concluded that most of Texas A&M University's competitors were not utilizing product descriptions on their web or mobile platforms, either.
So my work began.
I drafted and/or revised a corpus of product descriptions present on Rec Connect, overall encompassing 100+ product descriptions across the four Rec Sports sub-teams utilizing Fusion. After new descriptions were made, I created a design template via HTML by which these product descriptions can be displayed.
before
after
After a progress report with upper management and a successful pitch of Phase II, I was greenlit to archive outdated programs from the back-end of Fusion and implement program registration changes to our Rec Sports app, the mobile counterpart of Rec Connect. Moreover, Phase II included the restructuring of programs in Fusion, thereby implementing a new information architecture in Fusion. Where previous architecture was unnecessarily convoluted, leading to increased user frustration and turnover, the new architecture would consolidate product classifications to attribute one classification for each Texas A&M Rec Sports sub-team that was utilizing Fusion for its online sales.
Phase II pitch
Slide Deck
Slide Deck
Fusion, the host company, launched Fusion 3.9 in the fall of 2023. In this new version came a renovation to the web portal and the inclusion of tags, an additional stratum by which users can search for their favorite products. With this update, therefore, came an additional need to establish program architecture and update each of the 100+ products under the Department of Recreational Sports.
Achieved results
- design template to unify rec sports' web and mobile sales platforms
- cleaner, more efficient back-end infrastructure for administrators
- more efficient, and descriptive architecture for end users
- Additional product search strata with tags
From the 2022-2023 Academic year to the 2023-2024 academic year...
- program registrations for Aquatics increased 28.45%
- Program Registrations for Fitness & Wellness increased 73.8% (Simultaneous with price adjustments)
- Spring 2024 Fitness & Wellness programs saw more registrations than in the entire 2022-2023 academic year
- Program Registrations for Small Group Training increased 262%