Head Count

Web App

Head Count turned the recurring problem of an antiquated meet registration process into a new revenue stream for the National Scholastic Athletics Foundation.

Product Strategy
User Experience
Interface Design
Credit Card Processing
Back-End Dev(PHP)
Front-End Dev(HTML/jQuery)

The Idea

The National Scholastic Athletics Foundation ran multiple national-level track meets a year, each of which meant dealing with thousands of mailed-in entries. That meant tons paperwork to process, weird handwriting to read, and too many chances for errors.

The NSAF knew we could simplify their meet registration process by going online. We started using quick online registration forms but I suggested we take it one step further: create a registration service they could sell to other meets.

Creating a New Product

The goal of Head Count was to help meet directors accept entries for their meets online with minimal headache. A large part of the challenge was the diversity of the technical knowledge in the user base. Managing the complexity of online registration would be key, and keeping the user experience of Head Count simple and clear was a goal that required constant focus.

Fortunately moving from paper to a web application gave us the opportunity to address many the complexities of traditional meet registration:

Enforcing performance requirements — **User-proof**
Helps coaches avoid common registration errors, saving meet directors headaches later.

Permissioning users to manage a meet — **Sharing the Workload**
Easily delegate work and allow others to help manage entries.

Performance validation and tracking was made easy — **Smarter Data Management**
Time-consuming tasks like performance tracking and verification were simplified.

Credit card processing built-in — **Credit Card Handling**
Head Count makes it easy for directors to offer credit cards as a payment option.

Support for exporting to additional programs — **Playing Well With Others**
All-digital meant the ability to integrate directly with other popular meet software.

Stellar Results

Head Count has grown every year since launch, servicing well over a hundred meets a season. The National Scholastic Athletics Foundation continues to invest in improving and growing Head Count based on its tremendous success.

“Head Count is geared specifically to track and field and cross-country entries and is extremely user-friendly. We highly recommend Curtis for any web site design or development.”
- Jim Spier, Executive Director, NSAF