One month ago, the PGA TOUR launched a complete re-design of their iOS app, and defied the old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Instead, the TOUR took an app that was user-friendly and highly functional, and gave us a beautifully crafted, visually stunning, sleek and modern virtual magazine without losing functionality or features. Few re-designs garner this much positive praise so quickly after their release, but after 3 days, this one is worth the price of admission.
Upon opening the app, the user is greeted with a large image that takes up more than half the screen identifying the feature story of the moment. Just under that is a leaderboard scroll that is intuitive to use. The scroll features the first ten names on the leaderboard, then a button link to access the full leaderboard. What I love about this is that the moment I open the app I know the main story of the day & who is leading the golf tournament. Scroll past the ad to get to the latest news and notice that the leaderboard scroll is sticky to the the top of the screen.
Brilliant.
Open up one of those news stories and they are extremely clean and readable. Not too much time to load either.
Opening the feature story brings the user into "Story Mode" similar to the way that "Stories" are presented in Instagram. This is just an incredibly beautiful presentation of the news and because of the similarity to Instagram, the presentation feels natural and the navigation feels familiar.
Heading into the explore tab also gives the user access to latest news stories, the schedule, standings, player profiles, fantasy & betting, and (under the More tab) links to PGA TOUR training, and shopping options with the PGA TOUR Fan Shop and the PGA TOUR Superstore.
From the schedule tab, the user can jump into an event to get all sorts of great info including the dates and purse, the defending champion, and overview of the course, and info on how to watch coverage. There is also a tab for the field, that will populate once the field is set.
It's all very beautifully presented and well organized.
When in an event that is active - whether via the the leaderboard or the schedule - users have access to TourCast where they can see how a player or group plays a hole in near real-time.
At the time of this writing, the RSM Classic is the only full-field event that we've been able to see the app in action. We're now three weeks away from from the start of the Sentry Tournament of Champions and I'm interested to get an even more in-depth look at the app. I'll be sure to update with any additional thoughts after the first few weeks of the season.
For now it's "well done TOUR team." They've created a visually stunning, full-featured, storytelling vehicle. It's a great product and I look forward to using the new version of the app a lot in the coming year.