Sean Caudill

Sean Caudill

Product Strategy & Design Lead

Sean Caudill

Sean Caudill

Product Strategy & Design Lead

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Rafter Sports

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Rafter Sports · Mobile app

Bringing sports fans together through content, competition, and community.

Rafter Sports set out to connect sports fans through short-form video, live sports, and competition. I led design for its peer-to-peer mobile app, working with the founding team and engineering as the experience progressed from early planning into a working product.

Role

Product Design Lead

Team

Founders

Product & Engineering
Brand & Marketing

Scope

Product strategy

UX/UI design

Prototyping
Design systems

Industry

Sports & entertainment

Rafter Sports · Mobile app

Bringing sports fans together through content, competition, and community.

At Rafter Sports, I led design for a peer-to-peer social sports app built around short-form video, live sports, and competition between fans. I worked with the founding team and engineering as the experience progressed from early planning into a working mobile app.

Role

Product Design Lead

Team

Founders

Product & Engineering
Brand & Marketing

Scope

Product strategy

UX/UI design

Prototyping
Design systems

Industry

Sports & entertainment

Rafter Sports Mobile App

Context

·

Planning

·

Content to competition

·

Beyond the bet

·

Design system

·

Outcomes

Rafter Sports Mobile App

Context

·

Planning

·

Content to competition

·

Beyond the bet

·

Design system

·

Outcomes

01 /

Context

A social feed built for competition.

Rafter was built on a simple idea: following sports should lead naturally to taking part. A social feed provided the starting point, with bets between friends and fan conversations tied to the same events.

A social feed built for competition.

Rafter was built on a simple idea: following sports should lead naturally to taking part. A social feed provided the starting point, with bets between friends and fan conversations tied to the same events.

Discover and share sports content through a familiar video-led feed.

01 /

Content

Create head-to-head bets around sporting events.

02 /

Competition

Connect with other fans through conversations and shared experiences.

03 /

Community

Discover and share sports content through a familiar video-led feed.

01 /

Content

Create head-to-head bets around sporting events.

02 /

Competition

Connect with other fans through conversations and shared experiences.

03 /

Community

02 /

Planning the experience

Connecting the different parts of the experience.

Rafter needed to support different paths through match selection, betting, content creation, and sharing. Mapping user flows helped define the interactions and decision points, while feature planning kept design and development work organized.

Connecting the different parts of the experience.

Rafter needed to support different paths through match selection, betting, content creation, and sharing. Mapping user flows helped define the interactions and decision points, while feature planning kept design and development work organized.

Mapping different paths through match selection, video creation, and sharing to support how fans move through the app.

User flows

Tracking requirements, design tasks, and development progress in Jira.

Feature planning

Mapping key interactions and decision points across match selection, video creation, and sharing.

User flows

Tracking requirements, design tasks, and development progress in Jira.

Feature planning

03 /

From content to competition

A feed designed for more than scrolling.

Fans could move from watching a video into a related match or bet, then share their own content. The goal was to support different levels of participation without interrupting the browsing experience.

A feed designed for more than scrolling.

Fans could move from watching a video into a related match or bet, then share their own content. The goal was to support different levels of participation without interrupting the browsing experience.

A video-first feed brought sports content and social interactions together, with match information and betting options accessible directly from posts.

Home feed

Using established video-feed conventions reduced the amount of new navigation fans had to learn before exploring Rafter's sports-specific features.

Familiar interaction patterns

Fans could record videos, add match information, and publish posts connected to their bets.

Create and share

Match and bet details remained visible during publishing, allowing fans to review what they were sharing without returning to the original match.

Preserving context

A skippable walkthrough introduced the full journey from selecting a match to creating and sharing a post. Completing it awarded Rafter Points.

Guided onboarding

The introduction followed the actual sequence of actions instead of explaining features in isolation.

01 /

Learning by doing

Fans could bypass the walkthrough, return to it later, and use contextual guidance when encountering unfamiliar features.

02 /

Freedom to explore

04 /

Beyond the bet

Making every match a shared experience.

Match screens kept game information and bets together, while profiles and leaderboards gave fans a record of their activity beyond individual events.

Making every match a shared experience.

Match screens kept game information and bets together, while profiles and leaderboards gave fans a record of their activity beyond individual events.

The bet tray opens over the match screen, allowing fans to review their selection, adjust the wager, and continue without losing the surrounding match context.

Keeping the match in view

Making every match a shared experience.

The bet tray opens over the match screen, allowing fans to review their selection, adjust the wager, and continue without losing the surrounding match context.

Matches / discovery

Match details

Bet creation

Player profiles brought together activity, achievements, and personal statistics, while sport-specific leaderboards made progress and rankings easy to follow.

Rewards and rankings

Badges and personal milestones recognized continued participation, giving fans more to follow than the result of a single bet.

Beyond wins and losses

05 /

Design system

Bringing a bold brand into the interface.

Rafter's identity was deliberately loud, with vivid colors, high contrast, and expressive typography. The interface balanced that personality with a clear hierarchy for match information and everyday interactions.

Bringing a bold brand into the interface.

Rafter's identity was deliberately loud, with vivid colors, high contrast, and expressive typography. The interface balanced that personality with a clear hierarchy for match information and everyday interactions.

Reusable match cards and betting controls organized dense sports information. Temporary highlights communicated changes to odds, while shared tokens kept colors and interaction states consistent across the interface.

System approach

Built for a dynamic sports experience

Reusable match cards and betting controls organized dense sports information. Temporary highlights communicated changes to odds, while shared tokens kept colors and interaction states consistent across the interface.

System approach

Built for a dynamic sports experience

06 /

Outcomes

A complete mobile experience.

Rafter progressed from early concepts into a functional mobile app, developed in collaboration with engineering. Testing and feedback helped refine key interactions, including onboarding, betting, posting, and identity verification.

A complete mobile experience.

Rafter progressed from early concepts into a functional mobile app, developed in collaboration with engineering. Testing and feedback helped refine key interactions, including onboarding, betting, posting, and identity verification.

The result was a cohesive experience supported by detailed user flows, polished interfaces, and a reusable design system.

12

End-to-end user flows

200+

UI screens

50+

Design system assets

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