Designing and developing a mobile app of any complexity requires a substantial commitment of time and resources. But sometimes people have a very strong feeling about a service they can provide to others that might make a real difference to those folks. That’s how the idea behind Tifo was born.
It started about three years ago. A few of us were regularly attending a Premier League team’s supporters club gatherings. During that time we learned that there didn’t appear to be a single application or mobile app that facilitated get-togethers like this, and an idea sparked into life. Some groups were using a mishmash of software and websites such as Microsoft Word and Excel, Google Docs and Sheets, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, SMS/text, and other options. But the main issue was consistently that no single option was available to do it all that was geared around sports gatherings such as the ones we experienced. Also, we learned that quite a few of the club’s members refused to use Facebook and any similar platforms because of privacy issues such as data collection and selling. We understood and agreed with their concerns.
I’ll interject that our backgrounds cover interface design, mobile app development, project management, and similar services. Also, we work together as partners in a tech company. So that should tell you that we started out with quite a lot of capabilities, but those are worthless without a good idea for a useful product and the drive to see it through to completion.
Now, back to Tifo. We brainstormed for months over what we could create. We had ideas that we discarded because they would take too long or wouldn’t solve a real-world problem or might not hold our attention long enough. We wanted to build something that we would want to use, not just provide to others. It was important to create some basic solutions such as game/event scheduling with pre-loaded seasons for a variety of sports and leagues, chat, member management, and media sharing. Other important features like offering a store to sell gear were in the works, but those would come later.
It took us over a year to complete the initial version of Tifo, and it will take more time to build out all of the crucial features that will make the app a critical part of sports supporters clubs’ management and enjoyment. All the while, we’ll be enhancing existing functionality and honing the new additions.
This is a pretty short explanation of how this came about. The reality is that thousands of hours have gone into planning and producing this app, and it’s our sincere hope that sports fans find it useful for their supporters clubs.
