Gridiron Meanderings

How appropriate that my new Fantasy Apps Review series kicks off on the day the new CBA is agreed upon. If all goes according to plan, free-agency goes into full swing tomorrow, just in time for August drafting season. Which, of course, means all of you technologically inclined fantasy owners need to start loading your iPhones up with new apps.

We begin the series with an app from an industry stalwart: RotoWire.

For background on this review series, make sure to reference this introductory article.

Update 8/3: Version 1.2 release features bug fixes and My Rankings feature. I Increased the Stability and Features scores by 0.25, but decreased the Navigation score by 0.5.

RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2011

Price: $4.99 (U.S.)
Developer: Roto Sports, Inc.
Version: 1.2
Type: Universal

Appearance (4.5/5.0)

The user is presented with a somewhat cluttered app icon on their home screen. It’s a scaled down snapshot of the app’s loading screen, which is a nice looking screen, but it just does not look very good as an icon. On the positive side of things, the icon is hi-res, so it looks sharp on a Retina Display.

On the whole, the entire app looks very nice, from the sharp load screen to the simple, clean user interface. In keeping with their web site’s design, the app uses a white background with black text throughout the app with blue accents. The menu bars are blue-grey color and in-keeping with standard iOS design. The bottom navigation bar is the standard black tab bar and uses iOS standard icons to good effect.

Navigation (4.0/5.0)

For the most part, the app is easy to navigate. As stated before, the navigation tabs at the bottom clearly indicate the purpose and function of each page (“Cheat Sheet”, “Depth Charts”, “My Team”, “Search”, “More”). All in all, the flow of the app was well done.

The app has limited itself by not being overly creative with the cheat sheet interface, relying heavily on buttons buried in the player profiles. Users have to go into each player profile to add players to various lists (drafted, watch list, etc.). Replacing this antiquated approach with swipes, tap-holds, or another common touch screen gesture would be a vastly simpler and quicker way for users to interact with the cheat sheet.

A secondary issue is with the settings flow. With the addition of the “My Rankings” feature in 1.2, RotoWire has lumped turning this feature on to override the default rankings in with the other league draft settings. This is not an intuitive place to put this setting. This should be a switch placed in the main settings window.

Features (4.0/5.0)

RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2011 is a draft cheat sheet app, plain and simple. It is meant to be a reference guide for drafting in the 2011 season (only). It provides the user with player rankings based on RotoWire expert opinion, which is adjusted based on the league draft settings you provide the app (accessed under the “More” tab). The player rankings are updated by downloading a new version of a database. The default timing is every 24 hours, but it can be increased to every 2 to 7 days or decreased to never in the settings. A nice feature for the data conscientious is that the app alerts the user when an update is needed based on the update frequency setting. The app then asks the user if they want to update. Thus, users can avoid updates when they are not on a wi-fi network.

As of the 1.2 update, there is a “My Rankings” option that allows users to drag and drop players in their preferred order. As stated in the navigation section, the option to turn this feature on to override the default rankings is buried. It would also be nice if a reset button were added to this feature to allow users to start afresh.

The “Cheat Sheet” tab is where the majority of the action happens. As the screenshot above shows, the user is provided with a familiar list-style format. The list can be sorted by player position using the properly labeled buttons; however, you can only sort by one position at a time. Admittedly, it would be nice to be able to sort by as many positions at one time (e.g., RB and WR) as desired by clicking the buttons on and off. Furthermore, if you are drafting for an IDP league, you cannot sort by defensive player position as they are all lumped under the DEF button.

Tapping on a player brings up a profile screen like the screenshot above. It displays the player’s 2010 stats, bye week, ADP, injury status, 2011 player rank, 2011 projected fantasy points, and 2011 projected stats. RotoWire also provides an expertly written 2011 Outlook to support their projections. Below the 2011 Outlook is a recent news article with analysis pertaining to the player from RotoWire.

Perhaps the only glaring item missing from the profiles is a full player schedule. While knowing the player’s bye week is important, many owners want to gauge the player’s strength of schedule, especially for their league’s playoffs. Otherwise, RotoWire provides the user with just about everything they might need to make a decision.

Another feature the user can access from the player profile screen is the add to “Watchlist” function. Users can add players they want to target to this list simply by pressing a button. That player will then get a large clipboard icon next to them on the main cheat sheet screen and all can be accessed via the Watchlist view button at the top of the screen. Unfortunately, you have to add players one at a time to the Watchlist, which can be a tedious process.

From the player profile screen is also where owners mark a player as drafted by your team or by an other team. That player will then get a green checkmark on the main cheat sheet screen if he’s on your team and a red “X” if he’s on an opposing team’s roster. All these marks would quickly clutter the screen, but thankfully RotoWire allows users to sort the cheat sheet by “Available”, “Drafted”, and “Watchlist” players.

While the cheat sheet system employed by RotoWire is a nice system, it does have some drawbacks. First, you cannot track other team’s rosters, which can be useful to determine what their roster needs are and who they might pick next. Second, you cannot track multiple drafts at once: it’s one draft at a time only.¹ Third, as with the Watchlist, you have to go into each individual player profile to mark them drafted.

The “Depth Charts” tab is pretty self-explanatory: it provides a nice, simple list of teams, under each is provided a depth chart for all offensive player positions. The only negative here is that IDP depth charts are not included.

The “My Team” tab is a simple list of your team’s players with projected stats, ADP, bye week, and RotoWire rank. You can email your roster from this screen using the iPhone’s Mail app. While players are grouped by position, some more visual cues as to the grouping (i.e., position headers similar to those used in the depth charts) would be a welcomed addition.

Stability (5.0/5.0)

As of the 1.2 release, this app is rock solid in terms of stability.

Price (3.0/5.0)

At $5 probably it is probably a little too pricey for what it offers compared to more advanced draft apps on the market. But in some ways that is comparing apples to oranges. I see this app appealing to fantasy owners who draft for a handful of leagues and not in need of a heavy duty drafting app. In that light, the RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit is a replacement for the fantasy football magazine you always used to buy; put in that context, it’s a more useful tool and a better bargain.

Conclusion

RotoWire Fantasy Football Draft Kit 2011 is a very nice draft cheat sheet app. It is generally easy to use and simple to navigate. It lacks in the more powerful features coming out in drafting apps, but is more than enough for the average drafter.

Pros:
- Clean interface
- Solid player information and stats
- Reputable player projections
- Offensive player depth charts
- Email your team’s roster
- Player Watchlist
- User can set their own player rankings
- Multiple cheat sheet views
- Database auto-updates
- Cheat sheet customizable to custom league settings
- Stable

Cons:
- No sorting by IDP positions
- No IDP depth charts
- Does not track other team’s rosters (only yours vs. others)
- No full player schedules (only bye weeks)
- So-so app icon
- Minor usability issues
- Does not take full advantage of touch interface
- Pricey compared to more advanced drafting apps
- Some Settings buried and hard to find

Upcoming Fixes to Cons:
- Cannot conduct multiple drafts at once

Final Grade: B (82%)