Gridiron Meanderings

This third installment of the Fantasy Apps Review covers the last of the three major drafting apps currently on the App Store. Unlike the previous two, this app is not offered by a fantasy football content producer but rather a developer whose sole focus is creating fantasy football apps for the iPhone. Bignoggins Productions literally just released this app on July 27, so read on for the very first look at this new entry in the drafting app market.

Update 8/12: Version 1.1 release adds ability to change draft position in mocks, ability to hide/show drafted players, added bye weeks, fixed Yahoo draft crash while chatting, fixed player stats bug, and fixed other bugs and stability issues. Increased Stability by 1.0, Features by 0.25, and decreased Navigation by 0.25.

Update 7/29: Correction on the player draft queue feature.

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

Fantasy Football Draft Monster ‘11

Price: $2.99 (U.S.)
Developer: Bignoggins Productions, LLC
Version: 1.1
Type: iPhone/iPad

Appearance (5.0/5.0)

This app was developed natively for the iPhone by a professional iPhone app developer, and it shows. This app is gorgeous! It has a very modern look and feel to it that is reminiscent of apps like Verbs and Tweetbot. The app is predominantly black, uses lighter grey for menus and text, and neon colors for timers and other assorted interface highlights.

But what makes this app special are the little details and flourishes. The app’s icon is as sharp as the high res monster claw it depicts, which is in keeping with the developer’s “Fantasy Monster” product theme. But what is really cool are the little interface goodies sprinkled throughout the app. The neon yellow draft timer color changes to orange-red when you have less than 10 seconds. The app uses sliding transition animations when a player profile is opened. The app even uses small iOS 5 like pop-up alerts to alert the user to individual draft picks made. I especially like the monster growl that emanates from Draft Monster when it’s your pick in the draft.

The app originally overdid it a bit with the sound effects, but the 1.1 update has cut back on the superfluous noise.

Navigation (4.25/5.0)

Draft Monster is mostly a breeze to navigate. The bottom navigation bar is clearly marked with corresponding icons that generally make sense but could be touched up.¹ Within each tab menu users should have no difficulty finding their way around, whether it be sorting lists by player position in the Pre/Post Draft Menu

There are only a few minor navigation issues that keep users from a perfect experience. First, when viewing player profiles, the app does not default back to primary stats screen when browsing. Second, the horizontal swipe gesture that allows users to scroll through player stats in a profile coincides with that to switch to other profile screens: it is very easy to end up doing the opposite of what you want. Third, when users are first logging into their ESPN and Yahoo accounts, they have to backtrack by logging out of the first account if they want to log into the other account.

Fourth, when it is time to enter the draft room, the user has to manually enter the draft. It would be nice if the app auto-logged the user in as it’s easy to look away and forget about doing that. Finally, there is some funkiness going on with ranking players by position: the results tend to be very unexpected if you attempt to rerank using any filter but the “all players” filter. This drag-and-drop system may need to be reconsidered or tweaked.

Features (4.25/5.0)

Draft Monster focuses almost exclusively on the live online drafting experience. Users not only can participate in their leagues’ drafts but also in mock drafts hosted on ESPN and Yahoo.² Having run through a few mocks, I can happily report that the drafting experience is smooth and well-executed. The workflow is simple: when it’s your turn to pick, you tap a button next to your chosen player. Taken players have the owner’s name in place of a draft button. You can also queue players ahead of your picks to make selecting a player a little easier. While not readily obvious, the timer has to run all the way down before the system picks based on your queue. The 1.1 release of the app adds a most-welcome feature: the ability to hide/show drafted players from the main drafting board.

Users can also live chat with draft participants in the league. It generally works well, and the app gives you IM-like alert sounds whenever someone posts a message. The feature works pretty well, but it could be improved in a number of ways. The conversation should auto scroll the chat log from the bottom to the top when a new message is received and when the keyboard is called up: right now users have to manually scroll the conversation up and the keyboard simply covers your most recent chats until a new message is sent while the keyboard is up. The chat screen also has a small bug. When in a chat and the user clicks another navigation tab while the keyboard is up, the keyboard hides but the user is not taken to the selected screen despite tab for said screen being highlighted. Users have to select the tab again to actually navigate to the new screen.

Another nice feature is access to the default ESPN and Yahoo player rankings, which owners can adjust by simple drag and drop sorting. The user can also sync rankings changes with ESPN and Yahoo to ensure they remain consistent and accessible from anywhere.³ For some reason though custom player rankings will not transfer to live mocks, leaving users with the site defaults. They appear to be limited to your league drafts.

While Draft Monster does a nice job on the mechanics of drafting, the app does so at the expense of content. While the app gives you access to basic player profiles, 2011 projections and outlook, health status, ADP, AAV, site player rank, bye weeks, and league percentage owned, it doesn’t give detailed schedules, projected fantasy points, or any in-depth draft guidance. I am happy to report that Version 1.1 fixed a major bug with the player stats and projected stats being misaligned, but sadly now the data is not well organized.⁴ It’s also great that bye weeks are now included, but it would also be nice if they were listed in the player list and not just inside the player profiles. It adds an unnecessary step to find that information during drafts.

Stability (4.5/5.0)

Draft Monster 1.1 has fixed numerous 1.0 bugs, and all tests indicate it is now very stable. There are still some bugs though.

There is a minor issue with the player profiles where if one is open when a pick is made, it shifts to an adjacent profile. The app also suffers from a common background bug in iPhone apps where sounds become muted if you close the app during a draft and reopen it from the background.

Price (4.0/5.0)

The price for this app is pretty middle of the road at $2.99. Generally, if you draft a lot on ESPN and/or Yahoo, this is a pretty decent bargain given the market. It would be a better bargain if it were included as part of the with Fantasy Football Monster ‘11 offered by Bignoggins Productions OR if it were not simply limited to the 2011 season.⁵ As it stands, it doesn’t quite offer as much in terms of features as its competition at this price-level, but it’s not unreasonable.

Conclusion

Draft Monster provides an enjoyable online drafting experience for ESPN and Yahoo league and mock drafts. The drawback is the app doesn’t provide much in the way of guidance: it assumes the user will do their homework ahead of time. If the developer continues to clean up the app and possibly add some other sites, this app will be an A.

Draft Monster is a slick app that makes it very easy to draft on-the-go and in style.

Pros:
- Gorgeous interface
- Attention to little interactive details
- ESPN/Yahoo! league drafting
- ESPN/Yahoo! live mock drafting
- Live chat
- User customizable player rankings for league drafts
- Player information, projections, and news

Cons:
- Minor navigation issues
- No offline mock drafting
- Only works with ESPN and Yahoo services
- No advanced draft advising features
- Player profile stats are totally unorganized
- Cannot create custom player rankings for mocks

Final Grade: B+ (89%)