Building HockeyUmpire
I built this app as a hockey umpire, not as a developer. After years on the pitch I had had enough of tools that let me down at the exact moment it mattered.
Building HockeyUmpireI built this app as a hockey umpire, not as a developer. After years on the pitch I had had enough of tools that let me down at the exact moment it mattered.
For years I stood on the pitch, managing matches under pressure: time, decisions, cards and momentum, all within fractions of a second. Like most umpires, I tried different apps. Some were too complex, others too limited. Almost all of them demanded attention at precisely the moment I could not afford to give it.
During a match there is no room for friction. No time to navigate menus, no patience for unclear interfaces. What an umpire needs is clarity, structure and control — without having to think about the tool itself. That gap kept getting clearer. Not in theory, but in practice. Every single weekend.
Rather than adapt to flawed tools, I built one myself.
I understand the reality of the game, and that became the starting point. Using AI tools like ChatGPT and Codex, I designed and developed HockeyUmpire step by step — always from a single question: what does an umpire actually need in this moment? The result is a focused system built around real match situations, without the pile of features that get in the way of most apps.
HockeyUmpire is designed to reduce cognitive load, not add to it. It is watch-first during the match, where speed and simplicity matter most, while the iPhone provides structure, setup and post-match insight. Every element supports the flow of the game instead of interrupting it.
It is built on a clear philosophy: everything you need, nothing you don't. The app works for youth and club umpires who want simplicity and reliability, but it also offers depth for experienced officials who want to capture and analyse their matches in detail. The Pro features are not an upsell during the match, but an extension afterwards: they turn a match you've played into insight you can use.
What sets HockeyUmpire apart is not only how it works, but where it comes from. I use the app myself, every weekend. And after almost every match, something small changes: a detail in the interface, a flow that can be improved, a decision that can be supported better next time. It is not built once and released — it is continuously refined, in exactly the environment it was designed for.
That is why I don't position HockeyUmpire as just another tool. It is built to become the standard match app for hockey umpires. Not because it claims to be the best, but because it is designed around the reality of the people who use it.