Why Judges Hate Your Tablets (And What They're Not Telling You)

Your judges will never directly say 'this tablet is terrible.' What they will do is score slower, skip your next event, or quietly ask whether they can use paper instead. The tablet is not the problem. The interface you put in front of them — and the way you rolled it out — is.

The buttons are too small

Judges wear rings, have broad fingertips and are operating under pressure. If your point and gamjeom buttons are smaller than 60px square, you will get mis-taps. Mis-taps erode trust in the whole system within two matches.

There is no undo

A judge accidentally taps +1 for Red instead of Blue. If the only way to fix it is to call the centre ref, stop the clock, and restart the match, they will never admit the mistake. They will score it wrong and hope nobody notices. Always have a visible "undo last point" button with a 3-second window.

The screen sleeps between matches

Tablet goes to sleep. Next match starts. Judge has to unlock it. Two matches later, judge is scoring half a second late because they are still unlocking the tablet. Always force the tablet into kiosk mode with sleep disabled — read our tablet setup guide.

No training, no confidence

A judge walks in at 8am and sees the tablet for the first time. They have five minutes to learn it. They will not say 'I don't know how to use this' — they will pretend they do. You will get bad scoring and a quiet bad review.

Fix: 15-minute training video emailed the week before. One-page printed cheat sheet on the ring. A senior ref available for the first match on each ring.

The backup is not discussed

What does the judge do if the tablet freezes mid-match? If they don't know, they panic. If they have been told "tap the red circle twice, then call me over," they don't. Your on-ring support is a brief conversation, not a manual.

The real fix

Walk up to a judge after every event and ask them one question: "What's the one thing that slowed you down today?" Write it down. Fix one thing per event. You will have a world-class judge experience in five events.