Sky Sports Fan Connect: Boosting User Engagement & Retention Through Fan Communities
Sky Sports - 2024
# UI Design
# UX Design
# UX Research
# Usability
# Web
# App
My Role
Lead UI Designer of a team of 6 designers
Deliverables
User Research, Ideation, UI Design, Prototyping, User Testing, Stakeholder Management
Duration
Mar 2024 - May 2024
Background
Our project aimed to strengthen the Gen Z football fan community by improving user engagement and retention. The goal was to attract new users, retain existing ones, and stay competitive in the subscription-based sports industry. We focused on enhancing fan experiences that better match the social, interactive nature of younger audiences.
The Brief: Building Community
Lean UX Design Process
“Build, Measure, Learn”
research Objectives
SECONDARY RESEARCH
Trends & Gaps
PRIMARY RESEARCH
brief development: Persona
■
New Insights
■
Insights from the brief
User Needs
Design Principles & Success Metrics
Belonging & Connected
Provide fans with ways to connect and form friendships with each other so that they may identify as members of the group and feel their contribution is valued for their participation in the fandom.
Number of watch parties created during the match
Number of non-Sky users joining invite links to participate in live chats or watch parties
Growth rate of user signups and registrations
Empowerment
Allow fans to experience custom content, making them feel they have got close to the game by highlighting their involvement and recognising contributions to reinforce their support to their team.
Number of users who engage with features that allow them to share their thoughts and opinions (e.g. live chats)
Number of purchases made by users from the item shop
Engagement
Provide accessible and flexible means for fans to experience the game and showcase the importance of their support, ensuring a personalised experience to best match their goal in supporting their favourite team.
Returning users creating watch parties
Number of users who participate in polls, predictions and, games during live games
Results from surveys measuring user satisfaction
Ideation
Prioritisation
👑 Must Provide
Watch Party
Gamification
Fans Community
Live chats & reactions
Recognising the fans
Reward/Recognition System
Should Provide
Customising viewing experience of game
Customising audio experience of games
Sharing
Customisation and differentiation from different uses
Could Provide
Student Discount
Task Milestones
Won’t Provide
In-person experience
Assumptions & Questions
mid-fi Prototype Testing
🎯 The Objective
Validate assumptions
Test the usability of the mid-fi prototype
Gather insight/inspiration for the user story
🗒 Task
Task 1: Usability of Watch Party function
Task 2: Visibility of the Profile Page
Task 3: Impact of Community Pages*
Methods
We tested 4 participants using different evaluation methods to validate our assumptions.
The Results
Completion Rates
Task 1: 97.5%
Task 2: 58.3%
💬 Constructive Feedback
Points/Items Shop Confusion
“usually items would be in its own shop page or like items page”
Originality in Gamification
“At the moment there is not a lot here that you can't get elsewhere - the games are new”
👍 Positive Feedback
Originality in Gamification
“At the moment there is not a lot here that you can't get elsewhere - the games are new”
Chat with old friends
“I think this is more I think once you once I leave uni. Then that would be more interesting potential.”
Stakeholders' Feedback
We had weekly meetings with the Sky Sports UX team to present and discuss our process and design. The communication was effective, and we received inspirational questions and insightful feedback that helped us pivot our design.
ETHNOGRAPHY STUDY
🎯 The Objective
Test the effectiveness of adding gamification to watch party - BINGOAL!
USER STORY
Refined Information Architecture
Hi-fi Prototype Testing
🎯 The Objective
Validate Assumptions
Validate iterations from mid-fi testing
Test out our high-fi prototype
🗒 Task
Task 1: Visibility of Profile page
Task 2: Usability of Watch Party
Task 3: Usability of Phone pairing
Task 4: Live chat functionality
Methods
It includes qualitative and quantitative methods (same as the 1st round) with 6 participants.
The Results
Completion Rates
💬 Constructive Feedback
Seeing friends' statuses
“Would I be able to see if my friends are online watching a game? and can I join them?”
👍 Positive Feedback
All in one solution
“Everything that I want to do is all in one place and in one app. It’s cool that I can use my phone as well”
Love for the freedom of customisation
“I like that I can customise the widgets on the side panel so that I can just have what I want to see”
Key Features
➊
Laptop Side Panel
We provide customisable widgets such as live chat, match stats, league table, recap, and mini-games to cater users’ needs. These can also be integrated with existing 'Red Button' functionalities.
Other features include audio and camera settings, and users can connect with friends through live chat or enable Watch Party Mode.
➋
Mini-games + Point System
BINGOAL & Cheering Competition
Our goal is to design simple games that keep users engaged without distracting them from the match.
In the bingo game, users make predictions to compete with friends and earn points for the item shop.
For the cheering game, users receive push notifications to join the game when a match gets less intense.
➌
Invite & Connect with Friends
If Sara receives an invite to watch a game with friends, she will get a notification and can join on any device she's logged into. She can use multiple screens simultaneously.
To invite more friends, she can click "invite" and check their availability. Even if a friend is already in another watch party, she can still send them a message to join her.
❹
Mobile App
Based on user test feedback, we aligned the design with the large-screen version to ensure a consistent experience across platforms.
Sara can access the profile page from the app, which allow them to check the points and all the badges they’ve earned by engaging with the features. She can also shop for stickers or theme colours for the live chat in item shop.
📲
From Laptop to Mobile
If the users are already logged into all their devices, they can easily join the watch party from their phone by opening the Sky Sports app and clicking on the in-app notification.
This will then prompt the user to add the phone as a secondary device to be used just for the side panel features, including the ongoing watch party, or to transfer the game and watch party to their phone. (The design is inspired by MS Teams)
💻
From Mobile to Laptop
When a user wants to switch from watching a game on their phone to a larger screen, they can login to the Sky Sports website and receive an in-app notification to access the game with one click.
Alternatively, they can use the 'Watch' tab on the website. Once they join the match on their laptop, the phone pairs and the game collapses on the phone, making the laptop the primary device.
👥
CUSTOMER
SKY SPORTS
number of users