Aggregated Sports Experience
Aggregated Sports Experience
Carley Brissette & Anoushka Lad
UX Research
Project Overview
Background & Application
With the ideation of the aggregated sports experience, this project sought to develop research tools for our internal stakeholders to support this new venture.
Objective
Develop user personas for each of our sports brands (TSN and RDS) to better understand habitual viewing habits of our users.
Outcome
User Personas: A representation of our users based on research highlighting their habitual viewing habits.
User Journeys: An analysis of the steps our users take in experiencing and navigating our platforms
Process
- Research Plan: Created a brand-tailored qualitative research plan centred on:
- Gaining insights into user demographics and user streaming habits;
- Identifying strategies for finding and discovering content;
- Investigating the user experience with competitors in the AWE space to leverage identified values and visual language.
- Method: Conducted 8 English-language and bilingual moderated interviews and 3 French-language unmoderated interviews to collect user feedback about the Bell Media Sports products, focused on habitual viewing habits and identifying opportunities for an aggregated sports experience.
- Qualitative Analysis: Utilized thematic analysis to curate four user personas and user journeys.
Personas Summary
The Super Fan
Values a tailored experience, closely following their chosen sport or team, selectively subscribing for comprehensive coverage, actively partaking in betting/fantasy leagues, using social media for updates, and seeking personalised content and services.
The Sports Enthusiast
Prioritises flexibility and convenience, using multiple devices for watching games, relying on mobile apps for updates, preferring free or ad-supported content, seeking condensed game formats, and prioritizing affordability and customization in streaming services.
The Hometown Supporter
Deeply connected to local sports, especially Canadian teams and seeking authentic commentary, they desire more original French-language content, personalized streaming experiences, and customizable alerts.
The Social Spectator
Enjoys sports for social reasons, often watching games with friends, participating in casual betting or fantasy leagues, and seeking beginner-friendly platforms with enhanced social integrations and interactive elements.
User Persona - The Super Fan
Persona Analysis
The Super Fan
This dedicated fan religiously engages with a specific sport or team, sometimes playing that sport recreationally. They follow their preferred sport or team closely, watching every live game and staying updated with highlights and analysis. They may follow multiple different sports based on seasonality, but are committed to a 1-2 sports at a given time. This viewer is selective, subscribing to platforms that offer comprehensive coverage for their chosen sport or team and occasionally to official sports websites for exclusive content. They are active in sports betting and fantasy leagues, relying on thorough analysis for success. They may use social media to keep up with team news. They seek personalized content specific to their chosen sport or team, diverse perspectives, and easy access to their interests. They are willing to invest in a service that provides a tailored experience, with features like live updates and customizable alerts that enhance their viewing experience.
Persona Breakdown
Challenges & Pain Points
- Unfocused Content: Seeks a specific experience that is often hindered by the promotion of unrelated content.
- Viewing Management: Wants to ensure that live games are properly accounted for and engaged with, often struggling to keep track of dates and times.
Goals for ASE
- Personalisation: Clear, upfront options to create a focused experience that prioritizes and promotes content related to a specific sport and team, as well as promotion of content related to their live games.
- Live Updates: Opt-in feature that allows live updates to be delivered for games that users are unable to attend.
- Alerts/Reminders: Customisable alerts (i.e., how much time before a live game, what sports, what teams) to remind users about upcoming live games.
Dedicated follower of a sport/team, religiously following all related content.
User Journey
User Persona - The Sports Enthusiast
Persona Analysis
The Sports Enthusiast
This generalist enjoys all sports, valuing flexibility and convenience. They use a tablets, laptops, and TVs for mobility and background watching, especially for critical games, while relying on mobile apps for live updates. They track stats and standings and appreciate commentary for a quick understanding. They often have a cable subscription for easy access to live games and may use an aggregated platform for tracking multiple sports. Their engagement varies due to personal commitments, and they often multitask while watching games. They seek condensed game formats, live updates, and a high level of customization in streaming apps. They are somewhat cost-conscious, preferring not to pay high prices for many subscriptions and opting for one or two affordable services. They enjoy exploring sports content and appreciate features like customizable notifications, enhanced discoverability, and catch-up content to stay informed and engaged.
Persona Breakdown
Challenges & Pain Points
- Subscription Costs: Wary of subscription costs as they engagedly follow multiple different sports.
- Viewing Management: Struggle to keep track of multiple different sports and their consequent content, therefore seek features that support content management and reminders.
- Time Constraints: Values brief content that helps summarise live games.
Goals for ASE
- Customisable Notifications: Opt-in live updates, and alerts for critical games and content releases.
- Enhanced Discoverability: Multiple pathways for users to discover content they may be interested in including dynamic, general categories (e.g. Top Goals) and robust search experiences.
- Catch-Up Content: Promotion of content that helps recap the previous day’s games, as well as “Look Backs” that summarize the last 1, 3, 5, 7 days in sports (similar to weather forecasts).
User Journey
User Persona - The Hometown Supporter
Persona Analysis
The Hometown Supporter
This loyalist has a deep-rooted connection to their local sports teams, often influenced by childhood experiences or family traditions. They prioritize watching live games, especially Canadian sports or teams, and appreciate local commentators for their authentic and culturally-engaged insight. Loyal to platforms like RDS/TSN for their comprehensive coverage, they seek updates on local teams through highlights and analysis, watching live games dedicatedly where possible. They may participate in betting to show support for local teams, and possibly in fantasy leagues and social media interactions. Willing to pay for access to content, they desire streaming apps that offer easy access to local teams, personalized experiences, and customizable alerts to keep them connected to their beloved hometown sports.
Persona Breakdown
Challenges & Pain Points
- Local Content: Interested in access to more local content with tailored commentary
- Unfocused Content: Seeks a specific experience that is often hindered by the promotion of unrelated content.
- Viewing Management: Wants to ensure that live games are properly accounted for and engaged with, often struggling to keep track of dat/time.
Goals for ASE
- Language Differentiation: Clear distinction between English and French content.
- Clean Access to Teams: Seeks easy access to specific teams in a single click.
- Personalisation: Clear, upfront options to create a focused experience
Deeply connected to local, Canadian sports, seeking authentic, engaged and culturally-authentic content.
User Journey
User Persona - The Social Spectator
Persona Analysis
The Social Spectator
The Social Spectator represents both beginner sports viewers and casual fans who engage with sports primarily for social reasons. They watch key games with more enthusiastic friends or partners, with a basic understanding of the sport. Their interest is closely tied to their social network, rather than a specific team or sport. They often watch sports in social settings, such as bars, to enhance the experience. They may participate in fantasy leagues and betting pools within their social group, usually for small stakes. Challenges for this persona include a lack of beginner-friendly entry points on platforms designed for more knowledgeable fans. They are unlikely to purchase their own subscriptions and typically watch games with others who have subscriptions. Their needs include enhanced social integrations, support for casual betting and fantasy leagues, and interactive elements like quizzes and polls to engage with their networks
Persona Breakdown
Challenges & Pain Points
- Entry Points: Struggle to engage with platforms that are often created for knowledgeable users, thereby valuing features and content that create entry points for beginners.
- Social Connection: Seek social engagement and connection in every aspect of their sports experience, prioritizing features that support engagement with their social network.
Goals for ASE
- Enhancing Social Integrations: Integrate features that capitalise on the social aspects of sports, including watch parties, real time chatting, and ease of content sharing and engagement outside of the platform.
- Facilitating betting and fantasy leagues: Support creation of fantasy leagues and betting pools, as well as provide tools for tracking information needed to succeed.
Follows sports in a casual manner, prioritizing social engagement and connection with others.
User Journey
Summary
Comparative Analysis
Key Experiences: Habitual Sports Engagement
Key Experiences: Language
English-Dominant
English-Dominant Users do not seek experiences outside of English- language content, of which there is plenty.
- No unique, language-specific needs that are presently unmet.
- Clear language differentiation in aggregated experiences.
Bilingual
Bilingual Users are comfortable navigating, both, English and French experiences but appreciate knowing when related content is available in the other language.
- Clean redirects from English to French content, if available.
- Clear language differentiation in aggregated experiences.
French-Dominant
French-Dominant Users have a strong preference for French-language content, but recognise that most sports content is available in English.
- Promotion of original French-language, culturally- authentic content.
- Clean redirects from English to French content, if available.
- Clear language differentiation in aggregated experiences.
Key Priorities: Aggregated Watch Experience
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