YUWEI FU

fuboTV Streaming Platform

INDUSTRY: Entertainment
CLIENT: FuboTV
YEAR: 2017
ROLE: UX Design Lead

Challenges

fuboTV is an American over-the-top internet television service that focuses primarily on channels that distribute live sports, news, television series and movies.

The original user experience and visual design across the board were very basic and default looking. fuboTV needed a consistent framework and design language for all of fuboTV’s platforms.

As the UX Lead for the project, my responsibilities were

Created Project Proposal

Defined the project scope and prepared the project proposal including timeline, weekly tasks, and costs.

Led Research & UX Strategy

Led requirements gathering, stakeholder interviews, UX audit, competitor analysis, and user research to inform UX strategy as well as features and functionalities.

Led UX Design and Prototyping

Led the design team to create framework interaction, visual design system, content modules, and prototype animations.

Led Project Sprints & Future Phases

Communicated with clients on a daily basis and functioned as an auxiliary design team from the client’s internal design team.

The core design team includes 2 other UX designers, 2 visual designers, 1 motion designer, and 1 project manager.

Results

200% increase in viewership after fubo app redesign
$78M post-launch funding raised by fuboTV

Research & UX Strategy

UX Audit of existing platform

Overall UX issues across platforms

Inconsistencies across three platforms
Unfriendly browsing process
No universal search
Content isn’t customizable to the user
Look and feel is clunky and outdated

Competitive Analysis

Top findings from competitors

MLB iOS is highly customizable.
NBC Sports TV featured content is in a hierarchical grid.
ESPN TV content can be sorted by league.
RedBull TV can access daily schedule through one-click
UFC TV has the best visual using big thumbnails and fonts

User Interviews & Research

Product opportunities from the interviews

Display the included leagues/tournaments/teams per package in sign up and upgrade flow along with included channels/networks to avoid confusion and frustration about wrongly selected packages.
Allow to put account on hold, so users don’t cancel just for one game
Push Notifications to remind of games or upsell to higher package for top events.
DVR enhancements to watch while recording; allow for more slots, longer shelf life, follow your team (record whole season).
Better instructions (email & link) when sign up over Amazon & general onboarding flow.
When the game ends - keep them on site longer by continue watching other related sports events “I’d usually go straight to the game, but when the game ends, and I have nothing else to do, it’d be good to know what other stuff there is I can watch.”
People don’t have time to watch all that they wish. A quick way to catch up and watch highlight reels would be helpful.
Expose replay schedule and 360 sports content (sports shows & news) in addition to live events: fuboTV as one-stop shop for sports.

Key learnings

Sport TV: Gen X is Key, with the median viewer age being in the 40-50s range, it’s important to appeal to this audience.
DVR: Stream Instantly, as Netflix and other streaming platforms continue to gain popularity, younger audiences learn to expect having content of their choice ready on tap. When it comes to series and movies, nobody wants to wait.
Traditional TV : Keep it Flexible, as younger audiences rely more on mobile content, it’s increasingly essential to have content readily available on all devices, especially smart-phones.
Sports Watching Trends: Multiple Platforms, 81% of Millennials use their mobile device as part of a live sporting event experience, compared with a of adults 55+.

Online survey for Sports TV app

We did an online survey to understand TV viewers’ sports watching experience. The participants, who like to watch sports on TV are 80% age of 45 to 59.

46% of people watch sports less than 2 hours per week on TV, while about 31% of people watch 2 to 4 hours per week.(70% of people watch Football, 50% watch Baseball, 44% watch Baseball, 33% watch Soccer; 42% of people follow 1 to 3 teams 28% follow 4 to 6 teams, 28% don't follow any sports team, 2% of people follow 7 to 9 teams)
DVR usages: 41% of the participants don’t record content. 39% record TV shows. 56% of the participants don’t record live content to their DVR. 15% record live content once per month.

Link: Sports TV App Survey

UX Design, Visual & Prototyping

UX Framework & Interaction

Explored multiple frameworks and applied to TV, Web, and Mobile app. Built prototypes simulating the experience.