The Reel — Jasmine Lockwood

SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT APP

The Reel is a mobile entertainment platform for sports fans to access premium daily highlights from their favorite sports. The app connects sports fans with the content they want when and where desired.

CLIENT

College Project Client

ROLE

Concept
UX/UI
Interaction Design
Branding

DURATION
3 Weeks, Fall 2016
2 Weeks, Winter 2018

Try Prototype

CONCEPT

Challenge

Sports fans and enthusiasts thrive on staying current and connected.

Technology keeps entertainment at our fingertips, yet no existing experience intelligently curates massive amounts of controllable content for users daily.

Solution

Create a mobile app that narrows in on user preferences to deliver rewarding content through a lightweight, immersive experience that users can easily manage as desired.

Users engage in a custom sporting experience. The app forms a social community of enthusiasts who each hold exclusive personal access to top highlights, scores, and updates based on what they follow, watch, and search for, including personal settings and preferences, and smart analytics.

PROTOTYPE

FINAL VISUAL DESIGNS

OBJECTIVES

Goals

Immerse
Base delivered content on preferences and smart suggestions and instantly connect users to latest premium highlights and reels

Capture
Create an engaging environment to follow, and experience exclusive non-stop videos, curate, react, comment, and share content

Entice
Craft sleek visual design of desireable interactions and features to attract, engage and increase retention

CORE PRODUCT FEATURES

Premier Features

• Concise and engaging follow onboarding
• Simple discovery and easy search
• Custom REEL feed & constant curated video
– 700-1,000+ new videos daily
• Predictive analytics for smart suggestions
• Deep settings and user controls
• Optimized watch mode with advanced video controls & features
• Freshly defined visual design & brand
• Ad-free sponsored alerts

WIREFRAMES

Iteration

Through competitive research, learning from my target audience, and assessing features, I found my phase I design translation to be too limited, linear, minimal, and to underserve functionally. It lacked depth of user preferences & customization for curation.

The final experience and design evolution was initiated by learnings, feedback, user needs, and iOS screen dimension increase and software updates.

An Experience-Driven App

New premier features for deeper engagement
—
• Custom REEL queue with optimal user control using global icons
• Real-time scores featured in home score feed and in clip details
• Overlayed video player controls that right align in fullscreen

Consistent visual communication that amplifies in-app experience
—
• Step-by-step onboarding with progress bar & deep selection
• Actionable clip and REEL cards with queue +/- and team info
• Branding with a powerful design finish that engages & delights

MOODBOARD

Iconography

Each icon controls a core app feature.

Designing icons for action items is challenging and I struggled particularly with the following and favoriting icons which were initially both a single star (left).

Through iteration and by careful choice of a thin, geometric, and open design direction, I found a circle outlining the following star (right) would better distinguish the two actions.

I worked to keep icons lightweight to offset content density while keeping in consideration the dark color scheme, complementary brand colors and guide, and target audience.

Direction

simple • striking • deep • immersive