Hey Oly and Infoplay
Infoplay Mode and Oly use advanced voice detection and interactive features to improve accessibility, personalisation, and immersion, providing a more engaging experience for all viewers. Designed for the Olympics, these features cater to both sports enthusiasts and those unfamiliar with the events, bridging the knowledge gap and making the content easier to follow and enjoy.
Designers: Natalie Huynh and Macayla Wong
Timeframe: 12 Weeks
Tools: Figma
The problem
A third of Australians do not intend to watch the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics
The decline in Olympic viewership is linked to audience’s unfamiliarity with new added sports, reducing engagement (Jones, 2024) and lack of interest.
With 47% of Australians unfamiliar and 53% uninterested, this knowledge gap significantly impacts viewership.
With this in mind…
How might we
address this knowledge gap, making the spectating experience more accessible for all viewers?
The Solution
Onboarding
New to the Olympics? Enjoy built-in explainer videos on 9NOW for a seamless start!
Determine if the user is a first-time viewer for the event.
If users are first-time viewers, they'll be shown an explainer video. Otherwise, they can jump straight into the action.
Voice Detection
Provides real time responses according to user’s confusions.
Instant replay back when instructed.
A summary audio pop-up will appear when users express confusion, keeping them informed even when they're away from their screens.
“Hey Oly, What’s Happening?” “Hey Oly Go Back 15 seconds”
Info Mode On - Interactive Feature
Experience Info Mode: Live Annotations on Scoring, Techniques, and Targets!
Users can switch between different annotations using the toggle bar display options.
Technique Option: Displays real-time technique annotations.
Scoring Option: Shows a live scoreboard for each round.
Targets Option: Highlights target areas on the athlete’s body with coloured labels. Users can also toggle and personalise annotations for a streamlined experience.
Support Tab
Integrated In-Game Insights for Seamless Viewing
The support tab allows viewers to explore potential techniques athletes may use, categorised under counterattacks.
It provides information on the players in the event and a brief summary of the rules.
Users can minimise and maximise the tab to prevent it from obstructing their viewing experience.
Primary Research
Discovering What Draws Viewers to Certain Olympic Sports—Uncovering Preferences, Knowledge Gaps, and How Fans Learn the Rules.
We triangulated our research methods to analyse which Olympic sports draw the most attention versus niche ones, exploring the reasons behind these preferences and gaps in rule comprehension. Additionally, we examined how viewers educate themselves on unfamiliar sports, including the external platforms they use.
Competitive Analysis
Existing features lacks Integration and Fail to Enhance User Engagement..
We examined the most popular existing solutions that is provided in 9Now, users previously discussed during their interviews and conducted a review. We evaluated user engagement limitations, finding that explainer videos, while visually appealing, often lack clarity, while commentary is informative but lacks accessibility and visual impact.
Survey
A significant difference in understanding exists between less popular and most popular sports.
The survey revealed that rule and scoring comprehension is less consistent for niche sports, while popular sports have a more evenly distributed knowledge base. This suggests a strong link between enjoyment and rule familiarity, with widely followed sports benefiting from greater viewer understanding.
Data synthesis
“If I don’t understand the scoring, I don’t feel the adrenaline or the excitement to keep watching the sport.- User
From the responses gathered during our contextual inquiry, where we presented the dressage video and conducted in-depth interviews, we organised all the responses into an affinity diagram.This allowed us to identify key themes related to users' needs and behaviours before defining our core insights.
We used journey maps, personas, and storyboards to visualise pain points from our affinity diagram. This revealed a gap in users' understanding of unfamiliar sports, which often leads to confusion and disengagement.
Personas & Storyboards🧍♀️
Insights
Breaking Barriers: Enhancing Accessibility, Engagement, and Understanding in Olympic Viewing
Accessibility
Current Olympics coverage lacks accessible explanations, relying on viewers' prior knowledge, which limits engagement.
Explanatory
Viewers prefer quick, visually engaging explanations and often turn to Google or YouTube for clarity.
Engagement
Unique sports like fencing and skateboarding spark interest, but sustained engagement relies on clearer rule understanding.
Before we started ideating.. we refined our problem statement
Despite the critical role that understanding a sport’s rules and objectives plays in viewer engagement, there are inadequate media cues in existing coverage. Integrating accessible, easy to digest and visually engaging explanatory content into coverage would enhance the spectating experience of all Olympic sports.
Ideation
We reversed our thinking to how can we make the viewing experience worse? 🔄
During concept development, we used reverse thinking and brainstorming. Reverse thinking asked, 'What would worsen the viewing experience?' revealing issues like inaccessible explanations. This guided our brainstorming, where we explored solutions like video integration with real-time updates.
Both features align with key criteria: Voice Detection offers direct answers and utilises existing voice recognition tech, while 'Info Play' mode boosts accessibility and engagement through multimedia.
User flows
Two ideas, One perfect match 🧩
We merged our concepts using a decision matrix, the platform can create a more engaging and accessible Olympics experience, using voice detection to trigger ‘Info Play’ mode and quickly address users' knowledge gaps. The initial user flow demonstrated a strong integration of the two concepts. In the final flow below, features from each concept were refined and optimised. We developed user journey maps for our concepts to map out how it overall assist user’s in specific painpoints.
Live TV Flow:
Users can tune into an event at any point during its broadcast.
9Now User Flow:
Users go through an onboarding process before accessing content.
Wireframes and User Testing
After finalising our design concept, we created initial sketches to showcase its key features, which guided the structure and design of our wireframes. In our first evaluation, we assessed the accessibility of the voice detection feature and whether users’ understanding and engagement with live events were improved through Info Play, support tabs, and the onboarding video. We conducted six think-aloud sessions per participant, followed by a brief unstructured interview and a System Usability Scale (SUS) evaluation.
Wireframes
User Testing and Iterations (Wireframes)
Major Improvements made during wire-framing
Based on insights gathered from the first round of testing, we iterated on the design to refine key features and address usability issues. User feedback was synthesised into an affinity diagram, which helped us identify patterns and inform further improvements. We then tested the updated wireframes using the think-aloud method and A/B testing to validate both significant design changes and minor adjustments. This process enabled us to refine the design based on valuable user feedback, ensuring a more polished and effective solution before advancing our wireframes to high-fidelity screens.
“Hey Oly” Voice Prompt: Simplified Navigation Activation
Improve visibility and learnability of voice activation
Feedback
We placed a distinct voice assistant logo in the bottom right corner for constant visibility, with a small floating mic icon above it for added clarity. The activation cue was updated to the familiar voice prompt, "Hey Oly."
Iterations
Users struggled to discover the voice detection and expected activation via remote or voice prompt, misaligning with design decisions.
Annotation Toggle Bar: Streamlined Control for Managing Annotations
Improve overall personalisation and visibility
Feedback
Users anticipate visual overwhelm when watching live with info play.
Iterations
Users want to toggle Info Play on/off during their viewing experience according to their changing information needs.
Enhanced Support Tab : Visual Guide to Rules & Techniques
Improve overall visibility and icon
Feedback
The support tab, which displayed rules and techniques, was difficult to find as it only appeared on hover over the Oly logo and felt overly text-heavy. Users suggested incorporating more visuals to better display the information.
Iterations
A book icon was used for clarity, with an illustration added to the support tab for visual balance. Techniques were categorised into "Counter Attack" and "Attack" for easier navigation, though this may vary by sport.
Before
After
Before
After
Hi-fidelity Screens Iterations
New Enhancements: Refinements from Final Prototype Testing✨
In this section, we detailed the evaluation process for our interactive, high-fidelity prototype, which involved expert testing with 4 participants and final user testing with 6 participants. The expert testing phase included heuristic evaluations conducted by each team member alongside two experts to uncover usability issues and assess adherence to established design guidelines. We refined the design based on expert testing feedback in preparation for final user testing.
NEW Maximize & Minimize
The support tab is helpful, but it can obscure my screen." - User
To enhance user experience, we introduced the option to minimise Support Tabs, addressing expert feedback that suggested resizing or repositioning them to prevent interference with live content.
NEW Audio Playback
I missed it, but I just want a quick recap. This replay isn't cutting it, though! - User
Testing revealed that the response to "What is happening?" didn’t meet user needs. Refinements include audio playback, a brief summary in a non-modal lightbox pop-up (Kaley, 2019), and automatic activation of Info Mode with 'Scoring' annotations.
Final User Testing
"Wow, I need this for other sports!" – User
Our SUS score improved from 72 to 94.
We conducted our final user testing to validate our new features! We used a System Usability System throughout all our testing quantitatively compare the usability of our final version with the initial one.
Watch the Demo Video!
Reflection
Looking Back at our Design Journey and potential next steps…. 👣
Looking back, I really enjoyed collaborating with my teammate Macayla through those late nights and early morning calls, evaluating and iterating on our designs. It was a great learning experience, and we’re proud to have earned a high distinction for the project. We’re excited to move forward and take the next steps.
