🔗 ESPN Streaming

Revolutionizing sports streaming with an expanded viewing experience

Roles

Product Design
Design Systems
Research

Deliverables

R&D/Pitch Presentations
Rapid Prototyping
System Components
UI & UX Flows
Feature Specs

Platforms

ESPN TV
Roku
Android/FireTV
tvOS

Launched

2025

How might we increase fan engagement and awareness of the full sports ecosystem through the core watching experience?

The game is on, and ESPN can anticipate the desired, relevant information any die-hard sports fan would ever need, all in one place. We developed a framework that hosts player and team stats, play highlights, your fantasy sports line-up, betting and a celebratory team swag purchase for live events.

Avg. Video Minutes

X X %

Fantasy User Growth YoY

X X %

Monthly Active Users

X X K

Streaming Platform Value

$ X X M

Through this program, we sought to increase the value of the ESPN streaming platform. Within each feature section hosted relevant goals, but with the ultimate desire to make it easier for fans to find what they may already be looking for.

“Who was the player that made that goal?”

“I missed the first half of the game, how can I catch up?”

“I want to know the exact moment my bet hit.”

“My fantasy player is on the field, and they gave me how many points?”

“I wish I could get that team jersey.”

A Responsive Environment that Engages with Video

Project Focus
Create an interactive experience for live video that doesn’t take away from a busy sports stream.

Considerations
Avoid covering: lower thirds, data feeds, side bars, scorebugs, existing broadcast overlays.

Takeaway
We took inspiration from OBS software, Twitch streamers and AWS video ad formats, that seemed to react less invasively to the video itself. Ads seemed to push video down subtly and let users engage with the video comfortable side by side. We needed a large enough space to design in for multiple formats, data types and presentation options.

Content Load on Focus

Access information easily without having to press ‘OK’ or confirm. A smoother experience with less steps

Fixed Position Scrolling

Content flows vertically into the first position, until reaching a threshhold where the user continues down the scroll area.

Because video is playing side by side the user’s actions, a fixed position allows for clear focus and a learned behavior for future patterns.

Expanding and Anticipatory UX

In the case a user needs to go deeper into a piece of content, we introduced a new expanding card type that reveals a secondary scroll area.

We allowed for the header area to become inactive or un-focusable, with only the extra content inside of it being the main actor.

Proud Dad Moment
We anticipated a user’s actions by removing an unnecessary action step. By auto closing the accordion card if the user presses ‘UP’ to the top area, they’re able to seamlessly glide through multiple areas of content.

Contributions

Lead Designers
Joseph Lasko, Ethan Coy

Product Designers
Travis Baurmann, Jake Parrish, Dena Sabha, Becky Drexler

Design Managers
Tyler Smith, Marcos Escutia, Danielle Klesin

Product Managers
Darren Alphonse, Rachel Goffin, Shaun McPartlin, Alex Weber, Jane Kim

Engineering
Internal ESPN (Alejandro Maya, Angel Rivera, Angela Onofrio, Chris Swain, Courtney Jones, Daniel Smith, David Pean, Diego Montenegro, Edier Sua, Eric Briley, Eric Dockery, Francisco Ramos, Francois Jeanneret, Frank Manni, Henry Acosta, Henry Belmont, Jacob Zadroga, Jason White, Jimin Cutrell, Johnpaul Relunia, Jon Polasaki, Jonathan Pereya, Justin Clark, Kentaro Westdorp, Kevin Clement, Kevin Kim, Luis Zapata, Matt Nash, Megan Janssen, Mutaaf Aziz, Nicholas Perry, Nilesh Shah, Quintan Park, Reid Weber, Robert Wong, Trevor Mullaney, Will Carson, Zoe Buck), Ari Evans (et. al)