Dugout

Overview

While only a year old, Dugout has become one of the largest publishers of exclusive soccer news in the world. Many clubs and players upload their own content directly to Dugout before it reaches mainstream media outlets. This means Dugout has thousands of hours of video content, which was previously being poorly leveraged by their website.

I was brought on board to research, design and work closely with a developer to execute a new app concept that would focus users on discovery and retention of their video content.

Idea development

We began further iterating on this website design, attempting to group content within ‘playlists’ to help aid discoverability without distracting from continuous video.

This was tested through multiple versions of the website, as well as user testing on interfaces that didn’t mention soccer. Some of the tests included sticky videos, having multiple videos on a single page, and overriding natural scrolling to snap multiple videos.

Many tools were used including Principle mockups and static pages that I hand coded with video content. New wireframe ideas were developed and tested daily based on the previous days research.

Design execution

Due to the overwhelming response from testing and research, the shareholders pushed through a new version of the website that completely replaced the existing one. Where there was previously a lot of traditional content, the website became a video on demand hub. Many of the features from testing were stripped back, and video was championed even further in the design.

As a user scrolls through the page they see multiple videos that auto play/pause. This decision came from positive feedback in user testing.

New app launch

In the weeks following the website launch, traffic and ad revenue had increased signifcantly, and retention was higher than it had ever been. This spurred a quick redesign and redevelopment of the app using the styles and lessons from the website.

The app was released shortly after the website launch, and has had the same success. It’s new VOD focus also made it a prime candidate for new channels, such as an Apple TV app.