December 2018
Archive

Solo Operator

MyCujoo streams semi-professional and amateur football. Many clubs could spare only one volunteer per match, so streams often went out without highlights. I designed a mode that lets one person stream and mark highlights on the same phone.

Discipline: UI/UX design
Company: MyCujoo
Year: 2018
Platform: iOS

01
Problem

To stream on MyCujoo, a club needed a camera or a smartphone, plus a laptop running MyCujoo Studio to mark the highlights.

Interviews showed that many clubs couldn't regularly spare more than one volunteer. That was one of the main reasons so many streams ended up without highlights.

02
What I did

My first idea was a companion app for marking highlights, but it still needed a second person. The second concept became a mode of the existing streaming app instead.

The screen is small and the operator needs to see the game, so my PO and I cut Studio's nine highlight types down to five. These are goal, red card, yellow card, substitution and the clock. The operator picks a highlight, then a team, and a pin on the seek bar confirms it.

Users and the business liked the clickable prototype, so we built a proof of concept on iOS in 1.5 sprints. We released it behind a feature flag and watched people use it at stadiums in Alkmaar and Amsterdam.

Second concept sketch: one app that streams and marks highlights, with a highlight menu over the video and pins on the seek bar. — The second concept, streaming and marking highlights on one device.

Wireframes of the flow: go live, start the clock, add a highlight, pick a team, and see a pin on the seek bar. — The flow, from going live to a highlight pinned on the seek bar.

Photos from testing at a football pitch at night: a phone on a tripod streaming the match. — Testing the proof of concept at a real match.

03
What I learned

A prototype couldn't show the tripod. Most tripods are made for right-handed people. Operators steer the phone with the right hand and tap with the left, covering the screen while they mark a highlight. The next build let them choose which side the controls sit on.