Sky Sports: Football Fan View
Role
Senior UX Designer
Team
UI Designer
Product manager
Developer squad
Timeline
2 months
Skills
Product Design
Product strategy
Stakeholder Management
Accessibility
Brief
From broadcast companion to football destination - a new Event Centre experience
FanView is an always-on TV sidebar experience, allowing users to browse events, consume content in different formats and dive deeper into the sport they're watching through a data-rich, contextual companion. This product is due to be delivered for the Premier League 2026 start-of-season.
I was responsible for leading the UX of the match event centre, giving users contextual data and widgets to supplement the game they're consuming. I also fully supported other colleagues on the evolution of the browse experience of the app.
Context
Adapting a global framework for UK football
FanView was built and proven in the US, but for a US market. The ambition was to bring it to Sky Q and SOIP, giving UK football fans a richer, more contextual experience across 16 leagues, without leaving the broadcast.
Key considerations for the UK market included red button comprehension for entry, use of language, data presentation and insight preference.
Designing an experience with data ambiguity
The central tension was a chicken-and-egg problem: product needed us to define what data to surface, but we needed confirmed data availability to design the experience.
With no research budget and a fixed deadline, waiting wasn't an option. The challenge was designing a system flexible enough to hold together whether we got everything we hoped for, or only a fraction of it.
Design process
Designing in two directions drive momentum
With initial uncertainty of data availability, I designed for a data minimum and maximum view to compare the bare minimum to the ultimate expeirence. This gave product and data teams the context to make prioritisation calls, and gave us a framework to design within rather than waiting for certainty that wasn't coming.
Rapid AI-prototyping to explore early concepts
To explore data visualisation options at pace, we used AI to generate a comprehensive library of widget concepts across every available data point, match stats, form, xG, lineups, zone control, win probability and more. It let us stress-test a wide range of approaches quickly without anchoring too early on any one solution.
[Play around with the interactive prototype ➡️]
Designing one experience that evolves with the game
The Event Centre spans three match states — upcoming, live, and post-match, each with different fan intent and different available data.
A three-tier data model underpins all three: always-on data anchors the view, progressive disclosure of data as it becomes available, and detailed stats unlock where the pipeline supports it. The structure stays coherent even when data availability shifts.
Outcome
A scalable Event Centre for deepened fandom
A football Event Centre launching on Sky Q and SOIP for the Carabao Cup — flexing across the full matchday arc and scaling across 16 leagues. FanView moves from broadcast companion to genuine sports destination, with a clear foundation for more sports, deeper data, and further features post-launch.
The work delivered:
A launched Event Centre scaling across 16 leagues
A three-tier data model holding coherence across all match states
A pattern library aligned to the Global FanView design system, extensible to further sports
Key decisions
Widgets as entry points for deeper exploration
Rather than flat, read-only data, widgets surface high-level awareness first — with the ability to go deeper on the fan's own terms. Fans watching a live game can skim the surface or lean in when they want more. The layered approach fits the companion context without demanding attention.
Reducing friction with deeper IA's in favour of a full screen expeirence
With deeper navigation layers, existing interaction patterns forced users to press 'back' on the remote multiple times to close the sidebar. This forces users to lose their place and reset their experience.
I pushed for implementation of the red button to not only open the app, but also close the app. This not only strengthened the relationship between red button and app, but also allows users to pick up where they left off and return to full screen in just one click.
Alignment to mobile experience
As part of creating synergy between our applications, this FanView project served as an opportunity to create an alignment between components. Taking components from the mobile app and repurposing them and repositioning them for TV helps to strengthen brand & comprehension
Listed lineups over graphical formations
A graphical pitch layout looks attractive but prioritises visual interest over usability. A listed lineup is faster to read, more reliable across data states, and puts comprehension first — the right call for a TV context where fans are leaning back, not leaning in.
Reflection
Moving fast towards delivery while embracing ambiguity
With no testing, evolving data, and a fixed launch date, progress came from making well-reasoned calls quickly and designing a system that could absorb change.
The data-pessimistic/optimistic approach was the most valuable tool, it turned ambiguity into a structured conversation with clear trade-offs. Grounding decisions in the Sky Sports mobile app meant patterns were already familiar to fans, even without validation. On fast-moving projects, that kind of anchoring is often more useful than starting from scratch.
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