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Improving visibility and engagement of Premier League short form posts
A growing number of companies have made Short Form (SF) content, surfaced in feeds and streams, the expectation for a lot of users. However the majority of BBC online still focuses on traditional long form articles.
In BBC Sport, our editorial colleagues are keeping up with this trend by writing SF posts on followable Premier League topic pages. However, for reasons outlined below, this valuable content can’t be promoted on the front page.
My role: Lead UX Designer
Team: UX, Product, Engineering, Research, Editorial & Data
Timeline: Q2 2023 - Q1 2024
Problem
Data showed that SF posts were incredibly popular, in fact topic pages that have them enabled were 18% more popular than traditional long form article pages. However, SF posts live in isolation on Premier League topic pages and are hard to discover.
This is because we are not able to successfully render them onto the Sport front page using our current design system and standard article promo due to…
a. The large diversity in post format
b. The stream based nature of the posts
As a knock on effect, personalisation capabilities such as follow are being blocked. We cannot a 'Latest from your follows' section on the Sport front page if it doesn't include many valuable updates from the teams a users follow.
Solution
Hypothesis: By enabling the promotion of SF posts on the Sport front page, we will make our topic streams more discoverable, deliver more personalised content and create habitual stickiness.
Task: Design a new promo, that promotes a single short form post from a followed topic stream.
Process
Facilitated a requirements gathering session with editorial stakeholders, to prioritise which elements the promo needed to include.
Led a team of designers through considerable design exploration, stress testing, and got feedback from all disciplines we had a route we were confident in.
Conducted two lots of user research - one guerrilla and one UserZoom study - which produced valuable insight to revise the designs with.
Considered how the promo could evolve in future iterations and collaborated on cross product application (e.g News & Content Brands such as Strictly or Doctor Who).
Shared my recommendation at the Web Design System Community meeting at multiple stages to ensure consistency with our component library and visual language.
Facilitated a requirements gathering session with editorial stakeholders, to prioritise which elements the promo needed to include.
Led a team of designers through considerable design exploration, stress testing, and got feedback from all disciplines we had a route we were confident in.
Conducted two lots of user research - one guerrilla and one UserZoom study - which produced valuable insight to revise the designs with.
Considered how the promo could evolve in future iterations and collaborated on cross product application (e.g News & Content Brands such as Strictly or Doctor Who).
Shared my recommendation at the Web Design System Community meeting at multiple stages to ensure consistency with our component library and visual language.
Impact
Enabling a ‘My Sport’ rail to surface personalised content on the front page created a strong reason for our users to sign in.
The SF promo had an 11% click through rate compared to 4% for our standard promos, meaning this design lead to considerably higher engagement.
In research, users clearly understood the difference between the SF promo and the standard article promo due to the visual signals I created.
My collaborative approach created a strong relationship with our editorial colleagues and was the start of us working closely together to ensure our suite of content promotion components is used to it’s full potential.
More projects
Web
Responsive design
App & Web
Personalisation
Consulted with engineers throughout the process and had discussions about unavoidable changes due to technical constraints.
Designed a clear and succinct specification document, including in depth accessibility guidance, and paired with devs during the build of the new promo.
Created an editorial guidance document to ensure journalists are writing posts in a way the promo can successfully digest.
Collaborated with a designer in the Web Design System team to add the SF promo as a component into our Figma library for other designers to use.
The development of the SF promo meant this new content format could now be promoted on the Sport front page.
In turn, we could enable a ‘My Sport’ rail to surface personalised content and create a strong reason to sign in.
The SF promo had an 11% click through rate compared to 4% for our standard promos, meaning this design lead to considerably higher engagement.
In research, users clearly understood the difference between the SF promo and the standard article promo due to the visual signals I created.
My collaborative approach created a strong relationship with our editorial colleagues and was the start of working closely together to ensure our suite of content promotion components is used to it’s full potential.
Improving visibility and engagement of Premier League short form posts
Web
Design system
A growing number of companies have made Short Form (SF) content, surfaced feeds and streams, the expectation for a lot of users. However the majority of BBC online still focuses on traditional long form articles.
In BBC Sport, our editorial colleagues are keeping up with this trend by writing SF posts on followable Premier League topic pages. However, for reasons outlined below, this valuable content can’t be promoted on the front page.
My role: Lead UX Designer
Team: UX, Product, Engineering, Research, Editorial & Data
Timeline: Q2 2023 - Q1 2024
Problem
Data showed that SF posts were incredibly popular, in fact topic pages that have them enabled were 18% more popular than traditional long form article pages. However, SF posts live in isolation on Premier League topic pages and are hard to discover.
This is because we are not able to successfully render them onto the Sport front page using our current design system and standard article promo due to…
a. The large diversity in post format
b. The stream based nature of the posts
As a knock on effect, personalisation capabilities such as follow are being blocked. We cannot a 'Latest from your follows' section on the Sport front page if it doesn't include many valuable updates from the teams a users follow.
There is a large variety of posts within Premier League topic streams and editorial wanted to preserve this
Solution
Hypothesis: By enabling the promotion of SF posts on the Sport front page, we will make our topic streams more discoverable, deliver more personalised content and create habitual stickiness.
Task: Design a new promo, that promotes a single short form post from a followed topic stream.
In a small promo, it's crucial to prioritise visual elements that convey the SF nature of the content
Process
Facilitated a requirements gathering session with editorial stakeholders, to prioritise which elements the promo needed to include.
Led a team of designers through considerable design exploration, stress testing, and got feedback from all disciplines we had a route we were confident in.
Conducted two lots of user research - one guerrilla and one UserZoom study - which produced valuable insight to revise the designs with.
Considered how the promo could evolve in future iterations and collaborated on cross product application (e.g News & Content Brands such as Strictly or Doctor Who).
Shared my recommendation at the Web Design System Community meeting at multiple stages to ensure consistency with our component library and visual language.
In a small promo, it's crucial to prioritise visual elements that convey the SF nature of the content
Consulted with engineers throughout the process and had discussions about unavoidable changes due to technical constraints.
Designed a clear and succinct specification document, including in depth accessibility guidance, and paired with devs during the build of the new promo.
Created an editorial guidance document to ensure journalists are writing posts in a way the promo can successfully digest.
Collaborated with a designer in the Web Design System team to add the SF promo as a component into our Figma library for other designers to use.
Impact
The development of the SF promo meant this new content format could now be promoted on the Sport front page.
In turn, we could enable a ‘My Sport’ rail to surface personalised content and create a strong reason to sign in.
The SF promo had an 11% click through rate compared to 4% for our standard promos, meaning this design lead to considerably higher engagement.
In research, users clearly understood the difference between the SF promo and the standard article promo due to the visual signals I created.
My collaborative approach created a strong relationship with our editorial colleagues and was the start of us working closely together to ensure our suite of content promotion components is used to it’s full potential.
In a small promo, it's crucial to prioritise visual elements that convey the SF nature of the content
More projects
Web
Responsive design
App & Web
Personalisation
Consulted with engineers throughout the process and had discussions about unavoidable changes due to technical constraints.
Designed a clear and succinct specification document, including in depth accessibility guidance, and paired with devs during the build of the new promo.
Created an editorial guidance document to ensure journalists are writing posts in a way the promo can successfully digest.
Collaborated with a designer in the Web Design System team to add the SF promo as a component into our Figma library for other designers to use.
Web
Design system
There is a large variety of posts within Premier League topic streams and editorial wanted to preserve this
In a small promo slot, it was crucial to prioritise visual elements that would convey the SF nature of the content
The BBC's web design system meant the promo needed to flex across multiple slots and breakpoints
The promo enabled this new SF content format to be promoted on the Sport front page in a personalised slice
This chart shows that the SF promo (right hand image) increased engagement to 11% compared to 4%