Transforming how global fans consume sports
Discovery
Product Strategy
Product Design
Multi-platform
OTT
Overview
BeIN Media approached Deltatre to update and refresh their OTT platform to better serve their rapidly growing and diverse audience. The existing beIN Connect app, while pioneering at its inception, had begun to show its age in terms of user experience, performance, and feature offerings. With increasing competition in the OTT space, it was imperative for BeIN Media to elevate their platform to meet modern user expectations and expand their global footprint.
As the UX Design Director at Deltatre I led a user-centric approach, to conducting extensive user research to identify the pain points and expectations that we could use to improve the experience. I facilitated agile collaboration among cross-functional teams, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness to feedback.
By emphasising cross-platform consistency and accessibility, I guided the creation of an intuitive interface and enhanced features. The team's focus on performance optimisation and integration of advanced player features played a crucial role in increasing user engagement and subscriber growth for BeIN Media.
As the Product Design Director at Deltatre I led a user-centric approach, to conducting extensive user research to identify the pain points and expectations that we could use to improve the experience. I facilitated agile collaboration among cross-functional teams, ensuring flexibility and responsiveness to feedback.
By emphasising cross-platform consistency and accessibility, I guided the creation of an intuitive interface and enhanced features. The team's focus on performance optimisation and integration of advanced player features played a crucial role in increasing user engagement and subscriber growth for BeIN Media.
The Challenge
- User Retention: The outdated interface and limited features were contributing to a decline in user retention and engagement.
- Diverse Audience Needs: Catering to a global audience meant addressing a wide array of cultural preferences, languages, and accessibility requirements.
- Complex Content Management: Due to the many different asset types and genres—shows, tournaments, matches, and live events—and the differing needs of sports fans demanding live content (watching live vs. watch from start), delivering a seamless user experience posed a significant challenge.
- Technological Integration: The new platform needed seamless integration with BeIN's existing backend systems and compatibility with various devices and operating systems.
- Tight Deadlines: We were working against the clock to launch the new platform ahead of major sporting events to maximise user adoption.
The Approach
- User-Centred Design: We began by placing the user at the heart of our design process. My team conducted extensive research, including user surveys, interviews, and usability testing sessions. This allowed us to identify key pain points with the existing app and uncover user expectations for a modern OTT service.
- Agile Collaboration: Embracing an agile methodology, we worked in sprints that allowed for iterative development and constant feedback loops with BeIN Media's stakeholders. This flexibility was crucial in adapting to new insights and refining features in real-time.
- Cross-Platform Consistency: Understanding that users access content across multiple devices, we prioritised creating a seamless and consistent experience on mobile phones, tablets, web browsers, and smart TVs. This required meticulous attention to responsive design principles and platform-specific optimisations.
- Localisation and Accessibility: To truly serve a global audience, we integrated multi-language support and ensured that the platform met international accessibility standards. This included right-to-left language support, localisation of content, and adaptive streaming capabilities for varying internet speeds.
Impact
- Intuitive Interface: A clean, modern UI that made content discovery effortless. Personalised recommendations and curated playlists enhanced user engagement.
- Egypt: Leads regional engagement with a 51% surge in viewing minutes.
- UAE: Logged a 47% increase in viewing minutes.
- Qatar: Experienced a 36% surge in viewing minutes.
- Smart TV Spike: Viewing time on connected TVs skyrocketed by 168%, compared to a 33% increase on mobile devices.
