USER PROFILES & theSCORE COMMUNITY
2023 - 2024
My role
Design manager
Activities
Design coaching, mentorship, stakeholder management, partnerships and resourcing, project management, executive reviews, process advocacy
Platform
iOS, Android
Context
theScore is a sports media and gaming company that has established a strong brand presence in Canada and the U.S. since 2012, serving millions of fans with sporting news, player stats, live game scores, sports betting, and community conversations.
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The brand loyalty with theScore is one of the strongest in the sporting industry for North America, but the overall recognition and engagement is dwarfed by ESPN and a handful of other brands in sports media. Product leaders recognized that growth would be limited fighting fire with fire in league offerings and sports data against other internationally recognized sports orgs, but there was an avenue that offered something unique and valued for users — building community connections with other sports fans.
Long story short
Old game chat and avatars, pre-game mockup
New game chat and avatars, live-game mockup
New avatar illustrations
Project focus
The first in a new phase of community offerings in theScore would be updating the user profile section of the app and allowing users to customize their avatars and identity in the chat and comment sections. Everything down the road about jolting the community to life depended on this first keystone project.
Business goals
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Successful reception of avatars to theScore brand
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Profile updates incentivized to increased account activation
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Positive growth in community activity
User goals
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Creating a fun personal identity in theScore community
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​Seeing what other users follow as fans
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Tracking game chat poll records
Process
Feature teams at theScore use a process called Uniform that encompasses the entire product, research, and design stages of new initiatives. It breaks down into four main stages: discovery, deciding, exploring, and refining. Each stage introduces a main stakeholder alignment review for design and product direction, which was more simply called '10/50/90'.
My role as the Design manager in Uniform was to guide my designers through these stages, coach them on their craft and design explorations, help them through story telling to prep them for their stakeholder reviews, and to help surface their work and bridge connections across other teams.
Discovery
0%
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Conducting research and collecting insights
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Determining user problems
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Determining the business problems
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Building a product brief
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Competitor analysis
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High-level user flows and IA
Deciding
10%
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Wireframes and early concepts
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Aligning on product direction
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Aligning on UX direction
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Stakeholder review
Exploring
50%
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Mid fidelity designs
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​New user flows
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​Usability tests
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Feasibility reviews
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Stakeholder review
Refining
90%
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High fidelity designs
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Designing outliers
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Prototyping and annotation
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Design system contributions
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Stakeholder review
Profile & avatar competitor audit
Key obstacles & resolutions
Identities across two apps
Users who would have access to the proposed profile and avatar changes need to be account holders in theScore. Since the company also ran a separate sports betting app, theScore Bet, there were some users in the ecosystem of both that had connected identities.
Identities in the betting app were stricter on details because of legal regulations so the way the identity architecture was built meant they would over override profiles in the sports app once users established the link. If theScore users customized their avatar it might just get wiped out.
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UX mapped out flows describing the various account type scenarios
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Back-end engineers spiked to untangle some of the override behaviour between the two apps
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Eng rerouted some functions in profile management to prevent customizations from disappearing in theScore media app
Restricting v1 scope
As the team was working through discovery it was clear the future would be very exciting for possibilities in profile work. Lots of different opportunities would open for community projects once profiles were in place, but many began to blend into the definition of user profiles and the team needed to tie down the corners of what would add value and wouldn't explode the development estimates.
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UX provided flows and early wires to collect everyone on the context and current state of profile data
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Team triad (UX, Product, Eng) workshops helped define what elements of the profile should be public vs private now/next/later
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Preview sheets currently in chats and article comments would house the first phase of public profile value
Missing poll data
In pre and live game chats theScore has a community feature that offers user polls about the Moneyline, over/under, and spread for the event. It's a small engagement moment for those hanging out to see what the community has voted. One of the early values to surface publicly through the profile project was sharing a users poll history and success rate with others. ​
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Unfortunately, polls were built to be a transitory experience — no data was saved. If the team wanted to bring this into profiles there would need to be engineering support.
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Design built concepts to visualize how poll wins could be surfaced in the experience
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Team triad (UX, Product, Eng) workshop determined when exactly to 'lock in' the dynamic odds from Vegas in the poll, and when to 'lock in' user votes
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​New disclaimer was added to poll design about dynamic lines and odds
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Eng spiked in their sprint to build out a data collection sequence and stored user history
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Leading through design gaps
Working through this complex project surfaced some skill gaps with my community designer and across all of product design. Most designers had not had the opportunity to really modify anything in theScore IA so weren't sure the best way to begin, and we were also lacking in real illustration experience.
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Coaching theScore designers on how to audit architecture and draw out user flows
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Built partnerships across departments to find illustration experts
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Empowered designers to own out-of-team relationships and learn from each other
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Pushed for hands-on contributions, leading to real growth in design skills
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User profile scenarios based on their account type
Story highlight
Pinning down avatars
TL;DR
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I helped my designer explore diverging strategic options
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We landed on a path I'd suggested for the first release
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There was a gap in actual illustration skills for our UX team
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I made a partnership with our marketing department leads
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I pushed my designer to create some of the smaller illustration work themselves
After my designer completed a competitor audit it was clear we'd need to align on some fundamentals for the direction of user avatars. Toxic fans in the app and a small internal content moderation team meant anything too open, like user uploaded profile images, would guarantee explicit content in community spaces. The development overhead to create AI or memoji-type avatars would be debilitating for a first launch. Even pursuing team logos, jerseys, and colours had introduced some legal wariness and accessibility concerns that would need to be shelved for another iteration.
I helped my designer to explore these diverging strategic options and to jam with their PM to weigh how viable the path would be for themselves and for the rest of the teams who would need to be involved. Ultimately we landed on a path I'd suggested for the first release — a preset collection of sports-related illustrations. It still allowed for user customizing, it was in the sports theme, but it minimized project and business risks out of the gate and allowed us to learn from fans more quickly.
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With a product designer roster of 15+ at theScore there was a gap in actual illustration skills for our UX team. My designer on this project was not confident in their own skills so I made a partnership with our marketing department leads to mobilize one of our motion graphic designers to help. I tasked my designer with creating a visual style board and I connected the two with a digital handshake before stepping out to let them build the relationship we'd need. After a few weeks of illustrating and reviewing, I pushed my designer to make some of the smaller illustration variants themselves — which successfully ended up in the final avatar set.
Full set of new avatar illustrations and variants
Story highlight
A style departure
TL;DR
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New avatars were on track to be multicoloured and fun for the first time​
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I tasked my designer to assemble presentation materials
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I packaged everything up with some context and praise then sent it off to the VPs
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I partnered with the PM to acknowledge the executive excitement but redirect it into a smaller, quicker build for a first step
This user profile project would mark the first major step outside the typical muted and dark-mode brand tone of theScore. New avatars were on track to be multicoloured and fun for the first time — something that needed to be run by senior leaders before the work got too far.
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The PM for the community team and I discussed the best approach to reach the group that would have the final say on the direction — VPs of Product and of Marketing who established the original brand. I tasked my designer to assemble presentation materials: select interaction prototypes, all the new artwork, and a recorded short video walkthrough. I packaged these up with some context and praise then sent it off to the VPs at the only time we knew they would be available that week, which was during an international flight between offices.
Almost immediately there was excitement about the project from the leadership group. So much excitement in fact that while on that flight the VP of Product assembled a whole series of new ideas that would have set the team back to the beginning to rebuild. A particular lean was towards us building full body customizable 3D avatars with changeable clothing options. It was a lot. I partnered with the PM to acknowledge the executive excitement but redirect it into a smaller, quicker build for a first step. In the end the group approved and we agreed to keep some more visionary work warming on the side, for now.​​​​
Customizing profile avatars for community identity
Story highlight
Design leadership
TL;DR
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Architecture work was a realm my team was not very experienced with so I coached them through
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I helped them think through the first user scenarios and determine the strategy
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I coached them how to use flow diagrams to quickly zoom out on a problem
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My moments of reassurance and support for their strong ideas, agreeing
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They were capable and I gave them trust
Scope for the work boiled down to three main areas of focus for the first launch: new profile avatars, updated profile settings page, and an improved user preview sheet. With the avatar illustrations in progress from marketing help, my product designer needed to dive into some IA updates for the settings pages and begin exploration for the sheet view.
Architecture work was a realm my team was not very experienced with so I coached them through how to first understand our current state. We had no documented IA for theScore, and the settings were the most dense for subpages and selections in the app. I helped them think through the first user scenarios and determine the strategy for what the team might define as 'profile' versus an 'account' when deciding on the best way to organize the subpages. They needed to determine whether some new work would be best suited for pages or nested sheets, so I coached them how to use flow diagrams to quickly zoom out on a problem, to find design precedent for similar scenarios in the app, and to communicate with their partners what an ideal-state IA would look like given the new hub for profile data (poll wins & article comments) and avatars.​
Working through the new profile preview sheet meant coordinating the hierarchy of information in a limited space. My designer was able to forge through this exploration, needing only my moments of reassurance and support for their strong ideas, agreeing that they were properly addressing the requirements. I helped them consider empty states, missing data, and maximum scenarios but they were capable and I gave them the trust they needed to continue.
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Old settings/profile screen
New account/profile screens
IA update annotation guide
Profile settings user flow
Story highlight
Process leadership
TL;DR
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I took initiative and advocated that user profiles be a pilot for Uniform
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I created presentation templates for the UX org
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I guided my designer on how to best slice and prepare deliverables
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Reports I shared back to our design operations group improved Uniform
The Uniform process for the entire product org and the 10/50/90 stages for design were brand new just as work began for user profiles in theScore. Product and UX leads had been collaborating on the framework but no team had fully adopted the process for a real project yet. Since I had been involved in constructing the new working model, I took initiative and advocated that user profiles be a pilot for Uniform. The PM was cautious but open and my designer eagerly wanted more structure for their product touchpoints. The community team had a strong triad with design, product, and engineering and I was able to successfully harness that to set an example for other teams dipping their toes in with Uniform.
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​The main difference from how feature teams operated before Uniform was the distinct stakeholder reviews at the 10, 50, and 90% stages of projects. There were guidelines that leads and myself had consulted on about discovery and what assets to prepare through exploration but the flow of new initiatives was affected most by these reviews and preparation for the reviews. Knowing this, I created presentation templates for the UX org that designers, UXR, and their PMs could use to best tell the story of their work. These presentation files became important as project documents marking the progress for and alignment for each stage. As the work was progressing, I guided my designer on how to best slice and prepare deliverables for the before and after review steps of 10/50/90, giving them flexibility to chart their own in-between work.
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Our community team pilot for Uniform uncovered some important differences between the theory and application of the process. Reports I shared back to our design operations group improved Uniform for other teams and marked a process success moment for UX and Product that would define the next several versions of Uniform at theScore.
User profiles roll-out planning
Using insights & data: Sheets
The community team had a dedicated data analytics team member but needed to share a user researcher with another area of theScore media teams. This meant there was limited UXR work we had access to, but we were able to rely on some intel sifting through data reports.
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What we knew
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Quant. data from Mode and Amplitude showed that users were interacting with the preview sheets but not taking actions
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Qual. feedback from larger scale studies indicated that users were prone to exploring — including in the preview sheets from chats and article comments
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Over 50% of users had only 1 favourite league/team/player, but 50% had between 2 and 10 favourites
What we did
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UX leaned into this information scent already present for the preview sheets to house the V1 identity work
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Using only 1 favourite league/team/player for user identity would have alienated over a million users that had 2+ favourites. We needed to change the sheet design to show multiple favourites​​
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Analytics reports for user favouriting behaviours
Old profile preview sheet design
New profile preview sheet design
Outputs & outcomes
User profiles was one of the most impactful initiatives for community users to engage with by the end of Q2 2024. Not only had it sparked a lot of excitement noted through qualitative user outreach, but it also paved an important foundation for a new phase of community opportunities (threads, reactions, mentions, and channels) planned through into 2025.
It marked the start of a new era in product process for the company and it set the tone for other product teams at theScore to lean towards fandom and fun experiences.
Key impacts
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10% of all active community users adopted new avatars after 2 months, with 50% choosing new colours and images
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250k average monthly clicks in profile and settings
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In-app spotlight ad for profiles increased account activation by 2.3% after 2 days
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5% of all incoming app feedback tickets continue to be requests for expansions to avatars
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Preview profile sheets were viewed 5.2 million times, an increase of 22.8% through the summer of 2024
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Sport betting users have requested unique identity markers for their sub-community after the larger user profile roll-out
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Uniform process pilot was successfully completed, feedback improving all future project flows
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​Fruitful partnership established with Marketing and illustration support, used again by another product team in Q2 2024
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Important system architecture updates to profile management between theScore and theScore Bet
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Data storage solution for poll win records, allowing community engagement moments to be surfaced publicly for the first time
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