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Olympic Channel is an OTT Internet television service operated by the International Olympic Committee. It was launched on 21 August 2016, alongside the closing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Agency, Ost
By going OTT, the Olympic Channel can provide a personalized and flexible viewing experience, reaching a global audience on various devices. This move aligns with industry trends, meeting the evolving preferences of consumers who increasingly seek on-demand and easily accessible content.
In my role, I spearheaded the Prototyping phase, meticulously delivering a functional prototype that accurately reflected the design team's vision. Collaborating closely with the User Researcher, I orchestrated Customer Research, establishing testing protocols to capture valuable insights. During the iterative process, I played a pivotal role in capturing, reviewing, and validating learnings, addressing issues, and identifying opportunities for enhancement. Moreover, I contributed to the successful launch of the new service in Madrid, providing invaluable support to the Olympic Channel team by leveraging our proprietary CMS.
Our user testing approach was distinctively iterative, diverging from the conventional model of organizing testing over a couple of days. Instead, we seamlessly integrated user testing into our ongoing design workflow, ensuring a more frequent and dynamic process. This approach allowed us to implement changes to functionality between cycles, testing alternative solutions with users. It facilitated the swift closure of ideas that proved less effective while concurrently identifying new opportunities for improvement. The testing spanned across various locations, including remote sessions in China, Brazil, and the USA, as well as in-person sessions in London. This comprehensive testing strategy not only enhanced the user experience but also underscored our commitment to agility and responsiveness in refining the design based on user feedback.
In the Prototyping phase, I played a pivotal role in delivering a functional prototype of the UI design, tailored for user testing on both desktop and mobile platforms across the globe. This included remote testing in Brazil, China, and the USA, as well as in-person sessions in London. Leveraging HTML/CSS and jQuery, the prototype was meticulously crafted to ensure a seamless and consistent user experience. The use of these technologies not only facilitated accurate representation of the design but also enabled interactive testing, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of the user interface. This approach allowed us to gather valuable insights from diverse user perspectives, contributing to the refinement of the design for optimal usability and engagement.
Setting up the testing involved a meticulous process of defining specific objectives at each phase, leading to the creation of new protocols aimed at validating novel concepts. The recruitment of participants for each test was undertaken to ensure diversity and relevance. The testing sessions occurred on Friday, May 24th, and Monday, May 27th. Participants were equipped with prototypes tailored to their choice, either the iPhone 6 app or the desktop web version of the product. Recruitment was sourced from GFK staff, aligning with the targeted persona groups. To maintain participant anonymity, names and profile pictures were changed. During the sessions, participants were encouraged to explore and interact with the prototypes in a manner that felt natural to them, facilitating genuine insights into user behavior and preferences.
Capturing validation and learnings was an integral part of our process, involving a comprehensive review of insights gathered, issues highlighted, and the validation of ideas and opportunities. We focused on validating key concepts related to finding and watching Video on Demand (VOD) content, navigating linear channels, exploring events and sub-navigation, optimizing mobile navigation, refining the sign-up and onboarding experience, enhancing personalization features, facilitating seamless browsing and discovery, and improving social interaction within the platform. Through this systematic validation, we not only addressed identified issues but also validated innovative ideas, ensuring a user-friendly and feature-rich product. Additionally, we incorporated any additional findings that emerged during the validation process to further refine and enhance the overall user experience.
Based on our findings, I recommend prioritizing the prominence of a Sports A-Z feature to enhance content discoverability. A crucial improvement involves revising the sign-up and onboarding workflow to ensure a smoother and more engaging user experience. Additionally, consider further validation of the linear channel concept, ensuring its alignment with user preferences and expectations. Explore additional validation of endboards and autoplay functionality for a seamless transition between content. To enhance user engagement, consider incorporating the option to add favorites within content pages. Lastly, further validation of the sharing workflow is recommended to optimize social interactions and user-driven content dissemination. These recommendations aim to refine the user journey, improve functionality, and elevate the overall user experience of the platform.
In Madrid, I played a key role in assisting the Olympic Channel team with the launch of the new service on July 30th in beta environments, coinciding with the IOC Executive Board meeting. The official launch took place successfully on August 21, 2016, in conjunction with the closing of the 2016 Summer Olympics. Following the launch, my involvement extended for the next 18 months, collaborating closely with the editorial team. During this period, I contributed to managing the product using our proprietary CMS and worked on continuous improvements to enhance the overall experience for end-users. This post-launch engagement underscored our commitment to refining and optimizing the platform for sustained user satisfaction.
