Chelsea MVX

Mobile Interactive Video Plugin

Summary

Match View X or MVX, is the product name for a white-label standalone mobile plugin branded for the Premier League's Chelsea FC. The plugin itself is actually a React Native mobile port of an earlier version of the Infinite Athlete HUD for iOS and Android.

Specifically, it delivers a mobile-friendly display containing a proprietary video player with a separate UI layer available to the end user for controlling and displaying relevant match data in sync with the video stream.

In other words, this plugin gave a mobile user the broadcast of the match with fancy UI controls to see and filter significant plays and watch them as clips, track player statistics, including real-time positions and speeds, and play with some experimental interactive AR UI overlaid on the pitch.

MVX was launched in the Chelsea mobile app in the summer of 2023 with live coverage of the Chelsea US Tour.

Port Scoping

This project started only 3 months before launch. Because of the short development window and a hard deadline of the first live match, a realistic scope needed to be quickly defined and approved.

Three factors in the successful porting and on-time launch of this product were:
1) I had us develop a lightweight design system and component library for the web version, leading to making mobile versions much faster and easier.
2) HUD was developed for soccer first, so the data displays and ingestion systems were already well-formed.
3) My successful pitch of the mobile UX directly to the client stakeholder with a Figma prototype allowing approval to happen in time to unblock development.

Pitching the UX

I used a series of key screens to show the different layers of UI accessible from the default full screen video player.

Additionally I needed to invent a way for users to interact with AR elements overlaid on the grass and make it simple enough for the UX to be technically feasible, while also being impressive enough to advance our business goals. I put this together and got it approved in one (stressful) week.

Going Live

Due to some fortuitous planning ahead and the heroic effort of a team of talented humans, we were able to deliver this whole package of features in time for the first live Chelsea US Tour match and even a test run of MVX a few days before.

This was my second major sports media mobile release to the mass market and it felt validating to see user data come in through Amplitude that reflected the feature engagement we hoped for at scale.

© 2024 Cory Keller