Visualisations and interaction gestures: enhancing the football watching experience via second screen

Advancements in mobile technologies and the Internet have changed the habits of TV audiences. As a result, second screen, which can be defined as a form of companion device use to augment TV watching experience, is emerging as a practice. Research shows that a considerable proportion of TV football audiences use second screen when they watch football matches on TV. However, certain details regarding the usage of second screen and how they affect the users’ watching experience are unknown. This thesis investigates how most common visualisations of certain match-related information on second screen affect the watching experience of football matches on TV. This research also investigates how the most used and newly emerging interaction gestures for the retrieval of match-related information via second screen influence the watching experience of football matches on TV. Furthermore, this research provides design recommendations for second screen applications in terms of visualisations and interaction gestures. The design recommendations address to ensure an effective and enjoyable presentation of match-related information adapted to the users’ needs. In order to achieve this, questions such as how memorable and enjoyable most common types of visualisations are, if there is a trade of between them, and what other relevant factors impact on the viewing experience are considered.

To address the questions, first, an initial literature review is conducted to analyse how people have experienced football. This is followed by the analysis of people’s behaviour of seeking match-related information on second screen. The findings revealed that match statistics are one of the most sought types of match-related information and smartphones are the most used as second screen. For this reason, the visualisations of match statistics in mobile football apps and websites are evaluated. On top of that, the interaction gestures that were used in those apps and websites were identified.

Two types of visualisation and interaction gestures were compared in prototype experiments in terms of their effectiveness, memorability and enjoyment. The findings revealed that different visualisations and interaction gestures had different effects in terms of effectiveness and enjoyment on the watching experience. Specifically, plain number visualisation seems to be less effective and enjoyed than bar charts in general. However, plain numbers seemed to be slightly more memorable than bar charts when the information access through second screen occurred in active gameplay. In addition, tapping for information retrieval on second screen seems be more effective and enjoyable than swiping in general except the performance of recalling verbatim match statistics seems to be slightly better with swiping when second screen activity is performed in non-active gameplay. Therefore, the findings recommend that different purposes need to be considered for the design of the relevant apps and websites in this regard.

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