Re-architecting Real-Time Sports Chat for Continuous Participation

Re-architecting Real-Time Sports Chat for Continuous Participation

11+:

Live football community platform designed for real-time fan interaction during and beyond matches.

Real-time UX

B2C · Community

Role

Product Designer

Team

1 Product Designer

1 Product Manager

2 Engineers

1 QA

Responsibilities

End-to-end UX Design

Timeline

3 Months

TLDR

Challenge

Adding more features didn’t increase participation. Conversations remained fragmented across live moments, activity was difficult to track, and engagement dropped after each interaction.

Insight

This wasn’t a motivation problem.
Engagement broke when context disappeared, activity became invisible, and participation had no ongoing value.

My Role

Design a system where interaction persists beyond isolated match moments.

Solution

Solution

Re-architected the participation system through
unified threads, community spaces, and visible social signals.

Re-architected the participation system through unified threads, community spaces, and visible social signals.

Impact

Impact

0

+

Reaction
per match

0

min

longer session
duration

0

x

More sustained
peer interaction

Process

Weekly design sprints to validate participation behavior

Weekly design sprints to validate participation behavior

Worked in rapid 1-week cycles with PM and engineers to test how users moved between live and community interactions, validating which changes improved continuity versus those that added surface complexity.

Design Journey

Design Journey

Design Journey

Problem

Users engage in conversations,
but fail to sustain participation, resulting in low retention.

Users engage in conversations,
but fail to sustain participation, resulting in low retention.

Short sessions (~3 min)

Conversations break at every scene transition

Retention stagnated despite ongoing activity

Structural Diagnosis

Where participation broke

Where participation broke

Participation broke when:

  1. Context disappeared across scenes

  2. Activity was not visible

  3. There was no reason to return

Strategic Trade-off

Why this over more features?

The team explored expanding features and entry points, but it didn’t address the core issue.
I prioritized strengthening the participation loop before expanding surfaces.
Retention depended more on continuity than on feature expansion.

Strategy

The 3 conditions for sustained participation

The 3 conditions for sustained participation

These three conditions work together to form a continuous participation loop.

Continuity

Preserve context so conversations flow across match moments.

Unified thread

Persistence

Give interaction value beyond isolated moments so fans return and contribute again.

Community lounge

Visibility

Make participation visible so fans see impact, momentum, and social presence.

Leaderboard

Strategic Trade-off

Why this over more features?

Why this over more features?

The team explored expanding features and entry points, but it didn’t address the core issue.
I prioritized strengthening the participation loop before expanding surfaces.
Retention depended more on continuity than on feature expansion.

FInal Outcome

➊ Continuity

From fragmented chats to a unified live thread

A unified thread with deeper previews and auto-play keeps conversations continuous across live moments so users stay focused on the match with full context.

Before

After

Conversations reset across
scenes, breaking context

Conversations reset across scenes,
breaking context

Conversation persists seamlessly
across scenes

Fragmented chat

Auto-play

Unified thread

Users could interact with other fans during the match without losing context.

Before

After

Context is blocked by full-screen chat

Match context stays visible while chatting.

Scene stamp

Jump to scene

Resizable chat

➋ Persistence

From moment-based interaction to ongoing community engagement

I created a shared team space where fans connect in real time, chat like teammates, and build stronger, lasting engagement beyond the match.

Before

After

Interaction was limited to isolated posts

A shared team space enabled real-time,
chat-like interaction among fans

➌ Visibility

From hidden participation to visible social signals

I surfaced individual contributions within each team, making participation visible, recognizable, and socially motivating.

Before

After

Participation was only visible
at the team level on the home feed

Participation was only visible at the team level on the home feed

Participation became visible at the individual level
within each team community

Participation became visible at the individual level within each team community

What I learned

Participation is not a feature problem but a system design problem.

Participation is not a feature problem but a system design problem.

This project reshaped how I approach design in complex systems. Rather than focusing on adding features, I focused on designing the conditions that enable behavior to emerge.

Even within fast-paced environments, establishing structural clarity proved essential to stabilizing and scaling user participation. I now approach product problems by first identifying structural conditions, rather than surface-level feature gaps.

If I had more time, I would validate how these participation patterns evolve across long-term retention and multi-match behavior.

Problem

Users engage in conversations,
but fail to sustain participation, resulting in low retention.

Short sessions (~3 min)

Conversations break at every scene transition

Retention stagnated despite ongoing activity

Strategy

The 3 conditions for sustained participation

These three conditions work together to form a continuous participation loop.

Continuity

Preserve context so conversations flow across match moments.

Unified thread

Persistence

Give interaction value beyond isolated moments so fans return and contribute again.

Community lounge

Visibility

Make participation visible so fans see impact, momentum, and social presence.

Leaderboard

Let's Collaborate

Let's talk about a project,
collaboration or an idea you may have

Contact

LinkedIn

Let's Collaborate

Let's talk about a project,
collaboration or an idea you may have

Contact

LinkedIn

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