William Hill

William Hill aimed to develop the fastest and most user-friendly sports betting app on the market. Previous innovation efforts were hindered by a resistance to change and a lack of business alignment. I was brought in to provide a fresh perspective and unite the team around a shared vision.

Through interviews and usability testing, I discovered that users struggled most with finding the event and specific bet that they were interested in. Using a workshop format, I facilitated a process where the team could identify these issues themselves and collaboratively develop solutions. This approach allowed us to align on addressing the core problems in the app’s architecture, navigation, and search functionality.

The existing home screen was cluttered, with a confusing hierarchy, unrelated elements grouped together, and multiple navigation paths leading to the same destination.

These links directed users to three main pages for finding events and placing bets:

• In-Play: Live events with the ability to switch between sports.
• Daily List: Events for a specific sport with the option to switch between days.
• Competitions: Events for specific competitions, with the option to bet on the outright winner.

There were multiple ways to navigate to and between the In-play, Daily, and Competition pages:

Upon examining the information architecture, it was clear there was significant overlap between the In-Play, Daily, and Competition pages. These were combined into a single listings page with filters to display the desired events.

The new listings page offered several advantages over the previous design:

• Advanced Filter/Sort: A filter bar displays the most important filters with an option to view more. The ability to sort by popular was added as well as streaming and promotion pricing filters.
• Combined Filters: Users could now select multiple filters, such as Live and On TV, to show games that are both live and televised.
• Favorite Competitions: Users could star their favorite competitions so they always appear at the top of the list.
• Outright Bets: Outright betting was always shown, not just in the competitions view.

The improved information architecture was much simpler:

With the improved information architecture, the home page was simplified to enhance navigation:

Top Navigation

• Large global search to quickly find events and bets.
• My Bets and Betslip combined into a single icon.
• Drawer for low priority features.

Bottom Navigation

• Clear differentiation between sports betting and casino games.
• Shared wallet between experiences with the ability to quickly add funds.

Additionally, the homepage content was improved to reduce clutter and redundancy, and to aid navigation:

• Favorite Sports: A personalized experience for users interested in specific sports.
• Live Events: Users can see which sports have live events without having to click on each one individually.
• Open/Settled Bets: Easily view and modify open and settled bets.
• Popular Events: Events that are receiving the most action.
• Featured Events: Curated events from the promotional team.

To test the designs, we conducted two experiments:

Experiment 1‍

This experiment tested accumulator bets, which involve predicting the outcome of multiple events. Users were asked to place bets on the following:

• 3 football matches
• 3 pre-game football matches
• 3 football matches on Sunday
• 3 live football matches
• 3 football matches on TV
• 3 tennis matches

Users were divided into two cohorts: experienced users, who bet multiple times a week, and new users, who had never placed a bet before. All users were sports fans.

Experienced users completed these tasks 1.57x faster, and new users 2.48x faster with the new designs.

Experiment 2

This experiment tested specific bets within a single event. Users were asked to place the following bets:

• The winner of the Manchester United vs Liverpool match
• Which team would score the first goal
• Which player(s) would score during the match

With the new designs, users completed the tasks 2x faster.

Additionally, participants used the System Usability Scale (SUS) to rate both designs. The new designs received a score of 90.5 (Excellent), compared to the previous design score of 48 (Poor).