Enhancing Fan Experience During Live Sports Broadcasts Through Second Screen Applications

219 Pages·2016·40.1 MB·English

Pedro Miguel da Fonseca Centieiro

M.Sc.

Enhancing Fan Experience During Live Sports
Broadcasts Through Second Screen Applications
Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Informática
Events

Orientador: Professora Doutora Teresa Isabel Lopes Romão
Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia
Universidade Nova de Lisboa

Co-orientador: Doutor António Eduardo Cardoso Pinto Baptista Dias
Viva Superstars Digital Media, Lda

Outubro, 2015
Enhancing Fan Experience During Live Sports Broadcasts Through Second
Screen Applications
Copyright © Pedro Miguel da Fonseca Centieiro, Faculdade de Ciências e Tec-
nologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
A Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia e a Universidade Nova de Lisboa têm o
direito, perpétuo e sem limites geográficos, de arquivar e publicar esta disserta-
ção através de exemplares impressos reproduzidos em papel ou de forma digi-
tal, ou por qualquer outro meio conhecido ou que venha a ser inventado, e de a
divulgar através de repositórios científicos e de admitir a sua cópia e distribui-
ção com objectivos educacionais ou de investigação, não comerciais, desde que
seja dado crédito ao autor e editor.
ii
Acknowledgements
It is curious that the first words that you are reading were the last ones
that I wrote. I think that this closes a cycle – or better, a journey – that started
almost 4 years ago. Finding a theme for a PhD thesis is not an easy task, but for-
tunately, I ended up studying a theme and a technology that I love. However,
not everything was a walk in the park. This work involved countless hours and
contributions from many individuals who deserve recognition. To those who
have accompanied me in this journey, I would like to express my sincere grati-
tude. First, none of this would have been possible without the unconditional
support and encouragement of my family and colleagues. My parents, who al-
ways gave me everything I needed. My better half for all the patience and un-
derstanding across the years. My colleagues both former and current members
of NOVA-LINCS, in particular Rui Madeira and Bruno Cardoso with whom I
worked in close collaboration and attended different conferences; Professors
Rui Prada and Nuno Correia for their invaluable feedback; my colleagues at
Viva Superstars, mainly Mário Franco for his endless technology knowledge
and Diogo Cordeiro for his help with eSports; Bárbara Teixeira for the graphic
design created on different prototypes, and Carlos Oliveira for having the pa-
tience to review this dissertation.
And lastly, of course, a special (and huge!) acknowledgement to my PhD
supervisors, Professor Teresa Romão and Dr. Eduardo Dias. This thesis would
not have been possible without their care, patience, constructive criticism, and
for always having provided me what I needed. I would embark in this journey
with them again, and again, and again…

iii
iv
Resumo

Quando os fãs de desporto assistem a eventos desportivos ao vivo, é co-
mum participarem em experiências sociais com amigos, familiares, e outros fãs
que apoiam os mesmos atletas. Contudo, os fãs que assistem ao mesmo evento
através de uma transmissão televisiva, acabam por não ter a mesma ligação
emocional com os atletas e os milhares de fãs que estão presentes no local onde
o evento se realiza. Tendo em conta este problema, nós procuramos criar apli-
cações móveis que proporcionem experiências sociais enriquecedoras aos fãs
remotos que assistem aos eventos desportivos através duma transmissão televi-
siva. Devido ao crescente uso de dispositivos móveis enquanto se assiste a
transmissões televisivas, estas aplicações procuram explorar o conceito de se-
cond screen, o qual permite aos utilizadores interagir em tempo real com o con-
teúdo que está a ser transmitido. Neste contexto, apresentamos um conjunto de
protótipos que foram desenvolvidos para testar os nossos conceitos, realizar
testes de utilizador, e analisar como estes se podem adaptar não só a vários
desportos, mas também a diversos programas de TV e desportos electrónicos.
Finalmente, apresentamos também o conjunto de dificuldades que enfrentámos
e as diretrizes que seguimos durante as diferentes fases de desenvolvimento
dos protótipos, o que pode representar uma ajuda considerável no desenvolvi-
mento de futuras aplicações second screen para eventos ao vivo.
Palavras-chave: Fãs de desporto, desportos ao vivo, experiência de uti-
lizador, dispositivos móveis, aplicações second screen, entretenimento.

v
vi
Abstract

When sports fans attend live sports events, they usually engage in social
experiences with friends, family members and other fans at the venue sharing
the same affiliation. However, fans watching the same event through a live tel-
evision broadcast end up not feeling so emotionally connected with the athletes
and other fans as they would if they were watching it live, together with thou-
sands of other fans. With this in mind, we seek to create mobile applications
that deliver engaging social experiences involving remote fans watching live
broadcasted sports events. Taking into account the growing use of mobile de-
vices when watching TV broadcasts, these mobile applications explore the se-
cond screen concept, which allows users to interact with content that comple-
ments the TV broadcast. Within this context, we present a set of second screen
application prototypes developed to test our concepts, the corresponding user
studies and results, as well as suggestions on how to apply the prototypes’ con-
cepts not only in different sports, but also during TV shows and electronic
sports. Finally, we also present the challenges we faced and the guidelines we
followed during the development and evaluation phases, which may give a
considerable contribution to the development of future second screen applica-
tions for live broadcasted events.
Keywords: Sports fans, live sports, user experience, mobile devices, second
screen applications, entertainment.

vii
viii
Contents
1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1
1.1. DESCRIPTION AND CONTEXT ............................................................................................... 2
1.2. RESEARCH GOAL AND QUESTIONS ................................................................................... 5
1.3. CONTRIBUTIONS AND PUBLICATIONS .............................................................................. 6
1.4. DOCUMENT ORGANISATION ............................................................................................... 9
2. RELATED RESEARCH ........................................................................................................ 11
2.1. PSYCHOLOGY OF SPORTS FANS ........................................................................................ 11
2.2. REMOTE LIVE EXPERIENCES .............................................................................................. 18
2.3. SECOND SCREEN INTERACTION ....................................................................................... 22
3. BRIDGING THE EMOTIONAL GAP ................................................................................. 31
3.1. WEAPPLAUD ........................................................................................................................... 34
3.1.1. Fans' Actions during Live Sports ............................................................................... 35
3.1.2. Playing Games by Interpreting and Reproducing Rhythmical Patterns .... 37
3.1.3. The Prototype ...................................................................................................................... 39
3.1.4. Clap Detection .................................................................................................................... 46
3.1.5. Implementation and Architecture ............................................................................... 49
3.1.6. Evaluation ............................................................................................................................. 50
3.1.7. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 59
3.2. WEBET ........................................................................................................................................ 60
3.2.1. Sports Betting ...................................................................................................................... 61
3.2.2. Interacting without Looking through Touchscreen Devices ............................. 63
3.2.3. The Prototype ....................................................................................................................... 65
3.2.4. Concept Stage ...................................................................................................................... 65
3.2.4.1. Design and Development ...................................................................................... 66
3.2.4.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................... 71
3.2.5. Interaction Stage ................................................................................................................ 75
3.2.5.1. Design and Development ...................................................................................... 75
3.2.5.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................... 78
3.2.6. Real Setting Stage .............................................................................................................. 83
3.2.6.1. Design and Development ...................................................................................... 83
3.2.6.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................... 92
3.2.7. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................... 98
ix
3.3. WEFEEL ...................................................................................................................................... 99
3.3.1. Social Engagement during Broadcasted Live Sports ........................................ 100
3.3.2. Accessing Emotions through Computational Devices ..................................... 102
3.3.3. The Prototype ................................................................................................................... 103
3.3.4. Concept Stage ................................................................................................................... 104
3.3.4.1. Design and Development ................................................................................... 104
3.3.4.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................ 111
3.3.5. Potential and Users’ Preferences Stage .................................................................. 117
3.3.5.1. Design and Development ................................................................................... 117
3.3.5.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................ 119
3.3.6. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 122
3.4. WESYNC .................................................................................................................................. 123
3.4.1. TV Broadcast Delays on Live Sports ...................................................................... 124
3.4.2. Synchronising Second Screen Applications with TV Broadcasts ............... 126
3.4.3. The Prototype ................................................................................................................... 127
3.4.4. Concept Stage ................................................................................................................... 128
3.4.4.1. Design and Development ................................................................................... 129
3.4.4.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................ 135
3.4.5. Cheating-Free Competition Stage ............................................................................ 143
3.4.5.1. Design and Development ................................................................................... 144
3.4.5.2. Evaluation ................................................................................................................ 148
3.4.6. Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 155
4. ENHANCING FAN EXPERIENCE IN SPORTS, TV SHOWS AND ESPORTS ......... 157
4.1. SPORTS ...................................................................................................................................... 158
4.2. TV SHOWS .............................................................................................................................. 162
4.3. ESPORTS ................................................................................................................................... 164
5. DESIGNING SECOND SCREEN APPLICATIONS DURING LIVE BROADCASTS . 169
5.1. USER INTERACTION DESIGN ........................................................................................... 169
5.2. USER INTERFACE DESIGN ................................................................................................. 172
6. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK ......................................................................... 177
6.1. HOW TO IMPROVE THE REMOTE USER EXPERIENCE WHILE WATCHING A
BROADCASTED LIVE SPORTS EVENT? ..................................................................................................... 177
6.1.1. What factors of the event contribute more to the fan experience? ............... 178
6.1.2. How to create satisfying social experiences? ........................................................ 179
6.1.3. How should the user experience be designed? ..................................................... 180
6.2. FUTURE WORK ...................................................................................................................... 181
7. REFERENCES .................................................................................................................... 185
x