Courtesy of Sports Video Group http://sportsvideo.org
by: Jason Dachman, Assistant Editor | Published: December 16, 2009The long-awaited new look of
FoxSports.com was unveiled Tuesday with a renewed focus on video, site navigation, and a dramatically redesigned scorebar. The site also features a heavier focus on the link between FoxSports.com and Fox Sports Radio.
According to Sports Business Journal, the move marks the first step in a changing philosophy that began earlier this year when Fox’s digital sports operations were shifted from Fox Interactive Media to the Fox Broadcasting Group.
The highlight of the new look is a customizable scorebar, which is placed at the bottom of each page and moves with the users as they scroll down an individual page on the site. This is in stark contrast to most mainstream sports sites that put the bar at the top of the page. The new design was created in conjunction with New York-based design and software company Code And Theory.
“We think we’ve gone a long way to improving the user experience and content discovery on the site, and reducing the clutter that was present in our prior look,” says Jeff Husvar, Fox Sports Interactive senior vice president of operations. “[Fox Sports Chairman] David Hill said he wanted this new site to pop, and we think we’ve done that.”
Husvar says that the move is not necessarily expected to increase the traffic to FoxSports.com in the short run. Rather, the move is more directly aimed at improving engagement and overall content consumption on the site.