The Boston Globe has been an established leader in sports analysis for years. They are keenly aware of the rapidly changing sports industries and their ongoing evolution. With sports, the second-screen experience is a declared turf war. Users receive breaking news from social media almost instantaneously. They’re able to study team and player analyses from a few industry leaders and watch video streams in the background for a sense of participation via fantasy sports. This is the new standard for fan engagement with live sports. We were brought into the Boston Globe offices to experience sports culture firsthand. While there, we discussed the present and future state of sports writing and held one-on-one interviews with several editors, writers and producers.

Learning about Boston sports from an ethnographic perspective was a unique experience that would ultimately help shape our design decisions. From here, we focused on community contributions. During the project, we were able to build a high level of trust between teams. Our weekly check-ins were devoted to high-level business and sports insights from the Boston Globe team, instead of the usual visual design critiques. By combining modern prototyping tools, we were able to demonstrate an experience that would integrate with users’ consumption habits. Our task was never to create the end product. Rather, we delivered a collection of ideas and a vision for the Boston Globe team to grow upon in the future.