Waking up early in the morning, suiting up, not opening emails and running down the road to lock in a quick surf session beats every productivity routine preached online, at least for me. On a good day this is the warm-up of my work routine, it allows me to think on everything I have to do, clean up my head and create momentum before even turning the computer on.

Of the few hobbies I take on almost all are sports related and this complements the ongoing client work (mostly around sports), routine optimisation and learning. Crossing work with pleasure, creating solutions and finding new problems is what has been fuelling my last 15 years as a designer but the addiction to sports is what has been narrowing down the company focus ,especially when you talk about Surf, the number one addiction.

Since the early days of Canvaz Design Studio we've always taken time to create things that we were not hired to do but we just felt the need to...and despite this is not being the first case study it marks the beginning of Design Exercises, hoping that some of you will take on the challenge and reiterate, create, showcase or just send some feedback on what is presented, this is a first prototype...this is the new World Surf League Apple TV App, a work in progress.

THE PROBLEM

The World Surf League apps are used, on its majority, for the event's live stream , heat recaps, overall ranking situation ,athletes info and fantasy league (you can join me @ Canvaz League). I understand there are a lot of other features and content that has to be there for all the reasons but this is a personal challenge so brand agendas and content hierarchy is not an issue, this is an exercise to optimize WSL user experience.

Now the WSL apps go from mobile, to tablet and Smart TV but as the mobile one is very useful to keep updated on everything around the tours, and mostly your fantasy league, Smart TV app is mostly about Live Stream and video content.

THE SOLUTION

The lack of contextual information about everything that comes to your mind ,while watching a live event, led to some iterations. To have an easy view of the overall situation with the tour the home screen is a World Map with all the events mapped out, at a glance you can see where each event takes place, who won which, understand how far the event is with the highlight for the live one. In this view you can easily go to previous and upcoming events and navigate through these awesome locations.

As an add on for contextual information an overlay swell map, for the current or upcoming event, would do the trick. Now its just hopping for a massive one for Pipeline or the next red alert at Teahupoo.

The World Map Event

In just one click from the home screen you would access the live event page (I know it is what happens now but let me finish my thought) but with some additional info and organisation that could allow you to understand in seconds what your watching, what is the raking situation and even the forecast for the day on that particular site

Now from this page, and depending on the heat performance, I might want to navigate throughout the event and see previous heats results quickly or in detail, previous rounds….or even previous events...if the heat is sucking really bad or I just want to see a comparison with the awesome air that was bigger than the other one...well I can now go there quickly.

When going into previous heat analysis you can have quick access to all scored waves, everything from recaps, interviews or extras was removed because...SURF!

This is where I paused my work, mostly because fantasy works pretty good for me (although last update got me with some mixed feelings) and I pretty much solved my TV issue with these simple steps…

FULL PROJECT ON BEHANCE

An upgrade version is being developed where I've combined experience on your phone and tv in real time, betting on surfers…

THANK YOU

FULL PROJECT : https://www.behance.net/gallery/44461751/World-Surf-LeagueApple-TV-App

Design Exercises 1 | World Surf League Apple Tv