Project Challenge

Create a consumer-facing MLB product focused on the powerful combination of the comparative statistics that make baseball unique, and the social conversation around specific MLB games and players.

Project Detail

Fox Game Connect combines a set of compelling statistical visualizations with the conversation on the social web to create a truly unique way for fans to supplement their linear broadcast experience.

The landing page for Game Connect provides everything that today’s passionate fans need to immerse themselves in the Fox broadcast: a feed of real-time game data, the ability to view and contribute to the social conversation around the game action, and a deep dive into game stats not available in other second screen experiences.

There is a social accompaniment to each player feature that we have labeled as ‘Social Buzz.’ This allows visitors to easily view the volume of conversation around that player as it takes place on the social web AND allows users to click through the ‘Social Buzz’ button to a visualized version of that conversation. There is also a ‘Bio’ link on each player card – this launches a light-box that displays season statistical data and biographical information for that player.

Fox Game Connect is designed around two features that are the unique selling points of this second screen environment - enhanced game statistics (“Game Stats”) and a stream of relevant social conversation (“Game Talk”). The middle area of the main screen is divided in two, with each feature owning ½ the page. These features also have dedicated pages where this compelling information is displayed in even more detail.

The Game Stats area includes a graphical representation of the pitcher/batter match-up, a unique visualization of pitching stats, a unique visualization of batting stats and team leaders statistics.

The “Match-up” feature allows fans to view how pitchers and batters have faired against each other over the course of their careers. It displays the number of at-bats and the batter’s career batting average vs. that pitcher. We created a 'gas gauge' view into a where a pitcher is in his current pitch count relative to his average pitches thrown per game, as well as a visual on ball to strike ratio. On the batter side we visualize a batter's career performance on a month by month basis, illustrating trends on players who start or end strong. We also provide a graphic on the batter's performance vs. righties and lefties as well as clutch hitting statistics.

The Game Talk area is a ‘Live Conversation’ text entry box where users can contribute to the conversation. If they are not yet logged in, clicking the ‘Tweet’ button will push them through the Twitter API login process and then allow them to Tweet right from this field. Additionally, the entries made in this field will dynamically append and add to the list, which is organized with the most recent entries at the top. A timeline feature allows users to view the conversation by inning, displaying the topics of conversation as the game evolves.

The Image Cloud is a data visualization that displays a tree map of player images based on the volume of conversation about them on the social web. It takes the top 15-20 players based on social media data volume and displays them with the players who have the most conversations rendering as larger images and the players with less conversations rendering as smaller images. Clicking on a player displays the river of social data listed below the tree map as a stream (list) view.

The Fox Game Connect will serve Fox’s passionate MLB fans all over the US and is being supported by Fox Sports broadcast. This environment is another example of Omnigon combining our subject matter expertise in sports, our understanding of compelling visual systems, and our systems and data integration expertise.