NFL Relaunches App to Provide Ultimate Fan Experience

The NFL continues to dominate the American sports landscape - accounting for 93 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts in 2023 (Source: Sportico). On top of that, fans continue to engage with the NFL in deeper ways through fantasy, betting, and original programming, in addition to the millions that attend live games. With the NFL’s continued growth in popularity, alongside an ever-shifting tide of where fans are consuming digital content, the NFL recognised it was time to reinvent its flagship digital product - the League app - to provide depth, authority, and content for football in a way only the NFL can, with new offering of NFL+ at the core of the experience. 

The NFL collaborated with two partners - digital product and design agency Code and Theory and development partner Apply Digital - to redesign a league app focused on the ultimate, video-first fan experience. The NFL Product and Design teams worked closely with Code and Theory to redefine the user experience from the ground up, from the creation of a new design system that bridges the rich history of the League and 32 Clubs with a modernized look and new features focused on bringing fans closer to the game.

Key highlights include: 

The Sunday Game Experience / Homepage 

Sundays are appointment viewing for NFL fans from early day to late night, whether you watch at home, at the bar, or on the go, with an average of 14 games being played between 1pm – 8pm EST. NFL+ offers the chance to get live local and national games and RedZone in the users’ hands, wherever they are, to deliver the ultimate Gameday experience. To get fans into the action as quickly as possible, the new app: 

● Lands users on an immersive, watch-first experience showcasing multiple live video streams featuring NFL RedZone (the popular show featuring whip around coverage of scoring plays across all the Sunday daytime game window), live local games, national games and NFL Network via NFL+. 

● Additionally, audio streams for out-of-market games, game highlights and pregame video previews make the homepage a fan’s one-stop stop for the week’s schedule, whether they want to watch live in the moment, preview upcoming matchups, or see what they missed via Game Replays. 

Game / Matchup Pages 

For fans looking for a deeper dive, the team reinvented Game pages, which pull together live and VOD video, audio, play-by-play, stats, drive charts and more. This includes new features including: 

● A seamless pinned video player that enables game video or audio to stay with you as you travel around the app, allowing fans to multi-task checking scores, reading updates, and more while still following the game 

● A new 'game switcher' that lets fan quickly jump between games and RedZone 

Beyond Game Day 

The habits, behaviours, and passions of Sunday Gameday were the starting point for the experience, but the new NFL app stays in tune with the rhythms of the NFL day, week, and season while always keeping the fan at the centre of the experience 

● Throughout the week, the Watch & News screens dynamically adapt to the ebbs and flows of the week, transitioning from Injury Reports in the run-up to Gameday to the Game experience itself to the analysis of the week and the previews of the next one. 

● Beyond season there is plenty of enhanced action around the NFL Combine and Draft. The app includes an immersive draft tracker and an in-depth look at player performance, comparisons, projections and team needs. 

NFL head of product design, UX and user research Lauren Manning says, "The new NFL app brings the excitement and energy of the game directly to fans. It meets fans where they are on a gameday - from casually watching on the go to obsessively following every score, stat, story and highlight - and fills the gap of waiting for next week’s games with replays, analysis and 24/7 football.” 

Code and Theory CEO Michael Treff says, “The NFL has always brought fans together through fandom for the sport, the teams and the shared experience of football. With behaviours around the sport evolving faster than ever, the launch of this app gives NFL fans an innovative new way to engage and immerse themselves in their passion for football.”