Paddy Power
Next Generation Screens
Background
The innovative Paddy Power are always looking to enhance the customer experience. These days in the gaming industry with the focus being on online it is easy to forget the importance of the physical infrastructure. Paddy Powers shops are still an important part of the business and the shop experience is constantly evolving.
The Next Generation Screen project is part of the move to convergence within the gaming industry where the barriers between the online and offline are merging.
Recently Paddy Power have made efforts to improve their shop experience. They have undertaken an extensive refit of all 500 plus shops in the Rep. of Ireland and United Kingdom.
The Issue
TV pricing displays have traditionally been disjointed. There was no clear hierarchy of what prices were associated with what event. Only the seasoned better could easily understand the screen displays, shutting out many potential customers.
In terms of displaying events and prices, what the shops need were clear and unambiguous pricing displays that would be accessible and more engaging to the seasoned and casual customer alike.
The Solution
Regardless of the event being displayed there had to be a consistency throughout. This applied to the information hierarchy and the use of colours and fonts. Understanding betting was also a key factor in finding a solution. As a novice better this worked in my advantage as making it as accessible as possible was key.
Paddy Power has very strong branding so this made the choice of colour and font straight forward. It was applying that to a medium it was not directly created for presented some challenges.
The shops also have traditionally used colours to represent different events orange for virtual racing, purple for dog racing, blue for horse racing and red for sports. This was followed through using the colour to differentiate the event types.
Key Deliverables
- Design documentation for developers.
- Templates for each sporting event.
- Integrate promotional offers in the templates.
- Style guide for future template developments.
My Role in the Project
I was hired as a UX design consultant to create the information architecture and user interface for the screens. I was the only designer on the project. At my disposal I had all the research that had been undertaken for the next generation screens project. I also worked with several experts in the area of retail and screen technology.
The Design
After extensive research three clear objectives emerged that the new screens designs had to achieve the following:
- Can the customer clearly see the event they are looking for?
- Are the prices always associated with the event.
- Is the next betting opportunity clearly identifiable.
The new screens had to be all of the above and more; they need to be scalable and dynamic. The screens chosen were high definition (16:9) flat panel screens. The screens would be displayed in portrait mode and be displayed side by side to create a video wall. This would enable display to be tailored to individual shops sizes. Different screen sizes could be accommodated as long as they are of the 16:9 ratio.
All events had various different stats that had to be designed for. Some of them were single panel and others would be displayed over two panels. This applied to both racing and sporting events.
Racing
Some racing templates in their different states
Virtual horse racing, displaying a results template
Upcoming horse racing template.
Double panel now running dog racing template
Double panel now running horse racing template
Sports
Sports screens had to accommodate several different displays: pre-match and in-play in both single and double screens. There were some sports that had unique features that could not be accommodated in the template. Like the racing templates they inherited the colour from the shops, red is the sporting primary colour.
Some samples of the sporting templates.
GAA single panel, inplay
Rugby double panel,, inplay
football single panel, pre-match
Football double panel, inplay
Cricket single panel, in play
Tennis double panel, inplay
Conclusion
The new screens will be a valuable addition to the new shop fit out. They are adaptable and on brand so they will fit into every one of Paddy Power’s shops in some shape or form if required.
Even at this early stage they have shown to have filled the requirements. From preliminary research the redesign has created a more engaging and an overall better user experience. Novice betters can better understand what is going on and seasoned betters now have a more coherent shop experience.