SEE +: World Ice Hockey Championship

Hi, Habr! After our last publication about the app “LOOK +” we received a large number of comments and suggestions. SEE WATCH + team took these wishes into consideration - first of all, WATCH + continued to exist and launched the project as part of the World Hockey Championship, and then fans will also have the World Soccer Championship, which will also be presented in the app. Let's look at the results and changes in the service.

What was and what was

The Olympic version of the application has been downloaded by over 600,000 people. After updating in May, the second version of “LOOK +”, which was prepared for the beginning of the World Hockey Championship, became available to users, with the content of the Olympic Games still presented in the app.

The application interface is adapted to the World Hockey Championship, and navigation has become even simpler: schedule, game score, access to watch games — online and from the archive — as well as the “moments” function, all this is available in one section “Look” . The “Statistics” section was significantly improved and expanded, and the videos were placed in the “Reviews” section. The grid itself shows games has been adapted to the schedule of the Championship: you can separately view the games of Groups A and B, as well as Playoffs.
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Thus, the application retains the main features of the previous version:
• Games are shown (from two ice rinks) online; you can watch each game show from the archive immediately after the match ends.
• For the convenience of viewing a recorded match, there is a “Moments” function - these are our “bookmarks” that allow you to conveniently and quickly move between the most interesting events in the game.
• Detailed game statistics, individual teams and the entire championship.
• Reviews - specially prepared videos





As mentioned earlier, we paid special attention to the section of statistics, which is very important for many sports fans: in addition to statistics, we added the so-called time-line of each game, which allows you to monitor key events online during each game.

















It must be said that all the Olympic content from the first application is available for viewing during 2014. You can get to it by a special link from the new version “LOOK +”. The same thing will happen with hockey content later, when the World Cup starts. That is, each time we will adapt the application for a specific sport or event, as is the case with the Olympics, while maintaining key functionality.



At the very beginning of the Olympics, there were complaints from users about the possibility of registering in the service that was not always working, and also not all users could reach the contact center. Even then, we took measures to eliminate these shortcomings, and we took the experience into account when working on the second version of LOOK +. As before, the application works without registration, and the contact center’s resources are increased — user support and prompt resolution of the problems encountered are our priority task. And we see the result of the measures taken: now they mostly contact us, either to thank for the service and give their suggestions, what other sports they want to see in the service, or - to be happy for our team!

Another problem is video playback. It is not massive, but it causes inconvenience to some of our users. All these problems are related to the fact that our content is legal, which means we use certain methods of closing content, in rare cases this leads to a failure at the user’s software level, although these problems are usually eliminated in one minute.

Perhaps the most difficult in preparing the second version of the application was filling the content. It was necessary in a short time to acquire the rights to content from the World Hockey Championship. It was also necessary to prepare a lot of statistical information before launching the application.

Future plans

A little about future plans for the development of the application. First of all, through “LOOK +” our sports video content, including exclusive, will be available to our users. In our plans, including the KHL, we receive many requests from users for this championship. During the FIFA World Cup, we plan to give the user a choice: watch the broadcast both in the original and with the commentator. This is another wish of our users. I cannot say who will be the commentator yet, but a surprise is just waiting for the football fans. If this function is in demand, we will continue to use it.

After the World Football Championship, the functionality of the application will be expanded, the design is improved. Keeping the focus on video content, we will significantly expand the provision of additional materials and statistics. Our goal is to transform the user's smartphone or tablet not only into a “player”, which gives access to video content where and when it is convenient, but also into a full-fledged second screen, which reflects comprehensive information about the event and its participants. For example, sitting at a stadium or at home watching television watching the game, you will receive extensive additional information about athletes, strength of the throw, running speed, raised weight and much more, as well as now in the app, you can share your emotions with other fans.