Hawk-eye: Virtual Recreation

The project

For the Qatar 2022 Football World Cup, Hawkeye sought to revolutionise fan engagement within the stadium by creating a new experience. Utilising their existing player tracking data, the goal was to develop virtual recreations of key game moments. The project centred on designing a user-friendly tool for replay operators, allowing them to generate these VR moments from scratch in under one minute during gameplay. This initiative aimed to enhance the fan experience while maintaining the high standards of accuracy and efficiency that Hawkeye is known for.

What we did

As this was a brand new system for Hawkeye, the initial phase of our project focused on understanding the existing processes and challenges. Collaborating with product managers, developers, and researchers, I kicked off the project by delving into a thorough exploration of what this system may look like. Working with developers through workshops and discovery sessions, I mapped out the technological framework, detailing how the system would function. In parallel, I conducted in-depth research sessions with current Hawkeye operators to examine their use of the Hawk VR system and identify their needs and expectations for a virtual recreation platform. By investigating existing systems and other 3D platforms, we were able to benchmark our project and pinpoint areas for innovation and improvement. Through these sessions, I could map out a clear process and start putting together requirements.

As the technology was being developed alongside this project and incorporated features from other Hawkeye systems, we had a clear understanding of what we needed this new system to achieve. During the kick-off, we established that we could utilise features such as the scrubbing tool and present the story in visual layers. To ensure a structured approach, I began by writing requirements for the system, breaking it down into key components and tasks that the operator would perform. Working closely with several project managers, I created a comprehensive list of requirements, which we used to begin the wireframing process.

Once the team and I had agreed on the prioritisation for release one, I was able to begin wireframing. Drawing on the research conducted previously and the established requirements, I wireframed a tool that allowed operators to create clips from various live feeds around the stadium and add them to a timeline where they could include target selection and visualisations. This functionality enabled operators to create clips efficiently, integrate them into the timeline, and then enhance them with visualisations, ensuring a seamless and dynamic user experience.

Since the business wanted to use components similar to other systems to make sure skills were easily transferable between operators, I kept this in mind during the design phase. After creating the wireframes and running design workshops with various stakeholders, I started working on the UI for each component. Hawkeye systems are designed to be modular since every operator works differently, and I made sure to incorporate this into my design. With the wireframes outlining the overall design, I carefully crafted each key task component, like the timeline. Once the UI components were finished, I made templates to show how they might be used by operators, giving stakeholders a clearer view of the UI.

While refining the UI of the HawkVR platform with stakeholders, I began prototyping the system in Axure to get ready for testing. Using a simple prototype, I tested key tasks like adding a clip, selecting targets for tracking data, creating visualisations, and exporting stories for TV. I did remote testing with four current Hawkeye Football operators who were set to work at the World Cup and would be using this system during the competition. The feedback was positive, and I used their constructive input to improve the designs.

Due to time constraints, development happened alongside the final UI iterations. This actually worked out well because we could do beta testing with the system, again involving operators who would use it at the World Cup. These testing sessions were super valuable, uncovering key bugs and minor usability issues. Once testing was wrapped up, we did a final handover and set up regular check-ins with the development team to ensure everything stayed on track.

Project outcome

Once development was completed, the system was stress-tested during the Women's 2022 Euros. This was a great success, and the system was ready for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The system was used to create virtual recreations of goals on the big screen. These stories were shown to 3.4 million spectators across the tournament and received fantastic responses from fans on social media.