BridgeCast Website Design

A bespoke video subscription platform for the world’s top rated bridge player and teacher – Andrew Robson.
Specifically targeted at an older digital audience.

Role: Designer at Nzime

Overview

BridgeCast is an online subscription service for Bridge enthusiasts to receive daily videos from world-class player and teacher Andrew Robson.

My goal was to redesign the subscription service, and supporting marketing website, in order to provide a more intuitive and simple experience for an older generation of digital users

Audience Insight

BridgeCast’s original website and subscription platforms were functional, but lacked a user-first approach.

I first collaborated with the BridgeCast team, who had clear insight into their audience. BridgeCast customers were particularly passionate about Andrew’s teaching, so provided critical feedback on what wasn’t working and more importantly what they needed to retain.

Understanding your Level

I worked on a redefinition of their Level system – renaming ambiguous terms that audiences self identified incorrectly with like ‘Intermediate’ and ‘Improver’, and introducing a numbered level system and better introductions to each level system.

This also evolved into a tool – the ‘Level finder’ which helps audiences self select the right Level and even starting video for them.

Marketing Website

Recommendations

I made several recommendations on how to improve the marketing website from both an audience point of view, and also reducing the load on their customer support team.

This included a new ‘Help & Advice’ section that provided written FAQs and video based guides that would help older audiences who may struggle without visual guidance.

Design

The marketing site has a clear content hierarchy that prioritises the main proposition – learning Bridge with Andrew Robson.

This is supported by clear information on each Level, leading to dedicated pages for each. All with clear calls to action through to becoming a subscriber.

Structured pricing modules make the model and subscription packages clear, while ‘how it works’ content helps users to understand the platform and what they’ll get from becoming a subscriber.

This is supported by validation from current users on their BridgeCast experience.

Subscription Platform

The BridgeCast subscription model isn’t like your typical VOD platform where all videos become immediately available – users instead subscribe and receive new videos every day, building up a library of content as their subscription continues.

As well as this they can purchase access to any videos within the BridgeCast library for a one-off fee

This model provided a lot of challenges from a design perspective, that needed to be balanced with the technical ability of their core audience. This required a completely bespoke approach to the user journey.

My approach was to create a user-flow to help map out all required screens across the journey, then move into wireframes to prototype these journeys and ensure it was clear and intuitive for the end user.

I created a step-by-step sign up process that broke down each decision into a focussed state that reduced cognitive load.

Thorough explanations throughout the journey were important for this particular audience to reassure them what to expect.

Once they successfully subscribe, a dashboard shows users the latest videos to be added to their library, providing them with a consistently updated view each time they visit.

Clear account and subscription areas were also considered, making changes, pausing or cancelling subscriptions really easy.

One of the more engaging elements of the experience was introducing a comments section. This is where users could directly leave comments for Andrew Robson under each video, where he would reply directly. This part of the experience is incredibly valuable to his dedicated audience.

Custom Animations

I created a series of custom animations used to support the BridgeCast website and subscription platform.

These help illustrate various parts of the experience, including successful subscription signup.

I also used animation when creating a new Bridge Partner matching service area. This new function allowed users to post on a board looking for Bridge partners who matched their level and whether they were playing online or in-person.

All motion was created from scratch in Adobe After Effects, and exported for web through Lottie.

Results & Ongoing Work

The BridgeCast platform has increased their active subscriber count year on year since their launch, and they continue to receive outstanding feedback from their loyal user base.

This feedback has resulted in some additions and improvements to the BridgeCast website that I have had involvement in actioning through ongoing work with the client.

Including but not limited to:

Bridge Partner Matching
BridgeCast Catalogue overhaul
Curated Video Collection Products
Gifting BridgeCast subscriptions.

View the BridgeCast website