ABOUT

Betting startup Odds Bods asked me to head up their UX/UI and Creative Design output. Over the past two years, their Comparison Service has gone from a series of ideas in a greenfield project into a defined and usable product and now has the presence of most major bookmakers in the UK along with some further afield.


UX RESEARCH PHASE

The initial round of stakeholder interviews and requirements gathering was a fascinating introduction to the product and the problems Odds Bods wanted to overcome. I was in discussion with an algorithmic betting genius, a trackside tipster to the rich and famous, an MD with decades of experience in the gambling world and a CTO who’d run the technical show at other bookmakers previously.

Despite the diversity of ideas and approaches, the goal was a common one - find a simple and effective way for punters to compare odds. And do it better than the few providers already trying.

The technical challenges involved in producing a game-changing odds comparison product were many, and we had numerous meetings, ideation sessions and whiteboard scribbles before we even got close to something we could move forward with.

There were many questions to be answered. How do you avoid overwhelming tables of odds data - especially on mobile? How do you concisely signify the direction in which odds are moving? How many clicks are too many when it comes to placing a bet?


UX DESIGN PHASE

We answered most of the research questions collaboratively and iteratively, sketching out solutions and verifying their plausibility with key stakeholders in the business. I managed to come up with several key interface innovations which would give the business an edge against their competitors.

The most critical one of these was the Odds Price Block, my solution to the problem of unwieldy odds tables. The mechanic worked by consolidating all the bookmakers’ prices into blocks, instead of showing all prices arrayed on a table against bookmaker names. These would then open when tapped to show which bookmakers were at that price.

It meant the interface was clean and simple, but that more detailed information was readily available. This became our driving ethos moving forward through the project.


UI DESIGN PHASE

The UI Design phase started to solidify the design, emphasising the user’s journey through the product experience. Clear CTAs were put at thumb level in brand orange, less important things in the visual hierarchy set in blue and grey.

An Interface Inventory was drawn up and prioritised. More polished UI designs were then folded back into the creation of a Pattern Library, using Atomic Design principles.

Liaison with the dev team enabled a coalescence of ideas around animated interaction styles, with an effective approach helping guide users through the process.


BUILD AND RELEASE

The Odds Bods iOS app went live in October 2018, ten months after the beginning of the process. It is currently on it’s seventh release, now numbered v2.01.

The UX, UI, build cycle has been ongoing and dozens of new features, upgrades and redesigns have been carried out in order to optimise the user’s experience.

The service now lists odds for almost all major UK bookmakers - including Ladbrokes, Coral, Bet365, Betfair and PaddyPower - and handles over a million price changes every day.