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How We Brought Live Cricket to the Lock Screen, Driving 25K+ Installs During IPL 2023

My Role

As the sole UX and visual designer, I designed and animated the real-time IPL lock screen widget, cricket overview landing page, and supporting highlight experiences. My work spanned interaction design, motion graphics, and optimizing for small-screen performance.

Deliverables

  • Lock screen widget animations for key cricket events

  • Cricket overview landing page

  • Highlight carousel for match moments

  • Related news article landing page

Team

  • 1 Product Manager

  • 3 Developers

  • Myself (Design)

The Problem

During the IPL season, cricket fans often rely on multiple apps and platforms to track live matches, watch commentary, read related news, and check schedules. This scattered experience made it harder for users to stay engaged and for partners to direct them toward live match viewing.

From a business perspective, there was a need to:

  • Drive Disney+ Hotstar app installs during IPL

  • Provide a single, accessible place for live scores, commentary, related news, and schedules

  • Increase engagement with cricket-related content within our ecosystem

  • Maintain smooth performance despite frequent animations and real-time updates

Our Big Plan

We set out to design an experience that would:

  • Put live match highlights directly on the phone lock screen

  • Create a fast, visually rich landing page with live scores, commentary, news, and match schedules

  • Use animations to make match events exciting while keeping performance seamless

  • Ensure quick pathways to watch the live stream on Disney+ Hotstar

  • Keep the experience consistent across devices from Xiaomi and Samsung

Listening &
Learning 

To shape the experience:

  • Reviewed feedback from previous sports integrations in the app

  • Benchmarked sports coverage UIs from major cricket and football apps

  • Collaborated with developers to identify animation techniques that wouldn’t impact loading speed

  • Tested widget readability under different lighting conditions and screen sizes

  • Refined layouts for clarity, given the limited space on lock screens and small devices

The Solution

A unified tool with three core work areas, Article Text, Cover Image, and Publishing, designed to balance automation with clarity and control.

Lock Screen Widget

  • Real-time updates on match events, powered by live API data

  • Animated event visuals for Sixes, Fours, Wickets, and milestones

  • Click-through to the cricket landing page

Cricket Overview Landing Page

  • Live score panel with match summary and CTA to watch on Disney+ Hotstar

  • Live commentary feed for in-game updates

  • Upcoming match schedule with team details

  • Related news articles curated from multiple publications

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Highlight Carousel

Related News Article Landing Page

  • Auto-advancing format inspired by Instagram Stories

  • Quick, tappable match moments for faster recap

  • Lightweight animation techniques to ensure smooth playback

  • Displays the full news article with supporting images and relevant match details

  • Features carefully placed, non-intrusive ads to maintain reading flow

  • Includes a “More Related Articles” section to encourage deeper content exploration

  • Provides quick links back to the live match panel for context and seamless navigation

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The Outcome

The IPL lock screen widget and landing page successfully increased user engagement, created a seamless bridge to live matches, and drove measurable growth during the 2023 tournament.

Key Results:

  • Estimated 25–30K affiliated app installs during the season

  • Achieved a click-through rate of 8% from widget to landing page

  • Boosted readership of related cricket articles across the platform

  • Increased average session duration by providing match context and related content in one place

  • Delivered smooth, high-quality animations without performance trade-offs on mobile devices

DISCLAIMER:
(a) Displayed brand logos and brand names in the portfolio and CV, represent past client work and are showcased solely for portfolio and resume validation. They do not imply direct endorsement or affiliation. (b) Certain visuals used for the portfolio include copyrighted stock images and videos. All the visual media which includes images, GIFs, videos and texts are strictly for portfolio display and must not be used or reproduced without proper authorization from the copyright owners.

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