FOX Sports XR
NDADesigning Live Sports for the Spatial Era.
Live Sports.
In Your Space.
FOX Sports XR brings live sports into your home with immersive video, real-time stats, and intelligent recommendations, all designed for Android XR. Watch from Home Space or go fully immersive in Full Space.
FOX Sports XR is a live sports streaming app designed exclusively for Android XR. Built from scratch for a platform with no prior design precedent, it brings immersive multi-format video, live statistics, and contextual sports storytelling into a spatial environment.
The challenge was not just to design an app, it was to define how sports media should behave in spatial computing, using platform guidelines that were brand new and still evolving.
UX Lead, Strategy, Research Direction, Design Review & Approval
Android XR
UX Designer, UI Designer, Technical Artists, PM, Android Developers, QA Team
Figma, FigJam, ShapesXR, Jira, Confluence
Challenge
Android XR introduced concepts like Home Space, Full Space, spatialised panels, orbital navigation, that were none established UX conventions. There was no playbook.
Designing FOX Sports XR meant building a UX framework from the ground up: defining how users navigate, how information is layered, and how immersion is introduced and controlled for a broad audience, on hardware most users had never touched before.
My Role
As UX Lead, I was responsible for the strategic and methodological direction of the project. I defined the research approach, shaped the UX framework, and reviewed and approved all design decisions throughout the process.
All UX decisions were reviewed and signed off by me, ensuring consistency across the full experience.
- Defined the research strategy and led the protopersona framework
- Directed the benchmark analysis across XR ecosystems
- Established the information architecture and panel hierarchy
- Reviewed and approved all wireframes, flows, and final designs
- Aligned UX decisions with platform guidelines and stakeholder expectations
- Ensured consistency across navigation, panels, and immersive behaviour
Chosen Methodology
Designing for a new platform required a structured, evidence-based approach. We combined ecosystem research, hands-on benchmarking, and iterative UX framework definition, building from principles before touching screens.
Personas
Defined 3 user profiles representing distinct engagement patterns within the FOX Sports audience. One primary persona served as the design anchor; two secondary ones guided lighter, more guided paths.
Benchmark
Conducted a benchmark combining cross-platform research and hands-on device testing, separating platform-agnostic UX principles from Android XR-specific adaptations.
Information Architecture
Mapped the full content ecosystem (video, live data, stats, contextual insights) and defined a clear hierarchy before designing any screens. This became the structural backbone for panels and navigation.
User Flowcharts
Mapped how users move through the experience ensuring navigation logic remained consistent across modes and interaction states.
Interaction Model
Established global behavioural rules for how users access, explore, and deepen information. Consistent panel rules applied across all screens ensure the experience scales without fragmentation.
Personas
The FOX Sports audience spans a broad spectrum, from casual viewers checking scores, to dedicated fans expecting deep immersive control. A single generic user profile would not have been sufficient.
We defined 3 personas to represent distinct engagement patterns. One primary persona served as the design anchor, ensuring consistency in interaction depth, information density, and spatial behaviour, while the two secondary ones guided lighter, more guided paths.
This prioritisation directly shaped the structure of the experience: information supports both overview and deep exploration, panels adapt to engagement level, and immersive features are introduced progressively.
Information Architecture & User Flows
Before touching any screen, we mapped the full content ecosystem (video, live data, stats, schedules, and contextual insights) and defined a clear hierarchy. This became the structural backbone for panels, navigation, and spatial layout.
User flows then mapped how users move through the experience: entry points, context switches, and transitions between Home Space and Full Space. Defining these paths early ensured navigation logic stayed consistent across all modes and interaction states.
Key UX Decisions
Design for one primary user, scale for many
A clear primary persona prevents design-by-committee and ensures consistency across navigation, data density, and interaction depth.
Home Space for exploration, Full Space for focus
FOX Sports launches in Home Space and transitions into Full Space when a video is opened. Immersion is applied where it adds value, not uniformly.
Progressive disclosure through panels
A panel model ensures information is revealed at the right moment without overwhelming the spatial field during live viewing.
Key Features
Designed for a new platform, each of these features was a novelty, tested on real hardware and validated against real user expectations.
UI Spatialization
The app works as a window in Home Space for multitasking, and transitions into a fully spatialized experience in Full Space, using orbital elements to bring content into the environment.
"For You" Space
A dedicated space where users can prompt AI to surface video recommendations from the full catalogue, based on their interests.
Stats · In the Space
Live statistics, schedules, and standings for motorsports, accessible directly from the Sports Space without leaving the context.
Stats · In the Video Player
Real-time stats, race positions, and driver info surface alongside live video, keeping fans informed without ever leaving the stream.
Recommendations · During Playback
Relevant content surfaces during video playback, making it easy to continue watching without going back to browse.
Recommendations · Near the End
As videos near their end, personalised recommendations appear — keeping fans in flow without interrupting the experience.
Impact
- FOX Sports XR launched as the flagship sports app on Android XR
- The spatial UX framework provides a scalable foundation for future features and platform evolution
- The experience successfully supports both casual and deeply engaged viewing without compromising either
Learnings
- Designing without precedent means building your own reference framework, benchmarks from adjacent ecosystems are valuable, but must be translated, not copied
- A single primary user profile creates a clear design anchor without excluding secondary audiences
- Platform guidelines describe intent, not prescription, hands-on device testing is essential to understand real behaviour
