2stations

Finding out who is playing who, when they are doing it and the eventual results, often means a trawl through various pages of a site. It’s usually text based with the layout in tables that feel like they haven’t changed much since Mosaic. It’s not exactly gripping.

UEFA’s approach moves things up a notch and presents the European football leagues in a way that is visually pleasing and simple to navigate. It feels more like a TV graphic or something that you would expect in a console game such as FIFA 08. I am convinced this is the way to go to deliver compelling and engaging football services.

Matchcentre top level view of all European leagues by date.

Using the calendar as a navigation layer is an excellent idea for football. Selecting a date and then a league brings up the fixtures or results from that day and there’s a tab for the table/standings. This image shows the Norwegian Tippeligaen.

Overall it works very well. The interaction and usability designers have done a fine job, it’s a showcase. I actually enjoy using this and it lets me get an idea of what is going on in other leagues that I normally would never think about or had no previous interest in. For the bigger leagues the Macthcentre also has more details such as team line ups and major events.

I know the online betting companies such as BetFair, Norsk Tipping and Eurobet give you a very detailed list of events and results, but their presentation is more clay-station than the Matchcentre’s Playstation. I do hope they improve it by adding more motion graphics, but right now it’s the best thing out there for those interested in the fixtures and results for European Football.

Now let me see who’s playing today in Belarus…