Adobe Customer Story
FOX Sports Digital, competing to win
audiences across devices.
Leading sports broadcaster delivers differentiated mobile, web, and
television experiences using Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise.
“From Adobe Photoshop CC and
Illustrator CC to Adobe Muse CC
and Creative Cloud Extract—Adobe
Creative Cloud for enterprise is the
foundation of everything we do.”
Jon Dean, VP of User Experience
and Design, FOX Sports Digital
SOLUTION
RESULTS
Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise
DESIGN EDGE
Attracts audiences with
digital experiences that
convey the FOX Sports
energy and attitude
CONSISTENT ASSETS
Maintains design consistency
across UI elements and team
logos
CREATIVE COLLABORATION
Supports collaboration and
saves time with integrated
apps and new workflows
RECRUITING EDGE
Shares high-caliber
projects to impress
recruits and recognize
team contributions
Adobe Customer Story
FOX Sports Digital
One-of-a-kind fan experiences
Established in 2005
Fans are passionate about their favorite sports teams and for many there’s nothing more exciting than when
their team is straddling the line between victory and defeat. Sports broadcasters help fuel the excitement by
providing easy access to digital sports content so fans can stay connected to the teams they love. For FOX
Sports Digital, design innovation has always played an important role in packaging sports content for fans.
Every day, FOX Sports Digital focuses on leveraging its expertise in design innovation to reach more users
and build audiences through mobile apps, the web, and television applications and interfaces.
Playa Vista, California
www.foxsports.com
CHALLENGES
•Create apps and experiences that are
different from other offerings on the
market
•Eliminate project errors caused by
incorrect assets
•Save time between design and
development phases of projects
•Attract top UX and design talent to team
“Adobe Creative Cloud has
definitely helped us streamline
our processes.”
Faye Xu, Art Director, FOX Sports Digital
With so many sports apps on the market, it’s difficult for fans to know where to start. Why users select one
app over another may come down to their affinity for the brand or how well they connect with the design.
For that reason, it’s important for FOX Sports Digital to differentiate both its brand and offerings.
A key factor in producing content that conveys the FOX Sports energy and attitude is arming members of
the user experience and design team with useful, integrated design apps and services. To accomplish its
goals, the company relies on a workflow powered by Adobe Creative Cloud for enterprise.
“From Adobe Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC to Adobe Muse CC and Creative Cloud Extract—Adobe
Creative Cloud for enterprise is the foundation of everything we do,” says Jon Dean, VP of User Experience
and Design at FOX Sports Digital.
Any sport—anytime, anywhere
The user experience and design team creates a range of content for FOX Sports Digital. For example, the Big
Board on the FOX Sports website gives fans quick access to scores, headlines, key plays, stats, and more
through a sleek, intuitive interface. The FOX Sports mobile app combines all of that great content with easy
navigation and lets fans access it on their favorite device, wherever they go. The FOX Sports GO product
lets FOX Sports subscribers experience their favorite sports events and shows at home on their TVs,
mobile devices, or desktop computers.
“We use Adobe Creative Cloud apps every single day,” says Faye Xu, an Art Director with FOX Sports
Digital. “I use Adobe Photoshop CC and Illustrator CC and we have designers who use InDesign CC and
Muse CC. We also work with developers and constantly hand our designs off to them. Adobe Creative
Cloud has definitely helped us streamline our processes.”
Adobe Customer Story
Saving time and enabling collaboration
Sports broadcasting has to move quickly, so the faster the design team can deliver the next version
of a mobile app or web interface to the market, the better they can stay ahead of the competition.
CreativeSync in Creative Cloud keeps everyone on the team up to date with all of the files, fonts,
images, settings, and other assets they need at their fingertips.
“Having apps and services in Adobe Creative Cloud that improve efficiency saves us valuable resources
in terms of how much time we spend on a project and how quickly we can move on to the next project,”
explains Dean. “Keeping everybody up to speed and on the same page with CreativeSync in Creative
Cloud results in fewer last minute changes and more motivated and engaged employees.”
Collaboration is also crucial to the team’s success. Designers come up with initial concepts and then loop
in the development and product teams to make sure projects are doable and meet business goals. Team
members often work on multiple projects at once and use Creative Cloud Assets to easily stay up to date
and maintain design consistency. Everyone can access design information from the same location, rather
than relying on multiple file sharing services and individual machines.
“We have a lot of icons that are
used across multiple apps, as well
as a large set of team logos for
every sport that we’ve added to
Creative Cloud Libraries.”
Faye Xu, Art Director, FOX Sports Digital
The right assets, every time
Within Creative Cloud Assets, Creative Cloud Libraries also keeps the design team in sync. Before Creative
Cloud Libraries, assets were stored on a local server and maintaining version consistency was always an
issue. Today, the team uses Creative Cloud Libraries to share UI elements and keep everything consistent
across comps.
“We have a lot of icons that are used across multiple apps, as well as a large set of team logos for every
sport that we’ve added to Creative Cloud Libraries,” says Xu. “Creative Cloud Libraries helps us make
sure that everyone has the correct asset in the right color and size. If a logo is updated, for example, we
just change it in Creative Cloud Libraries and the linked asset is updated everywhere.”
Dean adds, “Creative Cloud Libraries is a very valuable tool for us and helps us maintain brand consistency
on all of our different touchpoints.”
Having a shared repository of assets also benefits FOX Sports Digital when new team members are
added. Previously, new employees had to spend time learning about the different design elements and
styles. “The first thing new designers do is sign in to Adobe Creative Cloud, where they immediately
have access to everything they need, including color palettes, typography, and settings, which really
speeds up the process and makes it easier for designers to transition onto the team,” says Dean.
Adobe Customer Story
SOLUTION AT A GLANCE
A better designer/developer workflow
•Adobe Creative Cloud. Apps used include:
After the visual design is set for a mobile app, web experience, or other digital project, Photoshop files are
handed off to developers. Previously, Front End Designer Nick Perdomo spent up to four days creating
elaborate specs that detailed ever font family, color, image, and space between items. The resulting 20- to
30-page document was then handed off to developers to execute. Now, Perdomo is able to add the
Photoshop file to Creative Cloud Assets where developers use Adobe Creative Cloud Extract to get the
details they need in just a couple of hours.
•Desktop: Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe
Illustrator CC, Adobe InDesign CC,
Adobe Muse CC
•Mobile: Adobe Comp, Adobe Color
•Services: Creative Cloud Assets, Creative
Cloud Libraries, Creative Cloud Extract,
Adobe Behance
“Being able to hand off PSD files with minimal corrections and let developers use Adobe Creative Cloud
Extract to pull the information they need, rather than filtering through a long document, saves us days of
work,” says Perdomo.
Speed and flexibility with mobile apps
Members of the user experience and design team have also enjoyed working with Creative Cloud mobile
apps. With an easy-to-use interface, Adobe Comp lets both designers and non-designers quickly come up
with ideas for products and apps. Adobe Color also allows designers to take a picture of something and
quickly create a contextual color palette.
“Adobe Creative Cloud mobile apps can be really helpful for quick prototyping,” says Perdomo. “We
can use Adobe Comp on our design sprints, where we’re quickly coming up with ideas and need to
get the information into a prototype as soon as possible. When we’re going from concept to a working
prototype in a week, anything that can save us time is definitely going to help.”
Design led environment
To promote the work of individual contributors, highlight the work of the team as a whole, and attract
talented new employees, FOX Sports Digital uses Adobe Behance. Projects featured include UFC Fight
Tracks with cool animation and responsive design and Game Tracks products for the NFL. “When people
come in for an interview I ask them, ‘Why FOX Sports? Why are you here?’ and they say, ‘I saw your work
on Adobe Behance and I want to be a part of it,’” says Dean.
For more information
www.adobe.com/creativecloud/business/enterprise.html
From desktop and mobile apps that inspire creativity to services that streamline processes, support
design consistency, and keep people and projects in sync, Creative Cloud for enterprise helps FOX
Sports Digital keep pace in a competitive industry.
“Whenever I design something, I think about the fan who will be really excited about it and that helps
to fuel making good work—I know it will mean a lot to fans,” concludes Dean.
Adobe Systems Incorporated
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San Jose, CA 95110-2704
USA
www.adobe.com
Adobe, the Adobe logo, Adobe Muse, Behance, Creative Cloud, Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.
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© 2015 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. 12/15