The National Football League (NFL) in the U.S. is the top sports league by revenue globally. It is also a media powerhouse that has been experimenting with voice assistant technology to enhance the fan experience.

 

Joining Voicebot Podcast host Bret Kinsella today is Ian Campbell from NFL Labs, the innovation arm of the NFL. He has worked in product design, UX and innovation for the past two years in his second tour with the NFL. Earlier in his career, Ian was director of creative and UX for NFL.com and the various football and fantasy football mobile apps of the league. He has also worked previously at Phenomenon, DeviantArt, GolinHarris, and Digitas.

 

Also joining us is John Gillilan, founder of Bondad.fm, who has been working with the NFL on its voice initiatives. John is a creative voice designer and Alexa Champion that previously worked at Disney, Maker Studios, and KUFALA Recordings. He was also co-founder of Vosotros, an independent music distribution company where he executive produced 10 albums with 100+ musicians. 

 

Ian and John walked through an interesting presentation at Project Voice where they went through the backstory behind The Rookie’s Guide to the NFL Alexa skill and Flash Briefing. They also discussed the overall strategy and design considerations as well as some projects that are not yet public but are available today to NFL employees. We discuss a wide range of topics including the use of avatars, multimodal design and how to think about mobile devices differently that smart speakers and smart displays. Enjoyl