Viewers needed to distinguish the type of show from its artwork. We built a timed task to understand how quickly—and correctly—they could find a requested format in a row of options.
Recognizing Live Content
How viewers read the signals in sports artwork.
One creative program. Two linked research workflows. Explore the other workflow ↗
NETFLIX / 01 / TIMED RECOGNITIONWorkflow illustration · not original study artwork
01Read the prompt
02Scan 7–8 artworks
03Select a format
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The problem.
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Questions.
Company
How can artwork help viewers distinguish live sports from other content?
Product
How quickly can someone find the requested show format in a row of artwork?
Design
Which labels, motion cues, and symbols communicate the format clearly?
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The approach.
The task
Participants saw seven or eight pieces of artwork and a prompt to find a format, such as a live event, podcast, or pre-event show.
The measurement
A programmed timer ran from the moment the artwork appeared until the participant made a selection. The selected option also revealed whether the response was correct.
Time to selection and correctness are separate measures. A quick response is not necessarily a correct response.
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What we learned.
Motion signals “live.”
Athletes in motion helped communicate live events. The same imagery could also make non-live shows seem live; incorrect selections often reflected that interpretation.
Explicit wording helps.
Artwork that included the word “live” was clear to participants. The visual cues and the format label both mattered to interpretation.
Highlights need their own cue.
Participants struggled to distinguish live events from highlights. A symbol showing a stack of three different cards helped communicate highlights.
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Creative direction.
Within the broader creative program, the team decided to move away from using only posed athletes and use athletes in motion where possible to communicate live events. That imagery could come from previous games.
This is a documented creative decision, not a measured improvement in viewing, recognition accuracy, or response time. Adoption of the highlights symbol and post-change validation remain to be documented.
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What remains to document.
These are interview follow-ups, not retrospective conclusions or measured results.
Sample
Document participant count, recruitment, markets, and the distribution of content formats.
Role & collaboration
Specify my individual contribution to designing, programming, running, and analyzing the workflow, plus the collaborators involved.
Validation
Add the actual time and correctness results, treatment of incorrect trials, and any follow-up on the highlights symbol.