NFL ID: Building Identity
Infrastructure for NFL's DTC Pivot
Unified sign-up and account management across ~70 league and club properties, reducing friction, increasing fan satisfaction, and enabling NFL+.
The Problem
High Friction to create up to 5 NFL accounts per fan
Fans juggled up to five accounts across NFL properties. Signup was slow, fragmented, and offered little value. It was a blocker for NFL+, loyalty programs, and CRM.
"I get lost with the number of accounts I need and half of them I'm not sure why I need them."
NFL Fan
The solution
Identity Infrastructure, Optimized for Conversion
A unified identity infrastructure enabled:
Better personalization across properties
Contextual NFL+ upsells at key moments
Unified cross-platform fantasy and gaming experiences
Featured a simplified sign-up that deferred optional steps and a redefined universal account page that better serves fan needs.
Impact
Faster, Easier, Adopted League-Wide
The redesign tripled logged-in visits, cut signup time by 23 seconds, and improved sign-up success by 8%. The unified account system was adopted by 70 NFL properties.
"Sign-up was super quick and intuitive."
NFL+ Subscriber
Design Approach
Key insights, decisions, and trade-offs that shaped the final solution
optimizing top of funnel
Increasing Sign-In Visibility
Fan interviews, benchmarking, and analytics revealed 99% of web users weren't logged in, and they couldn't find where to do so. One user described the sign-in link as "like a squirrel in a tree." We mapped trigger cliffs across the fan journey and placed contextual prompts at high-intent moments. Result: 3x increase in sign-in visits (target: 2x).
“The most frustrating thing about the site was the hidden nature of the sign-in link at the upper right hand corner. It was like a squirrel in a tree.”
participant 11, unmoderated testing
prioritizing sign up
Optimizing Sign-Up for Conversion
The sign-up form was embedded in the NFL+ purchase flow, meaning high stakes for conversion. Industry research pointed toward multi-step progressive disclosure, but a domain expert revealed direct competitors saw a 60% dropoff with that approach. We pivoted to minimum viable signup: a single form with required fields only. Optional fields were moved to post account creation.
Result: 8% increase in signup success, 23-second reduction in completion time.
Initial approach
Multi-step Form
Account created after multiple steps. In theory, chunking reduces cognitive load. In reality, fans abandon forms.
revised approach
Single-Step Form
Account created after one step. Additional fields become optional after account creation.
adding personality to new optional field
Designing Favorite Team Cards
From divergent sketches to production-ready system component. Favorite team cards were a new addition to the Facemask design system that added brand personality to a fan-favorite feature, now an optional step immediately after account creation.
Diverge
Sketch
Explored many directions with product and design. Rejected options that lacked personality or didn't scale to account page context.
converge, iterate
Mid-Fidelity Iteration
Initial direction judged most delightful internally, but team slogans felt too busy in vertical, center-aligned layout.
deliver, systematize
Final Design & System Integration
Horizontal layout tested better for scannability. Clearer 'Favorite' state. Supports all 32 team brands.
retaining fans
Refocusing Account Pages on Utility
Data showed account page upsells drove <1% of conversions while hurting task completion. We rearchitected the IA around user mental models: Profile, Subscriptions & Settings, Support.
Result: 0.9-point increase in ease-of-use score (6.7/7).
“Super easy to find what I need.”
