The result visual, in victory and defeat
3 min read
The result goes out right after the match, often from the car park, by someone with no time. That's where automation helps most, and it's the only visual whose tone has to follow the outcome.
Score at the centre, everything else around it
The score is what everyone is looking for: it has to be the largest element, uncontested. The two crests frame it, home side on the left, as on every scoreboard.
A result visual is read first as a number. If the score isn't the dominant element, the reader has to search, and they won't.
Scorers, a second layer of information
Under the score, the scorers and their minutes turn a number into a story, and make families react. Beyond four or five, a second visual beats a list that crushes the score.
The data that matters changes with the sport:
- Football, handball: scorers and minutes.
- Basketball, volleyball: score by quarter or set, top scorer.
- Rugby: tries, conversions, goal kicker.
- Ice hockey: goals and assists, score by period.
Publishing a defeat without shooting yourself in the foot
Publishing nothing after a defeat gets noticed: it makes the club look like it only communicates in success. The same template serves, in a plainer register; what changes is the accent and the tone, not the layout.
The publishing window is short
Engagement is decided in the hour after the final whistle. Hence the point of preparing everything beforehand: template, crests and colours ready, only the score and the scorers left to enter.
The round-up, when the club has several teams
From four or five teams on, one visual per result floods the feed. The weekend round-up solves it all: a single visual, table logic, one row per fixture and the scores aligned in a column.
What a good round-up contains:
- One row per fixture, with the age group clearly identified.
- The score aligned in its own column, in tabular figures.
- The opponent's name, abbreviated if needed, never truncated at random.
- A note for postponed or forfeited matches, rather than an empty row.
Frequently asked questions
- How long after the match should the result go out?
- Ideally within the hour, and at the latest that evening. Beyond that, the information has already circulated and the visual loses most of its reach.
- Should youth team results be published?
- Yes, and relative to audience size they often generate the most engagement, because families are directly involved. Many clubs group the youth sides into a single weekend round-up.
- How do you handle a forfeit or a postponement?
- Same template, with the note in place of the score. Communicating a postponement saves you the wave of messages asking whether the match went ahead.
Enter the fixture once, the visuals follow
Announcements, line-ups, results and player focus, generated from your data.
Try it freeRead next
- The match announcement, without the clutterThree pieces of information are enough. Most clubs put eleven, and nobody remembers the kick-off time.
- Building your match-day packOne match, six visuals. Made one at a time, that's a whole evening. Thought of as a series, it's ten minutes.
- Making a team line-up that's readable on InstagramThe most anticipated post of the week, and the most often botched. Eleven names on a six-inch screen takes preparation.