Sky NZ Believe It or Not

Creating a better in-person experience for Quizzer around New Zealand

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Believe It or Not is a well-established quiz format that has been a staple in pubs, events, and digital platforms across New Zealand. The game tests players on general knowledge, pop culture, history, and more, offering a mix of trivia, challenges, and interactive gameplay. It has been a go-to experience for teams and individuals looking for fun and competitive engagement.

Sky NZ saw the opportunity to evolve Believe It or Not into a fully digital product, bringing together multiple fragmented quiz experiences into one seamless platform. The goal was to modernise the game, streamline the experience, and enhance engagement across different audience segments, from casual players to competitive trivia enthusiasts.

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My Responsibilities

Spanned both high-level planning and hands-on execution. My role was to be the go-to person for the business team, development team, and designers, ensuring that the vision, execution, and strategy were aligned at all times. To drive the project forward, I worked closely with the business development and pre-sales teams to present a clear product roadmap to Sky NZ, ensuring alignment on vision and execution. I led the strategic architecture and UX planning, defining how to merge multiple quiz experiences into a single, intuitive digital platform. To ensure a structured and scalable approach, I mapped out MVP priorities, delivering a strong Phased foundation with flexibility for future expansion. Additionally, I made strategic use of existing tools and systems, allowing us to maximise efficiency and reduce unnecessary development time while maintaining a high-quality user experience.

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Key UX/UI Considerations:

Ensuring that players could easily navigate the quiz, access their results, and engage with leaderboards.

Designing a system where users could personalise their experience, selecting quiz topics, difficulty levels, and team setups.

Building an engaging, visually rich UI that would keep players immersed without unnecessary complexity.

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Empowering Quiz Hosts & Quiz Creators

Beyond the consumer experience, we needed to modernise how quiz hosts and content creators managed the game behind the scenes. Previously, quizmasters were locked to a laptop or a single control station, making it cumbersome to manage the quiz dynamically in a live setting.

I with the design team solved this by creating a flexible, mobile-friendly control system that allowed quiz hosts to navigate and control the game remotely while also improving the backend experience for quiz creators

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We designed a mobile-first control system that allowed quiz hosts to manage the game remotely, freeing them from being tied to a desk. Using their phone, tablet, or laptop, hosts could seamlessly start, pause, or skip questions, adjust scores in real time, and view live leaderboards to keep players engaged. This multi-device support ensured that hosts could move around the venue and interact with participants while maintaining full control over the game, creating a more dynamic and interactive quiz experience.

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To streamline quiz creation and management, we developed a smarter backend system that made it easier for quiz creators to build and upload content efficiently. Instead of manually entering questions, creators could now upload pre-made quizzes using structured Excel and CSV files, significantly reducing setup time.

We introduced a modular design system, allowing creators to customize quiz formats, set timers, define point systems, and adjust difficulty levels. They could also enhance engagement by adding multimedia elements like images, GIFs, and videos. With version control and editing capabilities, quizzes could be saved, modified, and repurposed, ensuring a more scalable and efficient workflow.

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Creating a a refreshed look and Dynamic Consumer Friendly Quiz experience

One of our key challenges was revitalising the way players interact with the game. Traditional pub quizzes relied on static slides and outdated visuals, leading to a flat and repetitive experience. Our goal was to make the big screen display dynamic, visually engaging, and adaptable to different quiz formats.

We redesigned the consumer-facing quiz experience to be more dynamic, engaging, and visually immersive. By creating multiple screen templates, we ensured variety across different rounds, including standard question layouts, leaderboards, and animated transitions to keep the experience fresh. The art direction focused on a modern, sleek UI that aligned with Sky’s brand, while optimised readability made it easy for players to follow along in public spaces. Real-time score updates kept competition exciting, and by enhancing visual clarity and interactivity, we transformed the quiz into a high-energy, immersive experience that held players’ attention from start to finish.

By reworking how the quiz appeared on the big screen, we transformed the traditional quiz format into a dynamic, high-energy experience that kept consumers engaged from start to finish.

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What I did as the Design Lead

This project required both leadership and hands-on execution, and I took an active role across multiple areas to ensure success.

Guided the Design Team on Better Decision-Making – I was the go-to mentor for the design team, helping them make smarter UX/UI decisions that aligned with both business goals and technical feasibility.

Led Creative Art Direction – Beyond UX strategy, I defined the visual direction of the UI, ensuring the product had a cohesive, engaging, and premium feel.

Developed Mockups, Wireframes, and Prototypes – I took charge of early-stage design work, creating visual samples and concept presentations to align with Sky’s expectations.

Oversaw the Client Relationship from a Design Perspective – I worked closely with Sky’s stakeholders, keeping communication clear, structured, and aligned with business objectives.

Bridged the Gap Between Design & Engineering – I ensured that developers had a clear understanding of UI requirements, helping to streamline implementation and avoid unnecessary delays.

Tested the Original Game to Improve the Digital Experience – Before making design decisions, we played the existing game to understand how real users interacted with the experience, identifying pain points and opportunities for improvement.

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The Result

By redesigning both the consumer and backend experiences, we modernised Believe It or Not, creating a more dynamic, scalable, and cost-effective product for Sky. The big screen experience became more visually engaging, with multiple layouts, real-time updates, and leaderboards that kept gameplay fresh and competitive.

For quiz hosts and Sky’s internal team, we introduced a mobile-first control system, allowing hosts to manage games remotely, while faster quiz creation tools and a more efficient backend made updates seamless. This transformation not only enhanced player engagement but also improved efficiency, flexibility, and control for Sky’s team, setting the stage for future growth.