ESPN has developed an extensive online redesign and new mobile app for its ESPN FC soccer portal in time for next month's FIFA World Cup. The new online design for ESPNFC.com is fully responsive across desktop and mobile devices, and features a tile-based visual format that greatly de-emphasizes text on the home page in favor of visual blocks of photos, video and headline links, as well as a feed-based structure for organizing story content. The new app, meanwhile, will include a dedicated World Cup section that will include in-progress video highlights in the U.S. -- where ESPN has broadcast rights to the event -- and serve as the default app launch page during the tournament. ESPNFC.com is slated to relaunch early next month, while the new ESPN FC mobile apps for iOS and Android will be released this week. The reworked ESPN FC digital products bring the properties into much closer alignment with primary ESPN products. The ESPN FC app is built on the same basic user interface as the popular ESPN SportsCenter app, while the ESPNFC.com redesign carries many elements that will be introduced in a forthcoming redesign of ESPN.com. The company is slated to introduce a public beta of the ESPN.com redesign late this summer, with a full relaunch planned for early next year. ESPN FC is currently the world's fourth most-trafficked soccer destination, behind Globesporte Futbol, Goal.com and BBC Sport. ESPN Digital & Print Media Senior Dir of Product Development Adam Deutsch said, "We see the World Cup as sort of a coming-out party for ESPN FC. This is a total, ground-up redesign that will offer a lot more discoverability of content."
