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The UX of Watching the World Cup

For anyone who has turned on the World Cup on television this question is pretty obvious.  What the $*#!@ is that damn buzzing noise??

It sounds like a swarm of bees or that my TV speakers are broken.  Turns out it is a VuVuZela, see below.

This infernal device ruins the entire experience for me.  I can’t hear anything the announcers are saying.  As a newbie to Soccer, I want to hear their point of view.  I am sure that an experienced Futbol watcher thinks the announcers are stupid, the way I think Football announcers are stupid, but they serve an important purpose for newbies.

The buzzing is beyond annoying and they should ban them.  I know the fans love them and they will miss them, but this is for their own good.  Those horns are the worst.

Comments

3 responses to “The UX of Watching the World Cup”

  1. Ed Blachman Avatar
    Ed Blachman

    Hmmm, it worked the other way around for me (even though I too am a soccer newbie). I watched Serbia-Ghana on Univision, which meant that vuvuzelas or no vuvuzelas, there was no way — as I basically speak no Spanish — that I could possibly understand what the announcers were saying. In spite of that, I had no trouble getting caught up in the action. I still had a sense of the different styles of the two sides and could feel the momentum switching from the Ghanaians to the Serbians and back again. I marveled (after watching the NBA) at the way the Serbian fellow accepted his red card and walked off the pitch without having a tantrum; I didn’t need the announcers to tell me that he’d been called for a foul, back-talked the ref and been ejected as a result. And I was beyond pleased with the way the replay caught the illegal-use-of-hands that resulted in the Ghanaian free kick on which they scored. To me, the buzzing lent the whole affair a feeling of urgency, similar to the way the score in a movie enhances the emotional experience.

    Of course, I’m not watching most of the games, and maybe I’d be closer to agreeing with you if I’d watched a match where I could theoretically have understood the announcers if I could have heard them. I can see how the effect might get old after a time….

    Reply
  2. Alex W Avatar
    Alex W

    If you have a mac, try this:

    http://www.prosoniq.com/news/vuvux-for-mac-free-vuvuzela-filtering-plugin/

    P.S. nice Blog 😉

    Reply
    1. Glen Lipka Avatar
      Glen Lipka

      Unfortunately, I don’t.

      P.S. Thanks. 🙂

      Reply

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