NBC Universal

At NBCUniversal I created user-centered solutions and interactive concepts for the TV Everywhere product team. My work spanned NBCU's portfolio of brands such as Bravo, USA, and SYFY. This meant creating a single source of truth design system for Amazon's Fire TV that scaled to the needs of each brand. It was robust enough to deliver quick iterative design changes for project managers while maintaining consistent redline specs for engineers.

In addition to design systems, I created product vision explorations on new ways to interact with content while watching.

Wireframing, Whiteboard, Prototyping, Design System Library, Prototyping, High Fidelity Design, Andriod UI, iOS UI, Connected Device, Streaming Platforms

The former app design for each brand needed a consistent system in order to roll out UI updates and meet the demands of the product team's Agaile process.

Create unified design system across all brands with best-in-class aesthetics and design that's also flexible and for growth and fast iteration.

I worked closely with this project’s principal designer in creating wireframes, page flows, visuals, and redline specifications. My designs are based around the app's core values:

• Content first (minimal UI chrome)
• No dead ends (there's always a path to more content)
• Visually distinct from competition

Along the way there were technical challenges the design system needed to meet such as it’s key art allocation and sizing and legibility for the 10ft user experience.

Animation was also crucial to the UX. It was important for the user to have their bearings while browsing and not get lost in choppy movements. I implemented animation keyframes and tweening transitions to ensure movements are clearly read.

NBCU wanted to introduce interactions with Amazon Alexa and mobile second screens to the traditional TV streaming experience. My role was to create product vision concepts, user stories, and the design mechanics of the second screen experience.

Define and propose second screen user journeys based on research of current viewer habits and trends.

For kick off I partnered with the principal designer to define the core values:

• Watch first
  Interactions should be subtle and not interfere with an enjoyable viewing experience
• Contextual
  Interactions should be applicable to the show/scene and relatable to the user.
• Simple
  Designs should be minimal and clean with streamlined interactions (just one click or action).
• Delight
  The purpose for these interactions should be a thoughtful “magic moment”.

With these values established, I researched current habits of mobile phone usage while watching traditional television. Notable findings include:

A Nielsen study showed that 58 percent of viewers browse the Internet while they watch video programming. According to Adweek, 87 percent of respondents use more than one device at a time.Results found that 94% of TV viewers kept their smartphones with them while watching a show, creating a multi-screening experience. Furthermore, during their TV time, users only looked at the TV screen 53% of the time. https://www.advertisemint.com/tv-and-smartphone-multiscreening-the-best-of-both-worlds/

With these findings I came up with a few mechanisms and concepts of the end-to-end experience.

Contextual notifications that coincide with show content that deep link to partner apps. NBCUniversal was seeking new opportunities with partners and sponsors. Bravo in particular, sought new ways in integrating food and shopping deals into Top Chef.

Content enhancement for what you need, when you need it.

Passionate TV fans want more content from the shows they watch. Whether it’s behind the scenes interviews, story references, or where else they’ve seen that one actor from, viewers are usually checking their phones while simultaneously watching TV. Amazon X-ray strives to provide this content, but X-ray UX leaves a lot to be desired.

The goal of the Insight concept is to have all of this info synchronized within a viewer’s phone app, without the cluttering the main TV screen. It’s like a dynamic playbill on steroids. Whenever a viewer wants to know more about an actor or plot thread, they can reference their the Insight feature right then and there without the friction of starting a blank internet search.