the challenge

The brief was a complete redesign and rebuild of the OnDemand platform (as a video catch-up and streaming service), whilst implementing a new look. My main responsibilities were to incorporate the new brand across a multitude of devices, improve the overall customer experience. The app itself would include new personalised features, such as: Watchlist, Favourites, History and Pick Up & Play.

The OnDemand 2.0 project was ambitious in scope and functionality, where the app exists as a browser-based desktop experience as well as native iOS and Android apps (tablet and smartphones), a departure from its original HTML-based platform.

the process

This was one of the most complex works I had ever done due to the additional responsibility of coordinating and collaborating with multiple development partners, client stakeholders, an external brand agency and a rotating internal team of a dozen specialists. presenting design mock-ups and interaction ideas to the stakeholders.

Being the lead interaction and UI designer, I was responsible in testing their brand experience across all channels whilst maintaining consistency across design touch points (e.g. iOS, Android, Android TV and Sony PlayStation 3). During the course of the project (roughly 2 months) I led a team of three digital designers, two front-end developers and two project managers. 

In order to get all the designers and front-end engineers working from a unified vision, we formulated design principles that were based on previous research and strategy completed during the Discovery phase. We made sure the principles were printed and put up in the war room to remind ourselves what the product experience should be. Two crucial components that influenced the design principles were existing customer behaviour & insights from OnDemand 1.0 and benchmarks that the TVNZ team brought to the table.

After a buy-in from the stakeholders, we commenced the design phase by creating wireframes (see above). These wireframes were annotated heavily as they served as a sort of functional specifications for the development partners. Concurrently, we constructed the information architecture and conducted user interviews, followed by content auditing, site map creation and information design.

It was decided early on that we would follow a waterfall process to allow the multitude of external partners to join us at different phase of the project.

I oversaw the brand implementation across all touch points by collaborating with TVNZ's brand agency at certain milestones. The most fun aspect of the project was crafting microinteractions and prototyping interaction with other designers and developers.

Here is a short video from one of our user testings, in which we validated the carousel system that we used to browse and find a TV series in the app.

In staying true to the multi-channel experience, you can use the desktop app (in browser) to watch a video, and if you are logged in, you can pick up and play on other devices from where you have left off.

TVNZ OnDemand 2.0 on tablet devices can be viewed in landscape and portrait mode. To accommodate the variety of possible viewing scenarios and tablet devices, we came up with a particular thumbnail ratio and size that would indicate that you can scroll sideways and there are more content below the fold. 

We took a lot of learning from the App Store design and our own information design iteration to optimise your OnDemand 2.0 experience on mobile.