Building a cohesive third-party streaming experience for DIRECTV users
The improved Apps Carousel enhances how DIRECTV users discover & browse content from third-party apps Third party apps are non-DIRECTV streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, etc. This initiative was driven by DIRECTV's goal to evolve beyond just a simple satellite service into a comprehensive, ubiquitous streaming hub.
Timeline
Aug - Dec 2023
Launched Q4 2024
Role
Product Designer
Impact
Increased engagement with apps by 113%
84,000+ daily active users
Context
With DIRECTV Stream, users can watch live TV, record programs, and stream content from 3rd party apps.
To the right is the DIRECTV Stream homepage, with all of the 3rd party app entry points highlighted.
Problem
63% of DIRECTV users use 3rd party apps, but most do not use the homepage as an apps launching point
Data shows that the vast majority of users use the Guide as a launching point for third party apps instead of Home.
We want to funnel users away from the Guide & towards the homepage, which has stronger recommendation algorithms & more means for content discovery.
DISCOVERY
Users’ biggest pain point with Apps on Home is the lack of personalized content discovery.
We interviewed 14 current DIRECTV Stream customers who use Apps. The general concensus is that prefer launching apps directly & browsing through titles through the app’s interface, not DIRECTV’s - but would use DIRECTV for content browsing if it was more robust.
Ideation
Our ideation phase included audits, brainstorming, & requirements gathering
We first explored competitors’ similar app-browsing features to see if there were any patterns between competitors.
But, like DIRECTV’s old apps experience, other platforms separated app content discovery from app launching features; so, this initiative would be a completely new feature in the market.
Audits
We then pitched a clean two-tier carousel solution that would display both app and content tiles. Users can not only launch apps from the carousel, but also browse relevant titles from each app.
This is a technically solid approach that lets us consolidate our three existing third-party carousels into one seamless experience.
Brainstorming
Explorations
From there, I began early visual explorations for a two-tiered carousel. I explored different visual treatments for the app tiles, content posters, overall visual hierarchy, and badging.
We skipped to high fidelity pretty quickly, since it was more impactful to view this experience in context, i.e. with actual content posters and app tiles.
Pinning
Legal issue
Netflix is legally obligated to display first in a row of app logos
Based on our current display rules, Netflix may or may not be the first app; but their Legal team mandated that Netflix must be in the first position for all users on cold start - unless, a user manually removes Netflix themselves.
Our solution
Pinning allows us to bypass Netflix’s legal requirements
On cold start, Netflix is pinned to the front of the carousel - but pinning apps lets users manually remove Netflix from the front.
Because users can pin their favorite services to the front of their Apps carousel, services they don’t engage with drop off from the carousel, making this a truly personalized experience for each user.
Visual design
Narrowing down on UI direction
*Khoa is my boss, FYI
Visual design started off pretty blue-sky, but I quickly narrowed down on my direction once we got user testing insights & engineering constraints.
dev HANDOFF
Delivering in-depth design docs
Because this is a completely new type of carousel in our ecosystem, I meticulously spec’d out the carousel as clearly as possible for our engineering partners.
I also contributed these new components to our Design System.
Final Product
An experience that unifies all third party app content in one centralized hub
The Apps carousel is prominently displayed on the home screen. Users can browse popular and recommended titles from 7 streaming services.
Users can browse all their apps & pin their favorites by expanding the carousel.
The carousel is designed to adapt and display content and posters of any size. It also has a fallback banner state to accommodate for services that don’t provide posters.
IMPACT
113.5%
more users engage with the new Apps carousel compared to the old ones
1.53m
unique app launches from the Apps carousel. Netflix and YouTube were the most commonly launched apps.
84,921
average daily users post-launch, up from 39,783 daily average users pre-launch
Thanks for reading!
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