CBS
CBS offers many ways to watch their content. Our objective was to discover what viewers valued most in a watching experience. I lead UX efforts to unify CBS web, mobile, and OTT apps. Our research was then crafted into visionary concepts and prototypes.
Our Northstar was to enable users to watch anywhere. To personalize the experience and create a watching experience that rivaled TV and DVR setups.
Tomorrow, today
Our priority was to understand where the watching experience failed existing viewers. After hearing them out, I discovered that they were overwhelmed with all of the metadata and noise that each show presented as content. They just wanted to watch their shows, create playlists, and not be pushed but guided by the experience. We explored new ways of rating shows that were more emotional and driven by friends.
My design approach: Let the content be the interface while allowing users to discover and filter more accurately. This lead to a more enjoyable and familiar experience in testing. Less but better.
A part of my responsibility while at CBS was to build a design lab that focused on tomorrow's vision. We explored features that would allow people to watch shows together, explore the set of their favorite shows, second-screen experiences that gave the audience more control over how they wanted to watch.
When we approached the design of CBS mobile apps we wanted to carry over the same principles from CBS.com. Let the content serve as the interface while allowing the users to shape their experience through customization when appropriate. We designed these experiences to feel like an extension of all CBS digital properties making it more familiar and predictable.