Making Live TV Feel Like Streaming
Led a design sprint to redesign Zattoo's Recordings feature across 15 platforms, delivering smart content clusters, batch management, and series playback that increased watch duration.
Sprint core team
Member of the cross-functional sprint group from discovery to delivery
Prototyping & testing
Built hi-fi prototypes and facilitated user testing sessions
Design systems
Consulted on the design system and delivered production-ready mockups
TV, but make it smart
Zattoo is a platform for IP-based transmission of TV channels and video on-demand content to a variety of devices. One of the flagship features of the consumer-facing product is the possibility to record live TV shows (TiVo style).
Our goal was to improve the way our users find and manage their recordings across all the platforms.
Everyone in the same room
Given the complex and cross-cutting nature of the project, we decided to go for the design sprint framework as a structured way to frame the challenge and get reliable insights on which direction to take.
The core sprint team was composed of product owners, designers, engineers, business intelligence, and customer success specialists.
After several lightning talks, contextual inquiries, and the analysis of the gathered data, we grouped the insights into 4 themes:
Content Discovery
Enable users to discover new recordable content on the recordings page
Tailored Search
Make it easier for users with hundreds of recordings to find the ones they are looking for
Management
Offer a less cumbersome way to delete unwanted recordings
Playback
Give users a seamless way to watch recorded serial content (TV shows)
What does winning look like?
During the definition phase of the project, we derived what success metrics could look like based on the following hypotheses:
We Think That
Users have a hard time watching the piece of content they want because we offer a limited way of browsing and finding it
Which is Why
We will increase the number of hours watched per user for recordings
We Think That
Many users are unaware of the perks of recording live TV content
Which is Why
We will increase the share of users adding at least N new recordings per month
We Think That
Users are afraid to record new content because they find it very difficult to delete unwanted recordings afterward
Which is Why
We will increase the average amount of recordings each user adds to their account
We Think That
Users can't watch serial content seamlessly because we don't group episodes & seasons of a show together
Which is Why
We will drive a spike in new recordings and serial content playback
From sticky notes to pixels
We narrowed down the potential solutions and, with the help of our design system & software engineers, created hi-fi prototypes based on the flows identified during the sprint.
Prototypes meet real users
With the prototypes ready, it was time to test them with real users. Our goals were to:
- Validate the hypotheses with real users
- Test the discoverability of new components like sorting, batch deletion, and series drill-down
- Gauge satisfaction with the new interaction flow
Shut up and show me the work
As a result of our cross-functional efforts, we translated the needs of our customers and business stakeholders into an effortless user experience shipped to 15 platforms.
Smart Discovery
Instead of one big list with all available recordings, we grouped content under smart clusters powered by machine learning.
Batch Deletion
With the top tier allowing up to 750 recordings, freeing up space was a herculean task. Batch deletion made it painless.
Filtering Like a Boss
A comprehensive filtering system for users who need to cluster content beyond our predictive suggestions.
Live TV Meets On-Demand
We brought the same binge-watching convenience of streaming platforms to live TV. Episodes grouped by series, watched sequentially.