Building two iOS and Android apps for articles and streaming
The Task: To create a new digital experience for TVO Today on both the web and two custom built, iOS and Android apps
The Client: TVO
My Role: UX Designer and Researcher
Skills involved: user research, usability testing, affinity diagram, customer journey mapping, interaction design, prototyping, wireframing
Tools: Figma, Adobe Suite (XD), Miro
Timeline: 1 year for major release - ongoing iterations and improvements
I played a key role in initiating significant transformations across TVO's digital platforms, establishing myself as a prominent advocate for user experience within the broader organization. I designed and tested prototypes, spearheaded the adoption of crucial design features, and advocated for revamping the design processes both within our team and across the organization as a whole.
Since 2017, there has been a pressing need to enhance our digital offerings to attract young, informed millennials. The onset of COVID-19 intensified this urgency. Additionally, we aimed to engage marginalized groups and share more stories from an Ontario perspective to drive our success.
Given our constraints in terms of time and capacity, we developed an app designed to deliver the experience that users anticipate. This app not only meets their expectations but also grants us the opportunity to introduce more personalized features compared to our web platform.
To design our app, we collaborated with the current affairs and documentary division. As a resource-constrained organization, we encountered several challenges, including:
Integrating articles, documentary videos, and series within a single app.
Developing the app concurrently for both Android and iOS platforms.
Enabling video downloads with a 30-day availability.
These requirements added complexity to the app development process. My role was to ensure that the app's information architecture met the needs of two primary user groups.
Process
Cracking the Code: Deciphering Our Ideal User
It was apparent that our 25-44 year old users would be the primary focus of the redesign and we wanted to capture more data to understand how users consume information and especially understand:
How users consume current affairs content
How users watch documentaries and series
What sentiment do they have to the TVO brand
We had to create key focus areas in our design development
Information Architecture now becomes critical when you have different content
types
How do we balance both articles and video content? showcase the Explore screen
Working with our 3rd party video developer, we were able to unlock the full spectrum of Brightcove Player SDK that we use to power our video content. Since we had the ability to customize our player to our specs, we optimized our design to cater to current affairs viewers and docs & series viewers by:
Adopting in-page video playback for all pages
Enabling picture-in-picture, described video, closed captioning & playback speed
Enabling native Apple Airplay and Chromecast functionality
To offer users the freedom to watch content on the go, we aimed to provide the
option to download content onto their devices.
We added the ability to download docs and series so that TVO users can access our content at their convenience, even without an internet connection.
Mapping out the ideal user flow for downloads is a meticulous process.
In order to ensure seamless functionality of our app, we meticulously outlined the logic needed for content downloads, adhering to our organization's guidelines and distribution contracts. This process includes:
Properly tagging and organizing authorized content for API calls.
Implementing a 30-day download limit with an option for renewal.
Strategizing for offline access to content.
Emphasizing our value proposition while maintaining a smooth offline experience.
