Xbox Originals Companion App
I worked directly with Xbox Entertainment Studios to design a companion app for all the original content produced for Xbox Live. A concept of Chief Design Officer Elan Lee and his team at Xbox Entertainment Studios, I was lead designer on the project under Anthony Lagoon's design direction at Underbelly with Robert Sweeney and his engineering team leading development.
GOALS
This tablet based app would give everyone the opportunity to experience the same social media hype and excitement to all of their favorite show's big moments no matter when they watch. The concept required support for people to comment at any point, during or after a show, as well as the ability to reply and like other's comments.
Additionally this app would require a video browse experience for all Xbox Original Content. Since Xbox was producing movies and shows, the browse experience needed support for single choice shows, like a movie, as well as episodic content with multiple episodes and seasons.
CONSIDERATIONS
Movies and shows have a set duration that captures your attention. This app not only needed to allow you to express your joys and frustrations during these shows, but give you a reason to come back long after the credits roll. This would require an in app experience to browse, respond and interact with comments when not actively watching a show in realtime.
Being able to connect earlier plot points to those big show revelations is great, once you've seen that big moment. What about those viewers who show up a little late and watch hours, days or even years later? The open or "unlinked" browse and timeline experience, whether watching a show or not could produce huge spoilers for any viewer at any time.
With many shows still in production or pre-production, the original content release schedule was still being set. The uncertain release schedule meant the browse experience needed to be versatile enough to support an expanding library with the possibility of one show option till more are added.
SOLUTIONS
All non-synched show comments would appear in the "Post-Show Discussion" area which acted as a catch all for any comments once the credits rolled or if any comments were made while not actively watching a show. This area gave people the freedom to make comments well after the show ended without putting spoilers in the middle of the show or worse, the beginning.
Even with all post show comments going into the "Post-Show Discussion" there was still a need to cover any potential spoilers from slipping through. The app design incorporated a "flag" system to give the community a way to hide any potential spoilers or inappropriate comments by blurring these comments until a confirmation was given that you want to view the questionable comment.
Browsing the app would be kept to a single row experience to support a slow roll out of show options. This design could then expand horizontally to support multiple shows until the library grew large enough to sort by genre with the addition of sections vertically.