The NBCU Sprint: How the Aggregated App became Peacock
It was the time of the great Aggregation. Netflix and Amazon were aggregating content across their portfolios to help users easily find shows to watch. FX and Disney were cross promoting and consolidating apps to streamline the viewing experience. ESPN and Facebook were introducing alternate content types to increase stickiness to the primary experience.
Aggregation should always be seamless, never confusing. Choosing a brand should be as natural as changing the channel.
It starts with UX, Baby.
I wore many hats in a short period of time at NBCU. It started with hard core UX study of navigation for the aggregated app project. Specifically, how users find the network, franchise, show and, ultimately, episode.
Test, Sprint, Test again.
Working with outside user testing group we learned what we suspected - that consumers want a binge-friendly experience, with effortless discovery of extensive content selection that is personalized by their viewing habits.
United we Stand, Divided we Buffer.
No Time for Downtime.
While there were so many reasons for the front end experience to come together a great truth about this project was how it made equal, if not more sense, on the backend. It is critical for video to play on a reliable platform with minimal buffering, instability or downtime.
Unified Tech Framework.
The solution from the Tech Team was moving away from brand specific video player configurations and certifications to a single client codebase with common UI and single certification. As an enthusiastic infographic designer I was happy to show that visually in our roadshow presentation.
The Roadshow.
From collaborating with Department Heads on content and strategy to understanding the Technology in order to explain it better; it was intense time. Even though it was the only move in the current content offering climate that does not mean it was enthusiastically received. Our next move was to create a pitch deck for an internal roadshow.
Authentication. Who Holds the Key?
Nuts and Bolts.
With all the great content we were tasked with focusing on access. In order to check that a user is authorized to play a particular piece of content, it was necessary to confirm both that the user has a current subscription with a MVPD and that the requested asset is authorized as part of the user’s television subscription package.
Authorization User Flows.
The information required to determine this is not held in one central place; instead those checks must ultimately be made with the MVPD in question. We focused on abstracting away the complexity of integrations with many different MVPDs and worked through many different authorization flows.
The Beautiful Game. When and Where can We Watch?
Two Tournaments
Less a project more a cocktail napkin sketch I was approached to help with two networks and two world class soccer tournaments. As a LatinX from South America I knew how important it was to let fans know what matches were on when and if they were behind a paywall.
Two Channels
Two tournaments, two channels, two states for one of the most important programming weeks of the calendar. The challenge was to make it clear when what game was playing where and was it free for all to see or not. This simple infographic answers all those questions at once. Goooool!
