The challenge
In late 2017, Prime Video was available on a variety of Living Room devices, but not Apple TV. How do you bring a complex product to devices ranging from brand new to ~5 years old?
The solution
Two versions of the Prime Video app – the first available to all users of Apple’s 3rd Generation device, with the second available to download on the App Store for users of 4th Generation and 4K devices.
Prime Video Search UI on Apple TV
Apple TV (4th Generation / 4k)
I worked as Lead UX Designer on the Prime Video app for Apple TV from the start of the project through to launch.
This included defining which parts of the experience would be specifically tailored to the device, designing appropriate UI for the device-specific interface changes.
I worked closely with the engineering team to ensure that design intent was clearly communicated and collaborating with engineers to find and resolve bugs before launch.
I also helped plan, and attended, a series of user research sessions to investigate whether the app enabled customers to perform key user journeys, presenting the findings to VP-level management.
Prime Video Home Screen on Apple TV
Features designed for the 4th Generation / 4k app:
- a custom search UI optimised to allow faster searches using the touch remote by presenting search suggestions earlier on in the user journey
- key screens to allow sign ups for Prime Video subscriptions directly on the device
- settings screen to show subscription status and management details
As of late December 2017, the app held the record for the most first-week downloads of any Apple TV app
[source: The Verge]
Prime Video Sign In on Apple TV (3rd Generation)
Apple TV (3rd Generation)
I was also Lead UX designer on Prime Video for 3rd Generation devices. The challenge was to produce a version of the Prime Video experience at feature parity with other Prime Video apps, using a specific set of interface components native to the device.
My role on this part of the project included redesigning key flows in the app to use device-appropriate layout and components, collaborating with Product Managers to ensure the full functional spec was met and creation of a prototype covering the majority of the app experience.
I then presented this prototype to VP-level management to communicate and review design intent, and worked directly with the engineering team to iterate on the designs where necessary as the app was built.
Brilliant! Prime Video is now on the Apple TV Gen 3!
Twitter user
From the day of release it has been available on all 3rd Generation devices, and has since been updated to support additional UI languages.
Key features designed in addition to the core app experience include:
- Series lists with clearly-separated bonus content
- A custom sign-in UI to allow customers faster sign in by entering a code on the web
- A ‘See More’ paginated browse experience to help users quickly look through the full range of Prime Video content
- Search filtering
- Multilingual UI assets
Search filtering in Prime Video on Apple TV (3rd Generation)