Overview

2017 - 2019 ▫️ OTT media streaming native apps on iOS, Android, 10ft screens, responsive web

DirecTV Latin America wanted to create a multi-device experience that would provide customers with live-streaming and on-demand content across Latin America. This content was already available on set-top boxes, but this limited users from viewing content on the go. To give users the freedom of watching content when and where they wanted, regardless of device or platform, we built DGO, an app for live-streaming and on-demand content on iOS, Android, web and 10 ft screens.

See the DGO site here.

Note: The app name has been changed to DGO (some designs may reference DTVGO, which was its name at the time of launch).

Impact

The app has a rating of 4.7 stars, from over 39,000 reviews on the Apple App Store.

The app has a rating of 4.3 stars from over 200,000 reviews on Google Play, with over 10 million downloads.

Role

Our team was initially brought on in a consulting capacity to deliver an OTT app development strategy for DTV LatAm. Our team’s consulting role expanded into managing the complete product planning, development and launch, helping DTV LatAm navigate the ins and outs of a 0-to-1 launch.

My role began with providing UX strategy and as our team got more involved with the execution, I led the design team, which consisted of four designers. I worked closely with the UX Lead from DTV LatAm to ensure we had brand expertise to guide our process. I oversaw the design team to create complete experiences which aligned with business, product and technical requirements.

This project consisted of a large multi-vendor, cross-disciplinary team of 60 people, spread across different countries and time zones. I was the design point of contact, ensuring the rapid product, business, and technical decisions that were evolving were aligned with and reflected in the designs. I collaborated closely with engineering and product folks to ensure that the intricacies of the UX were accurately reflected in our cross-vendor decisions, on the roadmap, in user stories and during builds.

Many features required for launch impacted the user experience in some capacity, which meant I was involved in many work streams ranging from SEO, marketing, translations, usability testing for each pre-release, CMS planning, among others.

Native mobile experience

Key Challenges

• Because the app would be released in different countries, the design team worked closely on unique issues such as:

  • using geolocation to display accurate content and language to users due to licensing + streaming rights

  • modifying the display of live programming based on user location

  • designing a flexible UI due to differences in languages/copy

  • due to varying data bandwidths in different countries, we worked with engineers on how to load content without interruptions

• Due to language variances for different countries, we needed to translate all copy within the app that wasn’t pulled in with content (i.e. error messages, navigation, etc.)

• The initial plan was to build the multi-device 0-to-1 experiences in time for the 2018 FIFA World Cup

  • Since each part of this complex live-streaming and on-demand platform had to be built, we had honest discussions as a team to align on the development status from multiple, simultaneous work streams

  • Ultimately, the team made the decision to release after the World Cup with a more solid MVP experience which would be enticing to users

    • This prevented the risk of a less satisfactory first impression that could plague the reputation of the app long-term

Native TV experience