Discovery
Studied research about subject matter published by UXR; reviewed past experiments.
The number of live creators streaming to Twitch has grown exponentially over the last few years. Matching viewers with them has been my team’s core challenge.
We aimed to improve discoverability and stream sampling by allowing Twitch’s millions of viewers to more quickly explore its thousands of creators through more fluid, video-forward browsing.
As Principal UX Designer at Twitch, I spearheaded a cross-functional effort to overhaul a fragmented process. Through strategic prototyping and user research, we designed Channel Switcher - an innovation enabling seamless discovery through video previews.
Late 2021 – Present
Collaborators include a UX Designer, 3 UX Researchers, 2 Data Analysts, a Product Manager, and a team of software engineers.
Figma, React, Typescript, GraphQL, RITE studies, multivariate testing, mixed methods.
Studied research about subject matter published by UXR; reviewed past experiments.
Made sense of our ongoing situation; came up with solutions based on reality; socialized ideas.
Roughed out wireframes, including a page-level carousel, a modal preview, and the persistent left nav.
Designed 3 broad directions with support from teammate Ed Scherf
Conducted a concept study of the core ideas to validate and boil down the best direction.
Started with Figma, then built in with live data in React, Typescript, and our Core UI library with support of engineering team.
Rapidly Iterated Testing & Evaluation (RITE) study with over 10 participants; refined the design as opportunities arose.
Directly supported engineering, shipped 2 multivariate tests, and contributed to data analyses.
Our user feedback service overflowed with nearly 1,200 suggestions to improve discovery. Internal research also indicated gaps in our existing features. As the team’s viewer domain expert, I knew we had a massive chasm between what our viewers were looking for and what our discovery features offered.
I had spent the previous couple of years focused on several improvements of the watching experience; it was my turn to help viewers in getting there.
This structure of user stories was liberally borrowed from this Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) method.
Analyzing results from past experiments and research revealed insights that informed our direction. I synthesized the research into key insights:
A UX-driven hypothesis emerged. It needed to be clear, concise, and repeatable. At its core, it needed to communicate what we were hoping for and how we believed we would get there.
THE HYPOTHESISFor viewers to find live creators they’ll watch and enjoy over time, they need to be able to seamlessly preview and switch between streams.
But everyone can read and ideate quietly on their own. I needed to socialize what I was thinking and get feedback from my peers and stakeholders. I wanted to get them excited about the idea and leadership interested in funding it further.
I visualized flows and screens to share concepts with stakeholders. Seeing the core problem mapped out brought clarity. Why were we making exploration so difficult?
I analyzed our organizational structure and recognized it mirrored the fragmented user journey – siloed teams were producing disconnected experiences. My proposed holistic solution aimed to address these root internal causes. This strengthened stakeholder confidence.
Perhaps, it was a bit self-deprecating. And maybe Conway knew best all along.
(PS we’ve since re-orged!)
Divergence is my favorite part of the design process. It’s rare you’ll work things out on your first paddle out. 🏄🏽♂️
Working closely with UX Designer Ed Scherf, Watch experience co-lead, we went wide in exploration across dozens of variations, then landed on three broad strategies that we tested with participants in a concept study.
This additional click after selecting a stream never quite landed. Participants found it disruptive and unnecessary.
The gift of the “Left Nav” is that it’s accessible across most surfaces. It’s a familiar pattern to most users, especially on the web. It’s also a great way to keep the video player in view, which is a core part of the Twitch experience.
This placement conflicted with the Channel Page architecture. Prepending atop video and chat introduced overloaded information density. Disrupting mature interfaces adds risk of coordination bottlenecks.
Testing revealed this reimagined Browse page best resolved discovery pain points. Participants cited reduced friction sampling streams and greater control while exploring.
This bolder direction caught users before channel commitment, enabling easy previewing. However, overhauling the existing architecture posed tradeoffs. Still, the ability to smoothly trial channels led this to emerge as the winning concept.
The power of design is we can get folks’ big ideas, out of their heads, before their eyes. Showing my Product Manager SteveMz these designs got him singing this poetry:
my chaos muppet brain is thinking that this would be the default and the list would be an opt in– Product Manager
With leadership urging boldness, we pursued the most ambitious direction. We wanted to explore wholesale-replacing the existing Browsing experience.
A series of rapid prototypes, interviews, and experiments both changed and validated our thinking and helped us move forward.
This is what lended us to our current design. It’s a combination of the best parts of the three directions, with a healthy dose of new thinking informed by both qualitative and quantitative customer feedback.
Simplifying the process of evaluating preferred dimensions while exploring new content.
Diving into the category's current status, including descriptions from IGDB and real-time stats on viewers actively engaged within streams.
Preferences around concealing previews directly from the interface.
The original layout that started it all. However, we deprioritized it due to expected behavior around vertical scroll.
Providing context (and an introduction to settings soon™) around the divergent, new experience, and how to use it.
Using the traversal-forward interface for quickly getting through popular Clips in a category.
Applying the same interface to collections of streams, like those created for homepage discovery.
Fun fact: I actually designed this layout when we added new sorting features—where my PM graced me with the opportunity to redesign it at-large—in 2019. 😅 Teaching me that if you stick around long enough, you’ll inevitably have to contend with your past decisions.
How lucky I am to say that my work is in continously connecting viewers with creators and their communities. They’re why I do it. For the memelords, the gamers, the lurkers, the moderators, the musicians—everyone who’s found a home on Twitch. As memes and technologies evolve, it’s important that our service does, too.
The experience did exactly what it was intended to – getting viewers to more creators. Some cohorts faired better than others. Perhaps, it’s intended to be that the work never stops.
More experienced viewers may evaluate differently when they’re sampling new creators. It could be that these sorts of decisions are influenced by realtime factors. When you don’t know who’s on the other side, you might care more about what’s going on.
With a big year of investing in more responsive recommendations models in mobile, we’re well positioned to adapt learnings into this experience. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Seeing it all come together is exciting.