Ingrid Horng
UX Designer

Overview

The Adobe Creative Jam was hosted by Adobe and Netflix to challenge participants to work under tight time constraints and in a fast paced environment. My teammate and I designed SyncUp, a co-viewing streaming platform that fosters human connection in the digital space through interactive experiences.

Role: UX Designer (1/2)
Responsibilities: Research, user flows, visual design, UI design, wireframing, and prototyping
Timeline: 2 days

SyncUp

Challenge

How might we help adults create community interaction over streaming videos?

Discovery

Deeper insights

Since we were under a tight deadline, I looked through existing surveys and articles about the impacts of social isolation for adults age 18 and older. These key insights shaped the vision of the product.

  • Two-thirds of adults say they are experiencing social isolation

  • Adults in general felt frustration, stress, anxiety, and sadness since the pandemic started

  • 7 in 10 adults said the pandemic has made it more difficult for them to connect with friends

Reviewing existing video streaming tools

By doing a competitive analysis, I learned what was the most common and uncommon features for video streaming tools. The evaluation helped determine what features can help meet users needs.

  • YouTube - Video sharing platform:
    Allows people to share, like, share, and comment on each video.

  • Twitch - Gaming platform
    Allows people to watch other playing games, interact with other viewers, or live stream their own gameplay.

  • Teleparty - Browser extension
    Synchronizes video playback and adds group chat to existing streaming platforms.

Define

Meet the user

SyncUp

Users stories

From our brainstorming session, we discovered there were two types of roles that have different needs during 4 scenarios.

  • Host: Individual who will send out watch party invitation

  • Participant: Individual who will attend the watch party event

SyncUp

User flows

I worked with my teammate to mapped out the host's and participant's tasks to see how we could optimize their journey to help them reach their most important goals.

Ideation

Inspirations

I spearheaded the look and feel of the product by selecting colors that were cool tone to provide a calming and soothing ambience. Then, I gathered inspirations for the overall structure of the interface to reference when brainstorming for our product.

SyncUp

Setting the design direction

I used the top-down approach to define the structure of the experience. After sketching through numerous options of UI arrangements and data elements, the finalize vision of the product was born.

SyncUp

Output

Wireframing & prototyping

My teammate and I worked quickly to turned the concept sketches into high-fidelity wireframes. I was responsible for the dashboard and virtual activity interactions.

SyncUp

Pattern library

A pattern library was created so we could standardized colors and components to ensure our wireframes were consistent under the short amount of time.

SyncUp
The Features
SyncUp

Personalized dashboard

  • Customize dashboard with favorite genres for television series and movies

  • Plan a virtual watch party event

  • View upcoming events

SyncUp

Host virtual viewing party

  • Host a watch party by creating an invitation

  • Select invitees from contact list

  • Select a movie or television series to watch from a combined preference list from all attendants

  • Add a personalized note to invitees

  • A notification appears on top of dashboard when invitees receives the invitation

SyncUp

Engage in conversations

  • Watch content privately and remotely with group of people

  • Live chat to create the "in-person" experience

SyncUp

Engage in interactive activities

  • After the viewing session, there is an option to play nteractive games based on the recent viewing

Reflection

After successfully building a prototype (and surviving 48 waking hours), it was the most exhilarating design project that tested my time management, communication, and collaboration skills in a deadline-driven environment. The project underscored the importance of using effective time management strategies to ensure that key milestones were met. Our collaborative efforts reinforced the importance of communicating design ideas effectively, ensuring that we both grasped the concepts and could seamlessly translate them into our collaborative work.