The challenge
I lead the team that was given the following challenges:
- Cheaper platform that provides the same quality of service
- Bring streaming TV channels to web and mobile for TalkTalk customers
- Redesign the TalkTalk tv store website to help customers find the content they are entitled to with their subscription
- Make it easy for people to find and purchase the content they are looking for
- Increase visibility of TalkTalk TV offerings
Selecting a platform provider
- Make sure you have the right people involved in decision making process – involve people who actually worked on the existing product to ask the right questions
- Make sure you have a rough idea of what you want to achieve with new designs and discuss how the proposed platform can accommodate it
- Make sure the development team of the new platform provider are located in the same country and available for working on development together
- Create a roadmap together. Make it achievable for both sides.
- Focus on most complicated items first – they will serve as a proof of concept and you will find out if either party is over promising. Fail fast and reconsider your choice and your roadmap
- Be realistic and frugal with your MVP
- Make sure the development team of your third party is an in-house team and not sub-contracting companies
A lesson learnt from this process done wrong is that our initial plan was to deliver the MVP in 9 months. We ended up delivering it in 18. But lets leave this as a lesson learnt and look at what we did deliver from UX point of view.
New Information architecture
The new navigation clearly identifies the areas of the site:
Home – this your basic overview adjusted to your usage and behavior.
Guide – this is where you find your live TV guide
My TV – this is where you find things you own
More TV – this is where you can explore other TV options from TalkTalk
Home page
There are 2 types of entertainment consumption. Sometimes they are called “Lean in” / “Lean back” i.e. active and passive consumption. Some come to be offered something. Others come with a clear idea of what they want to watch.
The trailer at the top of the site works for both, it gets people a sneak peak of films/tv that they might have heard of.
The rails below allow people to have a quick browse of the content based on what they are usually looking for (this comes from analytics and user interviews).
The overall structure based on rails allows flexibility for the content team to “explore” different ways of organising content in order to find the optimal way for each customer type.
Film/Series information, viewing options and cost
Previously, in order to learn more about the film/show user had to click and go to a content page where they can see more info about it as well as options of watching it – buying or renting.
In the new design, user stays on the same page and has a quick info and options of renting/owning or watching content live.
It is easy to see all relevant information about the film/show without having to navigate to a different page. It makes it easy to compare and select content.
Live content
Live content that people can watch is now also featured on the home page. And it is organised by what they can watch right away or on demand.
If user pick content that is not available they get an option to see how they can access the content. Users can look through different content packages offered by TalkTalk and decide if they want to subscribe.
Cross channel search
A super cool feature we added is a search that provides results across many options of accessing content. For example, if you are looking for the “Deep State” you will get the results that let you either “purchase”, “rent”, “watch live” or “add to schedule”.
2016
TalkTalk is a company that provides their customers with a Broadband, TV and Mobile subscription. It is specifically placed and priced for people who want high speed internet and popular TV without having to pay a fortune.
I lead the design of TV services across web, TV and mobile to TalkTalk customers.
Cheaper platform that provides the same quality of service
My gratitude and credit goes to my amazing team at TalkTalk.