Viewmate streams
End-to-end B2B web app design
SaaS Schedule Publication for Streaming Media Organizations
Year
2017-2018
Tools
Balsamiq, Sketch,
Axure, Tobii Pro
Deliverables
User Flows
Wireframes
Low-fidelity mocks
High-fidelity mocks
Design system
Product Team
My Team
1 Product manager
2 Developers
2 Designers (lead/junior)
My Role
Lead designer
Lead researcher
Research
11 Individual interviews
9 Eye-tracking studies
5 Usability tests
Summary
Streaming media organizations (SMOs) thrive on growing consistent live audiences, yet most small‑to‑mid‑size streamers were still tweeting ad‑hoc schedule graphics or relying on siloed platform calendars. Viewmate streams filled that gap with a central SaaS tool that let SMOs plan, publish, and syndicate their upcoming airings. This could then be pushed to and discoverable within a consumer iOS app or linked to for open public consumption.
Problem
Viewers had trouble in both initially discovering streamers of interest to them, and in remembering the time & location of the stream.
Viewmate staff started off owning the build & publication of schedules, but this wouldn’t scale with the growth in streaming media available in the Viewmate consumer app.
SMOs therefore needed an method to publish their own upcoming stream schedules directly, bypassing Viewmate staff.
Research & Process
Using MongoDB, dozens of recurring stream schedules and their respective attributes were already being manually passed into the Viewmate app via Viewmate staff using MongoDB. I wireframed an initial GUI in Balsamiq to capture the core IA: columns by show, cards by airing, with all attribute types maintained.
Interview sessions validated card density and attribute available. Iterations with Axure let us test scroll behavior and bulk‑edit patterns in-person with SMOs. In addition, I conducted eye tracking studies to assess the efficacy of CTAs and value props for the SaaS landing page.
Key Insight SMOs are often lacking a single source of truth for stream scheduling. Viewmate therefore could serve as the ‘official’ schedule, and should be dynamically consumable outside of the mobile app.
Key Insight Many details remain the same across a given stream channel. So saving drafts, keeping a full record of each airing, and copying all attributes from an existing stream are each important to the workflow of scheduling a new stream, in terms of time-saving, consistency, and accuracy.
Key insight Auto-scheduling is crucial. Around 35 % of streams air on a firm recurring cadence, so we wanted to optimize for that workflow while distinguishing between auto-scheduled and custom airings.
Key Insight Multiple streamers/ stream channels are often managed by a single entity. The ability to seamlessly manage their scheduling all within one account would drastically decrease friction.
Solution
Dynamic schedule UI: responsive card grid, filter by tag or platform.
New stream modal: all attributes inputtable in one screen, using smart defaults based on previous entry; auto‑repeat, and keyword search.
Image guide: handing off image selection to users required a style guide to ensure adherence to best practices & consistency in quality.
Multi-channel support: ability to seamlessly manage multiple channels all within one account to drastically decrease friction.
- One‑click syndication: pushes updates to embeddable JSON feed consumed by the Viewmate iOS app and partner sites.
Results
Usability Test:
- Users who were very satisfied with ease of adding a new stream - 86%
-
Average time to add new stream, 1st time user- 3:12 minutes
Initial 3-month Pilot:
- SMO partners onboarded- 16 channels within 2 weeks
- Unique streams scheduled- 103 in 3 months
- Total airings scheduled- ~1650 in 3 months
- Churn- 12.5%