Joyn — Case study
Launching Joyn in Germany
Translating our brand into the core product.
I am a firm believer in breaking down barriers between brand and product. Both shape the experience users have — from communication to entering the product.
Our MVP was delivered in more than 12 months. We set out to compete with Netflix and Prime with only a fraction of the engineering resources.
My team and I contributed:
1) Vision and (early) experience design
2) Design system (for brand inclusion)
3) Onboarding experience
4) Technical writing
In our initial workshop we brought product, design, marketing, customer service and engineering together.
“A simple local TV-everywhere experience to scale across Europe.”
Starting from the user, we defined five hero journeys to begin the new experience:
• Get meaningful content right after sign-up
• Continue watching a series in VOD that I just watched live
• Understand why I have to pay extra for this title
• See what my friends are into and watching
• Create a custom channel based on what I like
The landing page had to mirror the brand and product experience we wanted to convey.
TV used to be a lean-back experience. Streaming pushed people into a lean-forward mode: search, scroll, choose. We wanted to recreate the charm of lean-back TV in a modern product.
To re-create this experience, we chose between 3 directions:
#1 Option Simplicity
Bold
• Just four menu items
• Large hero pieces of content
Immersive
• Land straight into content
• Content broken up in different ways, providing lots of onward
Effortless
• Just four menu items
• Land right into the content tailored to you
• Menu always accessible
#2 Option Pyramid
Bold
• Leading with just 3 items
• Not a traditional menu
• Big curated sections per genre
Immersive
• Playback at the heart
• Easy onward journeys
• Big curated sections per genre
Effortless
• Always 3 contextual suggestions
• Only one browse section
• Simple tab design
#3 Option Cinematic
Bold
• Cinematic hero areas
• Not a traditional menu layout
• Only four menu items
Immersive
• Cinematic and rich browsing
• Content suggested while still in the main menu
• Dive deeper by just continuing to scroll
Effortless
• Content suggested while still in the main menu
• Only four menu areas
• Simple navigation
We combined the best elements of each direction through iteration and user testing.
This was our pitch to the board to get the funding we needed to build the MVP.
We then connected the brand team with design and product so brand characteristics could land in the product.
Starting with color…
Color: Glow
Color: Turtle
We worked through palettes such as Glow and Turtle, then through type. We paid close attention to how each font behaved on mobile, web and TV, and to character spacing so content would read well.
…to the onboarding experience, every wording, and every piece of content we put on the platform.
Because every aspect of the product is a representation of the brand, brand and product teams collaborated closely every day.
Results
The MVP was our proof before the build: it validated the experience with users and secured the funding to build Joyn.
85% task success
Test users found a show, started a stream and navigated back without help, across 3 rounds of lab testing.
~30% faster to first stream
The combined direction outperformed each single option and the predecessor app.
7 in 10 interviewees
Described the experience as bold, immersive and effortless, unprompted, before the brand was public.
Board approval
The MVP and pitch secured full funding for the build.