9x9.tv allows users to discover and watch curated topical videos, organized into TV-like channels, on various devices including TVs, smartphones, tablets, and HDMI sticks.
Art direction, UX strategy, UI design, Visual design, Front-end development, Product management
2010 – 2012
The Program Guide provides an overview of the user's channel collection. Every group consists of nine channels, and there are a total of nine groups in the full program guide. Users can assign a specific topic to each group for better organization of channels.
To create a TV-like watching experience, it is essential to avoid returning to the Program Guide for channel changes. While watching, you can quickly jump to the previous or next channels by pressing the forward or backward buttons.
Channel Store offers curated video channels for users to subscribe. To ensure a consistent user experience, video previews are provided while browsing each channel.
The original goal of 9x9.tv is to transform personal computers into personal TVs. To accommodate the various screen sizes, 9x9.tv was developed as a browser-based application. The user experience for operating the 9x9.tv web application is intuitive, allowing users to quickly learn how to navigate the program guide, play videos, and browse video channels using standard keyboard and mouse controls.
With a hardware remote control and an HDMI stick, 9x9.tv is now accessible on larger TV displays. This version of 9x9.tv is designed to deliver a 10-foot experience for users. Conventional TV user interface elements and remote control patterns have been integrated into the design system.
The integration of mobile devices has significantly enhanced 9x9.tv. The 9x9.tv iOS app provides users with a seamless online video-watching experience across devices. Users can easily watch videos on their favorite mobile devices while on the go. The TV Cast feature allows users to stream videos from their mobile devices to a TV or PC screen, enabling uninterrupted viewing. Additionally, by switching to Remote Control mode in the app, a user’s mobile device instantly becomes the remote control for 9x9 TV.
Based on user testing of the 9x9.tv PC version, the most common feedback concerned the video playlist. Users expressed a strong desire to know about upcoming video content while watching a video. They preferred the ability to jump directly to their chosen content rather than having to scroll through options. Additionally, users spent more time watching videos in the preview window of the Channel Store instead of switching to the Video Player.
The other finding was that users often multitasked while watching videos on their PCs, engaging in activities like chatting with friends and editing articles simultaneously.
Our explanation for these findings is the hardware affordance. Due to the hardware and the environmental setup, users automatically adopt PC usage behaviors, even while watching videos.
We revised the 9x9.tv PC version in several ways based on user testing results:
On a PC, users typically have a "Lean Forward" mindset, focusing on tasks rather than relaxation. They tend to engage in "doing work" instead of simply "enjoying" content. Recognizing this, we decided to leverage this behavior. We shifted the product goal for the PC to emphasize new channel searching, browsing, and subscribing.
In response to the new product focus, the user journey has been adjusted. The original user journey was: Land on site > Overview of video collection in Program Guide > Watch videos in the Player > Subscribe to more channels in the Channel Store.
The updated user journey is: Visit the site > Preview video content in the Channel Store > Subscribe to more channels in the Channel Store > View the video collection in the Program Guide > Watch videos in the Player.
The redesign of 9x9.tv aimed to create a more typical website experience by minimizing the prominence of the video player. To achieve this, a standard website header and footer were added, and existing components were integrated into the new framework.
The Channel Store is now the homepage. Under the Directory tab, a comprehensive list of video content is provided to meet user needs. The enlarged preview window creates a better viewing environment to suit user behavior.