Delivering an Emmy-winning TV experience to Xbox
Launching OneGuide for Xbox One, transforming the console into the primary entertainment hub for over 500M active monthly customers.
Client
Microsoft Xbox
Industry
Gaming & Entertainment
Role
Product Design
Secondary role
User Research
Date
Location
Redmond, WA
Live Website
Turning Xbox into an Input-1 device
The launch of Xbox One represented a massive shift from a gaming machine to an all-in-one entertainment center. By integrating live TV signals directly into the console, we changed the way people discover, control, and customize their TV viewing experience.
Metric | Outcome |
|---|---|
Industry recognition | Shipped the Emmy-winning XBOX One TV experience (OneGuide), recognized for excellence in interactive media. |
Strategic adoption | Successfully executed the "Input 1" initiative, integrating live TV signals into a custom Xbox interface. |
Platform reach | Designed the mobile companion experience for a brand serving 500 million active monthly customers. |
Velocity | Worked side-by-side with Agile development teams to ship last-minute modifications based on technical and time limitations. |
Deep IA and countless rounds of wireframe concepts shared and tested to ensure usability, technical feasibility, and consistency with TV UI.
Bridging the "10-Foot" and Mobile Experience
The core challenge was creating a seamless transition between the "10-foot" UI of the television screen and the "2-foot" UI of mobile and tablet companion apps.
Unified interaction model: I designed a consistent way for users to discover and control live TV content regardless of which screen they were using. This reduced cognitive load and made the system feel like a single, cohesive ecosystem.
The SmartGlass companion: I focused on the SmartGlass experience, allowing users to browse their TV guide and control their console from their mobile device. This solved the problem of "guide clutter" on the main TV screen during active viewing.
Simplicity at scale: By stripping away unnecessary layers in the TV navigation (some due to engineering resource constraints), I ensured that even with thousands of channel options, the interface remained fast and intuitive.
Aligning TV, tablet, and mobile interfaces presented lots of opportunities for innovation.
Leadership through craft & collaboration
Success on the Xbox team required navigating complex hardware and software dependencies while keeping the user experience at the center of every decision.
Grounded in research: I grounded my design vision in competitive research and insights from observing ethnographic studies directly in customer homes. This allowed me to see exactly how families interacted with their televisions, ensuring that the features we built for the mobile companion app solved real-world friction.
Bridging the gap between design and development: I worked side-by-side with an Agile development team to translate complex interaction models into a functional product. This required a high level of flexibility, as I often had to deliver last-minute design modifications based on technical and time limitations without compromising the core user experience.
Validating big ideas through testing: I partnered with researchers, motion designers and code prototype experts to validate our most ambitious concepts. We usability tested specific interaction and information design decisions to confirm feasibility, ensuring that the "Input 1" vision was both intuitive for users and technically sound before shipping.
Leaning into cross-functional collaboration: As the interaction designer responsible for the mobile experience of OneGuide, I acted as a bridge between multiple disciplines. I collaborated with product owners, visual designers, motion experts, and researchers to deliver a cohesive, award-winning experience that scaled to over 100 million subscribers.
In 2015, Xbox One received an Emmy Award for "Television Enhancement Devices", thanks to its industry-leading television-on-demand and media center capabilities.
