── Case Study
Plays.tv Windows App
Improving the ui by adding new features to the client, and making the experience more streamlined
Plays.tv is a recording application used by millions of gamers and the top esports teams. It's the best way to record, review, and analyze your gaming experiences.
During the time I joined the project, Plays.tv mobile app consisted only of the chat feature. Users complained that the app lacked a full suite of functions, such as watching their friends play on the go. I was the only designer on the project and I had to build the majority of the functions from scratch. Within a short period of time I was able to create and ship the fully functioning app complete with timeline feed, object pages, sharing, and uploading features.
For this project I had to modernize and redevelop the UI/UX of the app. Some of the changes implemented during the time of the project were:
• Updated the look of Alert Banners for all your alert needs
• Improved the header appearance
• Updated other UI uniformity with copy, drop-downs, buttons, and colors updates
• Added persistent 'Update available' button for when users have an update
• Improved and simplified the publishing content process.
• Improved Timeline to include content from followers and friends
• Improved app security with password sign in prompt
The old alert banners had several issues. For example, it's bulky and lacked modern design. Multiple banners would get stuck together. As a solution, we decided to add round edges, shorten them, and add a gap between them.
Since we started to bring additional filters to our content, we started facing the problem where at minimum width filters wouldn't fit. The solution for this situation was to organize all the filters under one icon and make it collapsable. As a side benefit of this decision we were able to fit even more useful features at minimum width.
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Fixing one of the UI decisions made in previous generations - a double conformation existed when publishing. After correcting the UX, publishing content is accessible with just one button, which also includes editing the title.
For user convenience we decided to add an option to delete content from the cloud. Here is how the UI of it looks like:
After reviewing the users' suggestions, we decided to animate the progress bar. With the new experience our clients were able to clearly see that their content is being uploaded to our servers without stalling.
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The Windows client I dealt with had been around for 5 years. The development of the app took different turns over the years. To make the app look and feel better I had to rediscover the app logic for more convenient UX. Working on this project helped me better understand the users’ needs when it comes to web, PC, and mobile experience in game industry. Game recording and streaming has its own specifics and requires an understanding of the backend side of the process, which I was happy to learn.
