~ An Overview

The Problem

The Red Bull TV app provides access to exclusive video content from global adventure, entertainment from music artists, and live events featuring top athletes from around the world.

57% of Red Bull TV app users struggled to find the content they wanted to watch in the Red Bull TV app. After opening the app for the first time, users were dropped into a sea of content with no understanding of navigating it to find what they wanted to watch.

The struggle users faced finding content in the app led to a large turnover rate and loss of both users and capital for Red Bull.

The Challenge

Red Bull was struggling to connect and engage with young consumers leading them to partner with the Interaction Design Program at Santa Monica College. Red Bull challenged us to create new and engaging connections with young consumers through a mobile experience with their current and new touchpoints by using the following problem statement:

How might we personalize the Red Bull TV app to help Red Bull further connect and engage with their users?

Pausing for Clarity: This was a solo project.

1.   The Kickoff

Interviewing Stakeholders

Before diving into the initial research, I interviewed the project stakeholders on Red Bull's mobile design team to better understand the project goals. I received the following quote about user trust and mindfulness.

“Consider how users could feel more comfortable using the app. Remember that their engagement impacts both them and Red Bull.”

2.   Researching the Problem

Secondary Research

After the kickoff, I began the project with secondary research focusing on 10 apps and websites with successful user personalization. This helped me understand how each company successfully incorporated its users.

I learned that each company focused on connecting with their users by utilizing user data from one of the following:

• The users’ daily life: Listening habits, name of their significant other, a photo or video, etc.
• The users’ wants: Recommendations of products, an ease of completion, specific artwork, etc.

A Competitive Analysis

To get a better understanding the Red Bull TV market position, I completed a competitive analysis between Red Bull TV and similar content-focused apps such as YouTube, Hulu, and IGTV.

I found that while Red Bull dominates the energy drink market, they were behind when it came to their app. The content was there, but the users struggled to find what appealed to them, leading to a quicker turnover rate to find a better app.

A Heuristic Evaluation

Diving deeper into the research, I completed a heuristic evaluation of the app. This brought to light why users struggled to navigate the app and were overwhelmed when finding content.

Understanding User’s Needs

Before ideating, I wanted to fully understand how current users found what they wanted to watch in the app. I sat down with a few users and had them complete a cognitive walkthrough, then interviewed them.

From this I learned:

• Multiple users felt information overloaded due to the sea of content shown to them from the start.
• With two menus, users didn’t have a quick and easy way to find and watch appealing content.

"I’m not here for the app; I’m here for the content. If I can’t find what I want to see on this app, there’s always another app."

This helped me focus on a major pain point: Users couldn’t easily find the content they wanted to see in the Red Bull TV app.

3.   Ideation

Narrowing the Focus

After honing in on the pain point I wanted to solve, I met with two stakeholders from Red Bull’s design team to discuss what direction to pursue. My primary ideas to help users find content were an advanced search, starring videos, and personalized onboarding.

I discussed all potential options with the team and decided to hone in on personalized onboarding. It was practical, improved personalization for users, and increased user engagement for Red Bull.

I then sat down and created a user persona which helped me keep Red Bull TV users in mind throughout the entire design process.

Dissecting the User Journey

I took a look at the current user journey to pinpoint where users were struggling to find content.

As you can see below, it was a challenge for users to find content that appealed to them because of the continued searching and lack of finding, which led to a loss of engagement from the user.

Sketches

I drew up a few sketches of what personalized onboarding might look like. This helped me visualize my design decisions before wireframing and testing.

Wireframing

Once I had a key idea of the user’s needs and personalized onboarding, I created a few wireframes. This helped me iterate on the onboarding options and hash out the look of the prototype for testing.

4.   Prototyping & Testing

Designing the Prototype

Using the sketches and wireframes, I designed the initial prototype for testing. I used Figma to design and prototype because of the ease of making changes and sharing the prototype when testing.

Interviewing & Testing with Users

I tested my prototype with users of the Red Bull TV app to understand how personalized onboarding could help them find content and improve their engagement.

Testing helped me improve the prototype’s initial design and gather unbiased feedback from each user that I tested with. I received the following feedback from users:

"This is easier to use, but I really hate how small the buttons are. Going through it feels like a chore… I don’t think I’d use it."

“I’d use this if I had to but don’t like the look or that it’s all text-based. Pictures of the sports for a visual of each category would be much better.”

"I like the options... they’re helpful, but the amount I have to scroll is ridiculous. I’d love if there were an easier way to select the preferences."

5.   The Final Design

Redesigning from Feedback

From the feedback I gathered when testing the prototype, I knew that the design needed work. I understood what helped the users and what hindered their experience, which helped me easily refine the design.

I removed the layers of options and added each genre from the Red Bull TV app to the prototype. My goals were to provide users with a visual cue for each section and help them move through the app faster.

Testing the Final Design

I tested the changes with the same set of users and learned that the new design helped them easily select and watch the content they were interested in.

Users could easily move straight into the app and watch content that appealed to them instead of wading through multiple pages to find something that barely met their needs. This helped drive further user engagement while improving user connections with Red Bull.

"This is much clearer than the buttons I had to scroll through. I love how there are pictures of sports so I can easily pick and choose.”

“By just going through this, I feel like the app is going to be more oriented toward what I want to watch. I’m not worried about finding shows I like.”

The Final Designs

Before pitching the project, I prototyped an example use case to present to Red Bull.

      Take a look at the final prototype.

The Pitch

During the pitch, I shared the insights and details that I gathered from users. I used data that users shared with me to provide Red Bull with metrics as to how onboarding could improve user personalization and retention.

A few of success metrics follow:

• With onboarding users felt 50% more invested in the app.
• Users of the app were able to find content in the app 80% faster.
• 70% of users mentioned they would not fall back on a competing app with onboarding built into the Red Bull TV app.

“I’d use this if I had to but don’t like the look or that it’s all text-based. Pictures of the sports for a visual of each category would be much better.”

Preparing Handoff

After the pitch I spoke with engineers about handoff to ensure that onboarding could be accurately implemented. We discussed the design, what was needed from a development standpoint, and how I could be involved in their agile process.

By discussing and working with developers for handoff, I understood:

• Execution includes the design. Handoff started as a bit of a struggle because of clarity with the design system. We discussed the design, what was needed from a development standpoint, and how I could be involved in their agile process.

• Collaboration is key. Without clear communication, something will go wrong. To avoid this, I continually spoke with and helped engineers understand the design requirements and their limitations to complete successful implementation.

6.   Reflecting

Looking Back

Working with Red Bull on a solo project was an incredible experience. I learned first hand what it is like to work on each part of the design process while translating data from users into prototypes and a final design. While the project turned out well and provided me with a great learning experience, I still dealt with unforeseen problems along the way.

What I Learned

As the sole designer, I was responsible for every single part of the project. I learned about the importance of completely understanding user data and asking sufficient interview questions.

When interviewing users, they mentioned that they were happy with most parts of the Red Bull TV app. However, when I brought up more specific questions about different parts of the app during interviews, users would mention that they were dealing with more pain points.

This taught me that there is usually more to each user’s needs than what is on the surface.

What I Would Do Differently

While this was a solo project, I relied on my understanding of certain processes a bit too much. When I was struggling, I felt like I needed to come to the solution instead of asking other designers or stakeholders around me.

This didn’t hurt my progress but would have helped me articulate and build on different ideas quicker. Since this project, I make sure to reach out to those around me and ask for their opinions and guidance when stuck in a similar situation.

Thanks for Reading!

I appreciate the time you’ve taken to read through my case study and get an understanding of my process. If you have any questions about my Red Bull TV project, please reach out! I’d love to discuss it with you!