Vertical Video in BBC Apps

We know younger users are consuming BBC content on social media platforms - this project’s goal was to improve the vertical video experience on the BBC News app, and introduce it to the BBC Sport app, to attract younger users and show them the breadth of BBC content through onward journeys. 

I ran this project from the start, looking at data and defining the product vision, conducting an in-depth competitor analysis, building a framework to identify the right type of player for different content types, I built prototypes and worked with a researcher to plan and conduct in person usability testing, created specs and worked with engineers to implement the work. 

Team
BBC News and Sport apps

Role
Lead Designer

Platforms
iOS and Android

Status
In Development

The current Vertical Video experience in the News app isn’t working.

Virtical video is seen as a ‘big bet’ for attracting younger users to BBC News and Sport, however the data shows us we need to make improvements.

  • 14% of the whole app are Under 35

  •  But only 5% of users who watch videos are U35

  • We’re also not hitting our underserved audience segments

  • Only 9% of users who interact with the video carousel go on to play a video

Users are also unable to swipe between videos, having to go in and out of each one.

I worked with editorial to improve imagery and learn what type of content younger users want

I helped Editorial to build prototypes and ran unmonitored UserZoom studies with underserved audience segments, to learn how we could increase engagement with videos in the News app.

The larger titles and better quality imagery tested well, with many noting that poor imagery was the reason they didn’t interact with the existing videos. They also wanted to see more ‘serious’ news and less ‘celebrity’ news, as they come to the BBC for ‘The News’, and go to social media for more light-hearted content.

Existing work on web gave us useful insights to run with

Due to differing roadmaps, the web team were ahead and had already usability tested an initial version, so I was able to take the lessons learned and use them as a starting point for the app. Key points were:

  • Users expect a swipe interaction to navigate through video collections

  • There’s a desire to learn more about the context of the video content

  • The concept of short videos was positively received 

  • Most preferred length range is 30-60 seconds

I looked at App competitors’ interaction patterns and features.

And found that there are four types of portrait video, depending on their length, and therefore four video player formats.

  1. Story (<30 seconds)

  2. Short Video (<1min)

  3. Variable length (~1-5 mins)

  4. Long form (15 min +)

The Short video and Variable length formats were most suited to the content the BBC makes, so I took those forward into prototyping.

We then had two options to test

  1. Controls remain on the screen at all times. Tap the screen to pause, and again to play.

  2. Controls fade away on tap or after 3 seconds. Includes seek buttons and playback speed to guage appetite for these features.

Short Video

Variable length

We tested with twelve participants in-person in a lab - six News and six Sport

I worked with our researcher and other members of the design team to craft a brief, write the discussion guides and plan the sessions.

I built four Figma prototypes; two for News and two for Sport, which we put onto a test device and gave to the participant so that we had greater control and could quicky fix any issues.

We started by asking the participants about their habits when watching Vertical Video on other apps, then delved into the prototypes.

This one’s in build… check back soon :)

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