PROJECT OVERVIEW
Audiences watching livestreams on Twitch interact with STRETTO using the audience panel. The panel allows audiences to work together to call up media that will appear in the stream in real time, allowing audiences to co-create the stream they are watching.
MY ROLE
I led the prototyping, testing, and design of the audience panel. I also defined the way the panel would be implemented within Twitch, settling on a panel extension, which sits on top of the livestream when active, but can be minimized when inactive.
EMPATHIZE
The audience panel needed to encourage interaction, and remain as unobtrusive as possible. We also needed to provide a simple purchase workflow for purchases that streamers could customize, and provide differentiated experiences for streamers who chose to use in-stream purchases and those who are not eligible to do so. Last, the operation of the panel needed to be self evident, so audience members would not have to read instructions.
DEFINE
Before we could begin mocking up the audience panel, we needed to decide the form it would take. Twitch allows for several locations for extensions. We chose to design STRETTO as a panel extension that audiences could easily open and close during the stream. This way, we were making it easily visible for all, while allowing those who did not wish to use STRETTO to keep the panel hidden.
IDEATE
Clips in STRETTO are triggered when the number of votes reach a certain threshold. We created a simple formula that flexed based on the number of people with the panel open. We also allowed streamers to fine tune the speed of interaction with simple controls in the streamer dashboard. The initial method of interaction was a simple click. After loading a pre-lauch version onto Twitch, we quickly realized that double clicking any element on top of the video player in Twitch would instantly maximize the screen. This became an interesting design challenge to work around, and ultimately led us to our unique slide-to-vote method that our users love.
I led my dispersed team through a brainstorming session using Miro. Together, we gathered existing solutions that allow for rapid interaction without using clicking or tapping. We drew inspiration from iOS and Android unlock screens, and iterated from there, experimenting with different levels of gamification until we reached consensus.
PROTOTYPE
The audience panel had an incredible amount of functionality packed into a small space. I used Figma to create a clickable, high fidelity mockup of the audience controller. I contacted streamers and viewers from their stream communities to have them evaluate the mockups before we built functional software.
High fidelity user flow in Figma
BUILD
The audience panel was built using Trello to manage user stories and project progress.
I recruited both a DJ and a game streamer to test STRETTO. I gave these streamers and their audiences access to STRETTO on Twitch, and prepared a UX research study for each group of users.
KEY FINDINGS
1. Voting thresholds were set too high, we needed to speed up interaction.
2. Audiences wanted acknowledgment for interacting, and casting the winning vote.
3. As new viewers joined the stream, they needed a prompt to interact with STRETTO.
We designed a simple chat script to provide viewer acknowledgment, and also created a prompt that welcomed new visitors to the stream and prompted them to interact with the audience panel. We also built a control that made it easier for streamers to change the speed of interaction during a stream, and added that to the streamer dashboard.
We continue to iterate and refine STRETTO. Check our website to see the latest developments.
I recruited both a DJ and a game streamer to test STRETTO. I gave these streamers and their audiences access to STRETTO on Twitch, and prepared a UX research study for each group of users.
KEY FINDINGS
1. Voting thresholds were set too high, we needed to speed up interaction.
2. Audiences wanted acknowledgment for interacting, and casting the winning vote.
3. As new viewers joined the stream, they needed a prompt to interact with STRETTO.
We designed a simple chat script to provide viewer acknowledgment, and also created a prompt that welcomed new visitors to the stream and prompted them to interact with the audience panel. We also built a control that made it easier for streamers to change the speed of interaction during a stream, and added that to the streamer dashboard.
We continue to iterate and refine STRETTO. Check our website to see the latest developments.