Music Videos on Xbox One
Increase engagement with Xbox Music in the living room.
Product Designer | UX Program Manager
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Microsoft
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2014
Shipped on Xbox One (Mar 2014 update); launched 92,000+ music videos; increased Music engagement in the living room.
Problem
When the Xbox One launched in late 2013, music videos were the natural next addition to its Music app, a favorite from the previous generation. The living room was where people used Xbox Music, on the biggest screen and best speakers in the house, and YouTube and Vevo showed how much music video gets watched when the barrier is low. The goal was to let people find and play music videos and lift overall engagement with Music, inside a four-month window and a subscriber-only catalog.
Approach
The core idea was to blur the line between songs and music videos so people didn’t have to go looking. When a song has a video, it plays automatically on the TV (an opt-in, easter-egg-style delighter that surfaced videos from a collection people already had). Early flows tested well, and I drove requirements across the client and service teams so technical constraints surfaced as the design developed.
Process
Galleries
Videos first appeared as badged square tiles, hard to tell apart from albums and artists in mixed galleries like search and the dashboard. A wide-tile design for videos, with square art kept for albums and artists, made the distinction clear.
Now playing
A technical constraint ruled out variable tile widths, so the now-playing list used album art with a video badge. The control to turn video mode off started buried in the overflow menu and moved to the top level after feedback. Reaching launch also meant working through live and remix versions, parental controls, and playback while snapped or in the background.
Outcome
Shipped in the March 2014 Xbox One update with a catalog of 92,000+ music videos. Engagement with Music rose among existing subscribers, the auto-video experience saw a low opt-out rate, and the launch drew positive press.
Music dashboard
Featured video gallery
Playlist details page
Music videos (autoplay) opt-in
Music videos auto-play
Lessons
A simpler experience drove more usage, a clear contrast with the more complex version on Xbox 360. Not pushing on what sat outside the subscription paywall limited new-user acquisition, and more experimentation with the business model could have helped. And a clear vision is what got the team to ship quickly.