New Feature
Web, iPad, iOS, Android
2021
Live Video is a feature that I designed and was built along with three other engineers.
Mighty Networks is an online platform for creators and brands to build communities. When I joined, it was severely lacking in content and the only way to interact with an audience was to make posts to a feed or scheduled Zoom events.
Mighty Networks has responsive apps for Web, iOS, iPadOS, and Android.
Problem Summary
Mighty Networks wants to allow for native Live Video within their platform. However, the platform does not even allow for native video hosting — any video posted to the feed is an embed. There is also an inconsistent chat experience across all platforms.
Solution
Implement native video for the feed.
Align chat across all platforms so it is visually consistent, reaches feature parity, and is designed in a way that it can easily scale.
Implement live video to work for all platforms.
Finished Product
The experience was designed to be as immersive as possible.
User Interviews
Before designing, I held informal interviews with existing hosts on Mighty Networks. One of my most important findings was that hosts that wanted a web experience had very different use-cases over hosts that want to use a mobile experience.
With a web experience, hosts talked about going live through scheduled events. They wanted professional controls specifically meant for making professional events more engaging. Hosts wanted the feature to replace scheduled Zoom events because they wanted a more immersive and engaging option.
With a mobile experience, hosts talked about going live spontaneously without a scheduled event. Many leaned on Instagram for this experience. They wanted something specifically for their paying private audience.
Competitive Research
I surveyed meeting platforms, mobile live experiences, and event spaces. One major point that stood out was how ugly competing services were. No options offered a beautiful and immersive experience.
The Process
The truth is, the process behind these kind of projects is not straightforward. There is magic golden ratio to determine the perfect outcome. It required weeks of meetings with hosts, stakeholders, and self-revisions to get to the ideal spec'd out design.
Conclusion
The Live Video was a huge multi-platform success that attracted much love from hosts. The feature was designed to be highly scalable so Mighty Networks was prepared for further immersive engagement features.