Disney Movies Anywhere
iOS • Android • Responsive Web Design
The Walt Disney Company, the long standing global movie industry giant, popular among young and old, has always been at the forefront of the entertainment business since 1923 when it was first established. In 2014, Disney wanted to increase their relevance in the digital space, and leverage technology they had been developing to harness their digital capabilities. Our team at Chaotic Moon Studios was tasked with bringing this desire to life through iOS, Android, and Web means.
The Challenge
Unlocking that Disney magic
The team at Chaotic Moon had to get to work right away understanding the ins and outs of Disney’s product team and their digital authenticating technology, KeyChest. Disney’s desire was to enable consumers to buy Disney franchise movies from partnering digital stores and create an intuitive experience allowing previously purchased Disney movies digital access as well. All Disney movies, one place, accessible anywhere.
Our solution was to create an expandable ecosystem that ran across iOS, Android, and Web that would leverage and expand on current Disney digital branding. Based on current user behaviors and best practices, we organized the app and website to leverage the tech's full potential through native OS experiences. Through surprise and delight with motion and custom aesthetics and features we would provide the users with a playful experience.
Our Goals
Creating an intuitive, fun, and inviting experience —
Together with the Disney team, we were set on creating an engaging, intuitive, and personalized experience that still invoked that Disney excitement. Keeping users and business goals in mind, we worked to establish guiding pillars to influence our design thinking throughout the process.
01. Simplicity is key
02. Maintaining Disney delight (just a little bit of pixie dust)
03. Building a scalable system
The Process
Collaborating, designing, iterating, developing —
Now that we had an idea of what success meant to us, we started detailing persona archetypes to maintain alignment around our target user base, and developing moodboards and visual concepts to establish the overarching design direction. These provided clarity throughout the process as more stakeholders came into play. See personas
A KeyChest without a key
The team was ready to start compiling tech requirements from Disney’s KeyChest system, however a curveball was thrown our way. KeyChest wasn’t actually ready for integration, the Disney team was still in the process of updating it. As a team we refocused our efforts on what we knew was possible even without knowing those constraints. We started sketching and wireframing flows for the app’s main navigation and browsing patterns while also ideating on unique Disney Movie Anywhere features. Working with Disney’s product owner and our developers, we successfully created an expandable system maximizing the extensive Disney movie and content library that could all be fed into the app and website by Disney’s CMS. We then proceeded to wireframe and identify what were considered MVP features for Disney Movies Anywhere’s first release.
Visual Design
Once we had the first round of wireframes approved, I began working on applying the approved visual aesthetic to iOS. We knew Apple would be pushing a significant iOS update mid-production, so I had to keep that in mind throughout the final design stages. I wanted the visuals to remain as OS agnostic while still remaining consistent with native OS UX/UI patterns. I made it a goal to have the UI play nice and be complementary to the third parties that Disney was partnering with such as iTunes, Google Play, and VUDU. I established a digital color palette based on the Disney blue, and created a suite of iconography, badges, banners, and illustrations that were DMA specifically branded and that could be used throughout all the systems DMA would be accessible on (*pssst the CEO of Disney doesn’t like the mickey head silhouette*).
Implementation
Working closely with the developers was incredibly important during the entirety of the process. Constant communication was essential as we had a fairly tight timeline, and the funneling process of understanding Disney’s tech not only affected the way the product had to be developed but also designed. I made sure that any out of the box ideas we had were also gut checked with our devs to assure the correct time was allotted to its development. We user tested beta builds for better insights rought iconography and base understanding of core features, then iterated as needed.
Rinse and repeat – A wild ride
The iOS release of DMS proved to be highly successful, launching as #1 in the Entertainment and Free App categories on the app store, and garnered a lot of attention from media outlets. After the initial launch, DMA had more attention than ever internally at Disney. Naturally, we integrated more stakeholders into the process which allowed for deeper and more holistic insights around Disney’s goals and future plans for the product. However, this came with its own set of challenges, and after a few rounds of communication, we were effectively able to establish communication funnels and integrations moving forward. As we prepared for the launch of the Android and Web products, we were able to integrate the new marketing stakeholder’s needs, as well as make updates to the current iOS versions as well. Throughout the project, we are able to maintain, update, and improve DMA’s core features.
Wrapping Up
Outcomes and Highlights
Launched a multi-tiered product that connected with millions of users
Create and establish the precursor to what evolved into Movies Anywhere to Disney +
Stay true to our guiding pillars through communication and a passion to build something fun and easy to use
Effective hand-off of the product and requirements to Disney’s internal team
Day 1 of launch of iPhone and iPad products, DMA held the #1 spot in both the Entertainment and Free App categories
DMA was featured in over 250 media outlets including: New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Time, Variety, Entertainment Weekly, TechCrunch, The Next Web, Engadget, Gizmodo, CNET, Mashable, Venture Beat, Wired, and The Verge.
Project
Studio: Chaotic Moon Studios - Austin, TX
Date: May 2013 - January 2015
Team
Art Director/Product Designer: Stephanie Ciccone
Product Designer: Heather Brien
Production Designer: Erica Ochoa
Content Strategist: Tiffany Duening