\\ home

In the mid-2010s, the entertainment landscape faced a massive paradigm shift. Consumers were "cutting the cord," abandoning traditional, expensive cable packages in favor of nimble streaming services. To capture this shifting market, AT&T/DIRECTV set out to create DIRECTV NOW—its first-ever fully digital, contract-free, cross-platform live TV streaming application.

role //


UI Designer (Contract)

timeline //


10 Months

teams //


Digital Innovation Lab (DLAB) & Digital Entertainment Products Group (DEPG)

platforms //


Cross-Platform (Mobile, Web, Connected TV / OTT)

core focus //


Conceptual R&D, Interface Design, Visual Systems, Cross-Functional Collaboration

the challenge //


The challenge was twofold, split across the two distinct phases of the project’s lifecycle:


  1. The Conceptual Challenge (DLAB): Traditional cable UI was notoriously slow, clunky, and grid-heavy. We needed to reinvent what "Live TV" looked and felt like for a younger, mobile-first audience that expected the speed and sleekness of modern streaming, without losing the familiarity of live channel surfing.
  2. The Scale Challenge (DEPG): Once the concept was approved, we had to rapidly scale the visual language across vastly different screen topologies (from a 5-inch phone to a 65-inch TV screen) while maintaining brand consistency, pixel-perfect layouts, and tight alignment with a massive cross-functional team.

my role //


Phase 1: Incubation & Blue-Sky Concepting (DLAB)


The project began in the Digital Innovation Lab (DLAB), a fast-paced environment dedicated to R&D and experimenting with emerging technologies.

my role //


Phase 1: Incubation & Blue-Sky Concepting (DLAB)


  • I experimented with breaking traditional cable guide paradigms. We explored gesture-based channel switching, content-forward visual hierarchies, and minimized UI overlays to keep the video front and center.
  • I designed high-fidelity visual concepts to explore dark vs. light modes, dynamic typography for sports/news, and smooth cinematic transitions.
  • These UI explorations were packaged into high-fidelity interactive prototypes used to demonstrate the viability of a standalone streaming service to executive leadership, ultimately greenlighting the budget for a full-scale product build.

Phase 2: Production, Scale & Execution (DEPG)


Following the success of the DLAB concepts, I transitioned to the Digital Entertainment Products Group (DEPG) to bring the DIRECTV NOW app to life for a nationwide launch.

Phase 2: Production, Scale & Execution (DEPG)


  • I designed responsive UI layouts, micro-interactions, and visual components tailored for Mobile (iOS/Android), Web browsers, and Connected TV devices (Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV).
  • I worked closely with a dedicated team of UX designers. They provided wireframes and user flow logic, and I translated them into beautiful, accessible, and high-fidelity user interfaces. We iterated constantly to ensure the layout logic mapped perfectly to visual hierarchy.
  • Working in an agile environment, I partnered directly with developers. I built out comprehensive UI specification sheets, asset libraries, and redlines to ensure that design fidelity was maintained from the design file to the final codebase.

the impact & results //


  • Successful Nationwide Launch: Played a vital role in taking DIRECTV NOW from an experimental lab concept to a major commercial product launch, which captured hundreds of thousands of subscribers within its first few months.
  • Bridged Innovation and Execution: Successfully acted as the "connective tissue" between the early experimental visionaries and the production delivery teams, ensuring the innovative spirit of the DLAB survived the constraints of a major product rollout.
  • Established Scalable UI Practices: Contributed to a robust UI framework and asset pipeline that allowed the cross-platform engineering teams to deploy updates rapidly across multiple streaming devices.

key takeaways //


  • This role taught me that a UI layout cannot simply be copied and pasted from a phone to a TV. Designing for the "10-foot user experience" (TV remotes) requires entirely different sizing, padding, and interaction models than a touch screen
  • Working within a massive team taught me the value of airtight design documentation. When UX, UI, Product, and Engineering speak the same visual language, product velocity increases exponentially.