Product Design Leader
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Patent Award: Surf Mode

Patent: Surf Mode

According to market research, users spend over twenty minutes a day looking for something to watch in streaming apps. Endless rows and grids of content are overwhelming. Too many choices can quickly lead to paralysis by analysis, leading to abandonment of the experience entirely. And even when making a final choice, committing to watching a movie or show from beginning to end is a major commitment of time that some users are hesitant to make at the end of a long day.

Beginning as a personal passion project pursued in my off-hours at HBO, I invented a revolutionary new way for users to quickly and easily find something to watch. It was pitched to senior leadership and received budget approval for prototype development. It was user tested with resounding success and overwhelmingly positive feedback; and most recently was patented

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Guiding Tenets

  • Immersive: Content discovery begins within the player, engages users instantly, and entices them to remain in playback at all times

  • Expansive: The breadth and diversity of HBO's catalog is showcased

  • Spontaneous: Elicit the feeling of satisfaction in "stumbling upon" or "catching" a new program to watch vs. pre-meditated selection

  • Effortless: Finding something to watch is easy and does not require high cognitive energy to make a decision

  • Performant: The player is responsive and allows for quick navigation between content with minimal load times

  • Control: Users have access to the the same suite of player controls present in the standard playback experience, along with rich features to enhance this new model

  • Oriented: Users have context as to where they are within the vast amount of content served to them within the player

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