Year
2016-2017
My Role
Associate Director, Product Design
Elevating the DirecTV Mobile Apps
As Associate Director of Product Design, I led a team of product designers across multiple concurrent workstreams to redesign the DirecTV mobile experience post-merger. Our focus was twofold: improving usability across core flows and aligning the app with the post-AT&T brand and platform goals.
I oversaw end-to-end design efforts across onboarding, content personalization, home screen layout, navigation, live TV, DVR, and support. I also partnered closely with product, engineering, QA, and analytics leads to define priorities, establish shared goals, and deliver high-impact UX improvements under tight deadlines.
The redesign spanned both foundational issues like crash rate reduction and accessibility compliance as well as forward-facing enhancements that simplified interaction, improved personalization, and elevated content discovery.
Challenge
Following the $50B AT&T/DirecTV merger, the DirecTV mobile apps were struggling with user trust and engagement reflected in a 1.3 App Store rating. Key issues included a 30% crash rate, cryptic error messaging, poor navigation, and non-compliance with accessibility standards. These usability and stability challenges created friction across critical flows and posed a reputational risk for the post-merger brand.
Solution
As Associate Director of Product Design, I led a UX redesign initiative focused on stabilizing the mobile experience, aligning with FCC accessibility requirements, and restoring user confidence. I partnered with engineering, QA, product, and analytics to prioritize fixes, shape a focused roadmap, and deliver fast, measurable wins.
Key improvements included resolving the 30% crash rate by fixing broken content links, simplifying navigation to reduce friction, rewriting system error messages for clarity, and implementing VoiceOver to meet accessibility standards. These enhancements were delivered incrementally to reduce risk and improve velocity, setting the foundation for a long-term product recovery.
Approach
I began by leading a UX audit that combined heuristic evaluations, App Store reviews, analytics, and stakeholder interviews to identify systemic friction points. To align teams and build shared context, I ran a cross-functional listening tour and collaborated with product and engineering partners to define priorities based on effort, impact, and compliance risk.
Using this insight, I shaped a phased roadmap that addressed stability, usability, and accessibility in parallel balancing short-term wins with long-term platform health. I worked closely with design, engineering, and QA throughout implementation, using design critiques, playbacks, and lifecycle checkpoints to maintain quality and alignment across releases.
Outcome
The redesign directly contributed to restoring user trust, increasing engagement, and stabilizing the mobile platform post-merger. Within 12 months:
Boosted App Ratings: Raised App Store ratings from 1.3 to 4.6 by addressing key performance, usability, and accessibility issues.
Improved Stability: Reduced crash rates from 30% to industry benchmarks by partnering with engineering to address systemic failures.
Achieved Compliance: Met FCC accessibility standards by implementing VoiceOver and inclusive UX patterns.
Increased Usability: Simplified navigation and reduced taps across high-traffic flows, supporting both speed and clarity.
Enhanced Communication: Rewrote error messages to improve user understanding and reduce support burden.
These improvements were delivered iteratively, reinforcing stakeholder confidence and establishing a scalable foundation for continued growth.
The DirecTV mobile app was in critical condition following the AT&T merger. With a 1.3 App Store rating, a 30% crash rate, and a backlog of accessibility and usability issues, the experience was damaging brand perception and customer satisfaction at scale.
I was brought in as Associate Director of Product Design to lead the mobile UX redesign and stabilize the product. This effort required more than surface-level fixes, it demanded cross-functional alignment, rapid prioritization, and design leadership that could drive execution across multiple teams.
Our mandate was clear: restore trust, improve usability, and position the app as a competitive asset in the newly integrated AT&T ecosystem.
Understanding the Problem Space
To ground the redesign in real user pain, we began by mapping out the core issues driving frustration and abandonment. This included a 30% crash rate, inaccessible flows for visually impaired users, confusing navigation, and cryptic error messages that left customers without clear next steps.
We reviewed analytics, App Store reviews, support tickets, and feedback from internal stakeholders to identify patterns. My team documented the top friction points across content discovery, onboarding, playback, DVR, and support. These insights became the foundation for both our roadmap and the way we framed tradeoffs across product, engineering, and compliance stakeholders.
The goal wasn’t just to fix what was broken, it was to re-establish trust by solving the problems that mattered most.
Design Team Leadership & Structure
I managed a team of product designers working across multiple high-impact UX initiatives, each tied to a key user pain point or business priority. I assigned leads to specific focus areas including onboarding, home screen redesign, personalization, Favorites, One-Touch Live TV, and DVR, and guided each through research synthesis, solution design, and delivery.
My role was both strategic and hands-on: I drove prioritization in weekly design syncs, led critiques to ensure design quality and consistency, and worked closely with engineering leads to align on feasibility and release timing. I also coached designers through stakeholder engagement, helping them frame work in terms of impact and tradeoff.
This structure allowed us to move in parallel without fragmenting the user experience supporting speed, ownership, and execution quality across the entire team.
Stakeholder Alignment & Collaboration
To deliver at scale, I worked closely with product managers, engineering leads, QA, and analytics partners to align on priorities, dependencies, and release plans. I ran regular cross-functional syncs to surface tradeoffs early, de-risk execution, and keep teams focused on the highest-impact UX problems.
One of the biggest challenges was managing competing priorities across marketing, content, support, and compliance teams, all while rebuilding user trust. I partnered with product to translate fragmented asks into a unified roadmap, and with engineering to scope fast, feasible wins that could be delivered incrementally without compromising long-term goals.
This alignment work was critical. It ensured we stayed grounded in both the user experience and business strategy while delivering at a pace the platform urgently needed.
UX Research & Collaboration
Our research approach combined user feedback, analytics, App Store reviews, and internal support insights to surface recurring friction across the product. My team synthesized findings from multiple channels and worked closely with product and analytics to frame them as design opportunities and prioritize accordingly.
We developed a phased roadmap that balanced immediate experience fixes like crash reduction, navigation simplification, and clearer error messaging with medium-term feature enhancements such as Favorites, onboarding improvements, and expanded content carousels.
Every proposed initiative was mapped against effort, impact, and feasibility. I used this prioritization to help stakeholders make faster decisions, and to ensure that the design team stayed focused on changes that would meaningfully move engagement, satisfaction, and app ratings.
Roadmap Development & Execution Planning
With a high volume of user issues and limited engineering bandwidth, it was critical to structure a roadmap that balanced urgency with delivery feasibility. I partnered with product leads to develop a phased execution plan that prioritized stability, usability, and accessibility without overwhelming the release cycle.
I sequenced initiatives into near-term fixes and medium-term enhancements, reserving capacity for critical defect reduction (e.g. crash fixes and broken links) while staging work on onboarding, personalization, and DVR improvements for subsequent sprints.
To ensure visibility and alignment, I established a delivery cadence with regular checkpoints, integrated design QA milestones, and coordinated timelines across product, design, and engineering. This structure helped maintain momentum, reduce risk, and rebuild confidence inside and outside the team.
Designing for Scale & Simplicity
I led UX strategy across several key features aimed at reducing friction, simplifying interaction, and improving content discovery. Each workstream was led by a designer on my team, with shared critique and iteration to ensure cohesion across the experience.
Some of our highest-impact improvements included:
One-Tap Live TV & DVR Access: Reduced multi-step flows to a single tap, solving one of the most common user complaints.
Simplified Onboarding: Cut the entry flow from 12 steps to 4 by removing redundant marketing screens and improving focus on core setup tasks.
Favorites & Personalization: Introduced the ability to favorite channels, shows, and sports teams—surfacing them contextually on the home screen.
Expanded Content Carousels: Increased visible content from 10 to 30 items per row to improve discovery and align with content licensing goals.
Reduced Playback Taps: Eliminated unnecessary UI friction in content workflows by collapsing playback actions and simplifying micro-interactions.
Each improvement was validated through cross-functional reviews and prioritized for delivery based on user impact, dev complexity, and business relevance.
Accessibility Compliance & VoiceOver Implementation
As part of our post-merger obligations, we needed to meet FCC-mandated accessibility requirements, while also making the app more inclusive for real users. I led our team’s efforts to audit accessibility gaps and partner with engineering to bring both iOS and Android experiences into compliance.
We implemented VoiceOver support across all major flows, rewrote confusing labels, adjusted focus states, and ensured screen reader compatibility for navigation, playback, and onboarding. I worked with QA to develop accessibility testing protocols and documented patterns in our internal design system to maintain long-term compliance.
Beyond checking the compliance box, these updates helped improve usability for a broader range of users, aligning accessibility with product quality and user trust.
Engineering Collaboration & Delivery Process
Strong engineering partnership was essential to delivering high-impact changes on a fast-moving timeline. I worked closely with dev leads from the outset to scope technical constraints, validate feasibility, and prioritize work in a way that aligned with both user needs and platform realities.
Throughout the project, I facilitated regular design–dev syncs to maintain alignment and reduce back-and-forth during implementation. We codified design intent through annotated specs, embedded QA protocols, and documented interaction standards to reduce ambiguity and build trust across teams.
One of the most critical collaborations involved resolving the 30% crash rate, rooted in outdated content databases and broken links. Partnering with engineering, we triaged the root causes and phased in fixes across releases, dramatically improving app stability without introducing regressions.
Testing, Iteration & Continuous Improvement
Top 10 UX Wins
The improvements implemented across the DirecTV mobile apps resulted in a significant transformation of the user experience. The apps’ ratings increased from 1.3 to 4.6 stars within 12 months, reflecting a dramatic shift in user sentiment. Performance enhancements, such as resolving the 30% crash rate and simplifying navigation, directly addressed the most critical pain points, leading to greater reliability and ease of use.
Accessibility upgrades, including the implementation of VoiceOver, ensured compliance with FCC standards while making the apps usable for visually impaired users. Streamlined workflows, such as one-tap access to Live TV and DVR, improved efficiency, while the introduction of Favorites and expanded content carousels enhanced personalization and content discovery. These changes not only increased user satisfaction but also strengthened DirecTV's position as a leader in digital entertainment during a critical merger transition.
