Project
N°005
Name
Facebook Watch
Company
Meta
Date
2017-2020
Role
Product Design Lead
Availability
Deprecated
About
By the end of 2016, Video on Facebook was a successful format driven by the rising popularity of video creators, availability of new video controls, dedicated infrastructure, and signature functionality like Facebook Live and 360 videos.
Many of us cut the cord with traditional cable TV in exchange for Hulu, Netflix, and YouTube. The shift in behaviors was clear: People were consuming on-demand video content more than ever before.
Facebook Watch launched in 2016 and has evolved into the present-day (2023) video tab in the Facebook app.
Facebook Watch
My initial task was to design the video discovery grid for a new, focused offering that included Facebook-produced original Shows. Creating a new type of "feed" is a massive undertaking, partially because a host of new interactions and visual affordances needed to be introduced to the app. To visualize the viral nature of some videos, I designed a custom flurry of reactions internally called "Fire" which would burst on scroll (showing which friend shared it) and highlighting content.
A major component of Watch was having a private Watchlist, which served as a home for both Subscriptions and Saved videos.
At the time, the mobile Facebook video player was remarkably less social. Building Watch served as the motivation to rebuild the video playback exprerience from scratch with a focus on commenting and reacting. This was done in parallel with the work being developed under Facebook Live.
