IDW Xbox360 App Concept
Date: March 2014 Role: Lead UX/UI Designer Project Type: Concept
When I first started working with the team at Accedo, I was asked to work on a few odd and unique projects. This was one of them. I was approached by our sales team about a possible client that could open a new market for smartTVs. This client was IDW, I don’t think this client contacted us I think this was kind of a cold call.
The Task
I was asked to create a comic book reader app that would work within the 10-foot echo system for a sales pitch. I worked with our project director and one lead developer to come up with a few requirements. We knew that IDW would want a user to read and preview books, as well as buy them from the 10-foot experience. There was also talk of being able to manage a library directly from the app.
The Approach
This was my first time designing an xbox360 app, so I began by doing research. Reading a lot of documentation and consulting with a lead developer. I came up with a pretty standard design for the home screen and then worked through how the user would get from the homepage to the store and into the full screen reader.
The Pitch
The idea was to get the user into the full screen reader as soon as possible. Once the user was in, we would give the reader two ways to read the comic. First was the standard 2 up, or 2 page spread, experience and the second was a more cinematic panel by panel approach.
The Outcome
Ultimately this project never got built. I think it was a cool idea on the surface, but personally I think reading a book or comic book on a TV is just not a very good experience. However, I did appreciate the opportunity to work on this project because it gave me a chance to learn about the Xbox 360 environment.
