Wowza

FlowPlayer

Modular and scalable video player for web and native

A little history

FlowPlayer was acquired by Wowza in 2022 to get access to their modular web/native video player as well as the video-on-demand content management system that was part of their online video platform (Flowplayer OVP). Active development on the player continued throughout my time with Wowza while Flowplayer OVP was combined with Wowza Video's best-in-class streaming capabilities to form Wowza Video 2.

During my time with Wowza I designed several additional features for the player itself and had started on a redesign of the player interface itself.

Fast Facts

Role

Wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, prototyping, user testing

Tools

Figma

Timeframe

2023-2025

FlowPlayer Redesign

We undertook an effort to redesign the FlowPlayer interface to better match industry best practices for video players (Jakob's law) and to reduce the visual weight of the interface (especially on smaller-screened devices).

Original vs. proposed redesign

Original

This is the classic FlowPlayer interface. Some of the issues identified by both internal and external developers and through user testing:

Volume is unintuitive and doesn't do a good job of showing a "muted" status
Interface elements are not logically grouped
"Cast" icon without label is confusing
Upper icons are very thin weight and get lost
Users didn't understand "HD" icon or that it was a control
Interface looks dated and heavy

Proposed redesign

This is the proposed redesign resulting in a more open player design. User testing showed favorable results in both task completion and users remarked that it looked more modern.

Volume changed from horizontal to icon with pop-out vertical slider
All interface elements relocated to "control bar"
Less-used functionality moved to menu
Icons have a uniform weight
Users felt the new design was more "modern" and "clean"

Server-side Ad Injection Feature Mockups

Using the "classic" FlowPlayer design

Playback state (no hover), Skippable ad
Hover state, Single ad, Skippable, No countdown
"Skip" text proved problematic during user testing for internationalization. In some languages, specifically Scandinavian and Greek, the word(s) for "skip" are quite long.
Hover state, Single ad, Un-skippable
Hover state, Multi-ad block, Skippable with countdown to skip
Initial "skip" text proved problematic during user testing for internationalization. In some languages, specifically Scandinavian and Greek, the word(s) for "skip" are quite long. A countdown timer proved to be just as intuitive while avoiding the internationalization problem.