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Alexander Kyle Wright Senior UX & Product Designer

Web App Design & Internationalization

RightNow Media (RNM) is the world's largest video-streaming library of Biblical resources. My first project with the organization was to overhaul their web application to include an updated visual design and prepare the site for internationalization, as RNM was expanding their global presence.

Problem

RightNow Media was beginning to expand globally, yet their content and platform was built only for English and left-to-right languages. Additionally, users had reported inconsistencies and frustrations with the existing website, stemming from multiple ad hoc changes over the years.

Isolate the Problem

To establish the depth of the problem, I began by performing a component and style audit of the existing website. I inevitably stumbled upon the phrase "Design System" midway through the audit. Having no experience creating said system, I researched articles from industry leaders such as Dan Mall, Brad Frost, Hayley Hughes, and many more. I came to realize that, for the scope of this project, I simply needed an opinionated component style guide.

Localize It

One of the primary impact points for the new website was the video banners on each "library" page, which were images. I proposed creating desktop and mobile banners with empty space for the text to be set in the code. Now the banners, in addition to the rest of the text in the site, was able to be localized for the language specified by each visitor.

Another benefit to converting the banner text to HTML was a boost in our SEO rankings. The library pages are viewable even if the user is not logged in, ensuring that Google and other search engines were able to crawl them and would now find relevant banner text for the imagery.

The Strain that Shall Not Be Named

Six months into the project, COVID lockdowns sent us home. Ultimately, this delayed the project by 8 months, but also spawned a new project: the Watch Together feature, detailed in another case study.

Let 'Em Know

To not royally irritate our users, I pushed for up-front and transparent communication for the upcoming changes by initiating a dialogue with the VP of Software. Marketing created emails, landing pages, screenshots - even teaser and promo videos to prepare our users for the coming website upgrade. These efforts eased the impact of the launch and built user trust by showing we cared enough to prepare them for what was coming.

Launch

In October of 2021, we launched the RightNow Media 3.0 application! It was widely well received with our global customers. We saw dramatic increase in engagement, vast accessibility improvements, increase in organization signups, and an overall increase in video playback.

Updated Library display for RightNow Media 3.0

Library

Updated display of the banners and channels on the RightNow Media 3.0 site.

Browse page for the RightNow Media website.

Browse

Users can Browse for content on RightNow Media by searching, finding popular teachers, or via curated libraries.

The Content Details page for the RightNow Media web app.

Content Details

Each video series has a content details page with relevant information, resources, description, study guide, and, most importantly, the video sessions.

Video playback portal for RightNow Media web app.

Player

The video player was designed to be an immersive experience with important tools at the fingertips of the user, such as the session list, study guide, Bible, and group chat.

RightNow Media 3.0 Promo Video

Sizzle reel for the media and user reveal of the RightNow Media 3.0 platform, showcasing the new features and design.
(NOTE: I did not make this video. This video showcases the UI and app I designed).

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