XMBC TOUCH
MEDIA CONTROL
HOME AUTOMATION
CIRCA: 2001 through 2016
ROLE
Principal Interface Designer
DESIGN STATEMENT
Created for home media enthusiasts, XBMC Touch is an iPad application which provides access to your music, video and image collections. It features full control to media playing on user’s connected televisions. It was Plex before Plex.
I had the privilege to lead all creative aspects of this intricate, ongoing project.
PLATFORMS
CONTRIBUTIONS
SELECT PERSONAL
LEADERSHIP
EVOLUTION OF
A CONCEPT
Early in the 21st century, myself and a small group of colleagues set out to build a media access and control system for Paul Allen. It began as a web-based music player that accessed a personal MP3 collection. I had coded it myself and presented to Mr. Allen. That simple concept grew into a decade-plus project.
It evolved from that simple web player to a dynamic, enterprise-level system spanning the globe for the late Mr. Allen's homes, businesses, yachts and aircraft.
The XBMC Version of Paul's personal media system was released the public in 2012 and continues to be the highest reviewed XMBC controller in the App Store.
For the latest iteration, I worked 1-on-1 with an iOS developer and 1-on-1 with the responsive web developer to achieve ideal results.
DISCOVERY
FEATURE DEFINITION
Throughout all stages of XBMC Touch, I facilitated blue-sky brainstorming exercises with users, stakeholders and engineers to determine user needs and user journeys.
I utilized mind maps - such as the one pictured to the left - to interactively organize application architecture, visualize decision-trees, and prioritize critical to-dos.
DISCOVERY
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
I was tasked with determining how XBMC Touch held up against the then-current crop of iOS media control applications. In doing so, I reviewed each competitors feature offerings and weighted their costs against each other.
The end result was this thorough spreadsheet which was presented to executives prior to the public release of the app.
VISUAL DESIGN
TV GRID MOCKUP
This mockup shows my take on the common TV grid. One of my favorite aspects of this design how it scrolls in every direction - even diagonally. I also have an soft-spot for the gradient work I designed on the "NOW" indicator
INTERACTION DESIGN
TRANSPORT
CONTROLS
MOCKUP
This detail-view of some of the buttons I created are presented here to demonstrate my vector creation abilities.
IMPLIMENTATION
REDLINE
During the course of production, it was common for me to deliver specific information about style and spacing to our engineers through redlines like these
VISUAL DESIGN
PRODUCTION ASSETS
From full sprite-sheets to multi-resolution vectors to stretchable chrome components, every visual asset for XMBC Touch passed through my hands.
APP-STORE REVIEWS
POST LAUNCH
