RTÉ Player
Redesigning Ireland’s National Streaming Experience
Role
Senior UI & UX Product Designer
Platforms
Smart TV (Apple/Android), iOS/Android Mobile, Web
Duration
2 year
Challenge & Goal
CHALLANGE
RTÉ Player: Cross-Platform Unification
As Ireland’s national public broadcaster, RTÉ Player faced rapid audience growth while burdened by an outdated, fragmented ecosystem. Smart TV, web, and mobile platforms operated in complete isolation each using disparate design languages that caused inconsistent brand experiences and high cognitive load during content discovery. Without shared components, engineering velocity was slow. The objective was to lead a comprehensive UI/UX redesign and build a unified design system capable of scaling a seamless, consistent experience across radically different
interaction models.
GOAL
✓ Establish a unified design system across all platforms: mobile, web, and Smart TV
✓ Redesign information architecture to reduce time-to-content across devices
✓ Deliver a consistent, accessible brand experience at national scale
✓ Accelerate development speed through reusable component libraries
✓ Optimise each platform's interaction model without fragmenting the experience
Design Process
1. Discovery & Architecture
I initiated the project with a comprehensive UX audit of the existing RTÉ Player across all platforms, identifying visual inconsistencies, missing states, and device-specific navigation breakdowns. This audit established a clear baseline of user friction points and defined our high-priority areas for improvement.
From there, I architected a cross-platform interaction model tailored to how users naturally behave across TV, mobile, and web. This meant intentionally designing for D-pad navigation on Smart TVs, touch gestures on mobile, and hover-based precision on the web, ensuring each experience felt native rather than retrofitted. Following this deep dive into the platform's workflow and information architecture, the team and I focused our strategic efforts on optimizing the Wishlist feature and designing the UX for upcoming streaming products.
2. Scalable Design & Engineering Alignment
Once the structure was validated, I moved into an iterative design phase, delivering UI in platform-specific cycles rather than as a single static system. Each iteration was built in parallel with a unified multi-platform design system, allowing us to test components across breakpoints and device constraints early in the process.
To reduce risk and improve quality, every cycle was validated through user testing and continuous engineering feedback, ensuring both usability and technical feasibility were addressed in real time. The process concluded with detailed developer handoff and QA, where I provided platform-specific specifications and worked closely with engineering during implementation. This ensured consistency, precision, and a pixel-accurate rollout across TV, mobile, and web environments.
RTÉ Player - Web
WatchList - Working Space
User Experience Improvements
MY ROLE
Design System Build
Unified the product experience by creating a scalable multi-platform design system with reusable components, typography, spacing, and design tokens, ensuring consistency and faster development across platforms. The initial focus was on the web platform, with the system then extended and scaled across the other platforms.
Information Architecture
Unified and streamlined navigation and content hierarchy to simplify user journeys and reduce steps to key content across genres, live, and on-demand experiences.
Smart TV Interaction Model
Designed a D-pad–optimized navigation system with structured focus states and a 10-foot viewing hierarchy tailored for lean-back experiences.
Content Discovery
The feature I was most involved in (alongside the scalable design system) focused on improving content discovery through personalized rails, genre-based browsing, and an enhanced search experience with shortcuts and recent history, reducing friction and making content easier to find.
Accessibility & Scalability
Ensured WCAG AA compliance and built a system designed to scale smoothly with growing content and platform complexity.
RTÉ Player - Web
Working Space
Results
