I led our discovery research by coordinating user interviews and competitor analysis. Our aim was to uncover real user needs, frustrations, and behaviours, particularly around voice interactions with TV systems. 

For the user interviews, we applied inclusive recruitment to explore how diverse users currently interact with their TVs, their use (or avoidance) of voice, and expectations around accessibility, trust, and ease.

In parallel, we analysed Apple TV and Alexa with Prime Video to understand how competitors design voice-enabled TV experiences. This included a Nielsen’s heuristics analysis and user sentiment analysis using forums and reviews. By identifying common UX patterns, gaps, and opportunities, we highlighted where Sky Glass could differentiate, improve usability, and better meet user needs.

We synthesised both research streams into an empathy map to keep us grounded in user needs. This also informed a clear problem statement and a set of “How Might We” questions to guide user-driven ideation.

We explored ideas through low-fidelity sketches, then refined the strongest concepts into a user flow with key voice interactions and conversation paths.

We identified onboarding — the user’s first interaction with Sky Glass — as the most strategic moment for redesign, offering a critical opportunity to:

• Personalise the TV and voice experiences early, reducing reliance on workarounds

• Clearly introduce Sky voice features, building confidence about what voice can do and how to use it

• Reinforce inclusive, intuitive design while leveraging Sky's existing UX design system

• Communicate privacy and data use transparently to empower user control and foster trust 

Ultimately, our ideation focused on a more empowering, personalised, and accessible Sky Glass experience. The core onboarding journey: welcome → profile name and theme → content preferences → voice recognition setup with data privacy consent → settings personalisation → completion and personalised dashboard. 

With an agile, feedback-driven mindset, we collaborated closely with stakeholders to align designs with user needs and Sky's goals. We incorporated feedback to translate our wireframes into an interactive mid-fidelity prototype. This helped clarify flows, enhance UI detail, and validate that our onboarding experience was intuitive, inclusive, and feasible within Sky’s existing design system. This was crucial in preparing for usability testing, ensuring the design was ready for meaningful user feedback.

Key design features included:

• Guidance & Discoverability: Welcome video introduces Sky Voice and onboarding encourages voice practice with prompts and easily accessible help menu supports learnability and builds user confidence

• Multi-Modal Feedback: Subtle audio chimes, light ribbon, and live conversation transcription confirm voice interactions, enhancing accessibility and awareness.

• Personalisation: Users set their profile name, theme, content preferences, and viewing settings for a relevant and engaging Sky Glass experience from the start.

• Voice Recognition: Train Sky to recognise users by voice, to automatically apply their profile and preferences for a seamless, customised experience.

• Transparent Data Use: Clear explanations of voice data handling builds trust and empower users to control their privacy.

We facilitated 5 Wizard of Oz usability tests, to observe how users navigated the new onboarding experience using voice commands and gather insights to improve it. Participants completed 5 end-to-end onboarding tasks, from setting up their profile name and theme, adding a voice profile, and adjusting accessibility and content preferences.

We gathered qualitative and quantitative data using:

• SEQ after each task to measure the perceived task difficulty 

• Task Completion and Error Rate to identify friction points in the flow

• SUS to evaluate overall usability and user satisfaction

• Traffic light system to categorise qualitative feedback

Together, these metrics helped us gain clear insights into usability and perceived value, and pinpoint improvements. 

User testing showed strong usability and satisfaction, confirming the design effectively addresses user core needs:

• 100% completed onboarding describing it as easy to navigate

• 90% enjoyed the ability to customise their profile to their preferences

• 100% valued the clear data privacy pop-up

• 60% liked creating a voice profile and expressed would use it

• 100% appreciated not needing a physical remote

Alongside these successes, we identified opportunities for improvement to address critical pain points and reinforce a user-centered design approach:

I presented the refined mid-fidelity prototype to key stakeholders, clearly communicating design decisions and user insights to secure alignment and support. This video showcases the final design and highlights how it meets both user needs and Sky's goals. 

Our onboarding design successfully addresses both user needs and Sky’s business goals by delivering:

• Seamless, natural voice navigation powered by a smarter language model and clear guidance to build user confidence.

• A personalised, accessible experience with tailored settings, voice recognition, multi-modal feedback, and consistent UI.

• Transparent privacy features that clearly explain voice data use, empowering users and building trust.

While further validation is recommended - such as A/B testing the content preferences step, testing the new terminology, exploring interrupt capabilities with the development team, and analysing other possible dashboard features - the current design effectively supports user needs and aligns with Sky’s OKRs around product usage and customer satisfaction.

This project strengthened my ability to lead user research, synthesize insights, and align design with business goals. I enhanced my skills in communicating design intent across teams and translating feedback into actionable ideas. Additionally, I gained expertise in designing voice-first flows, running usability tests, and iterating prototypes to deliver a truly user-centered experience.