Opinion Video Design

I have led a number of product initiatives at NYT. One example I can share was to create a design template for showcasing video content. I was the sole designer and developer on this project.

In 2018 the Opinion Video Team was formed to produce a range of video content. However, there was no design for videos on site. Instead, videos published in a normal article template designed for reading.

We decided to create something to make the video experience more intuitive and tailored to the medium.

I started by having a conversation with the video team to learn more about their work and needs.

Afterwards, I checked in with cross-functional product design and engineering teams outside of Opinion to align with their best practices and also to get a sense of what was technically possible.

Because videos were already publishing, we preferred a low lift and quick to production solution. Creating a new template from scratch was too tall an order. Instead, I proposed reworking just the header for video pieces, so that they could be built on top of the pre-existing article template.

My initial design moved the video player higher up the article, made it larger, and included a motion preview. I built out the front and back end working in close collaboration with other engineering teams.

After we launched the design we quickly suspected that readers were missing the play button. I discussed this with the video team and we moved to a more streamlined design. I removed some of the author information and made sure the play button was visible at the top of the article.

The new design also included a new feature: a “series bar” that would show related content if the video was part of a series

Because the header design had additional requirements to produce e.g. creating the motion preview, we needed a new workflow to meet those requirements. I established a process for producing and QA’ing these headers, involving staff from both video and design.

Since then hundreds of videos have been published using this design, including many Emmy and Oscar winning features.