History Channel
The brief:
Develop a common design framework for each of A&E Television Networks’ four channels: History, Military, Biography and Crime.
Poke’s answer:
A design scaled to accommodate the three major challenges of programme discovery, consumption and support, while also suitable for use across numerous international markets without any adoption except language.
Nitty gritty
Grids, sign-posting and task flows were central to the framework, but the brand identities of each of the four channels were also essential to informing the design. The result? One common HTML structure and four different CSS expressions.
Key features to support the channels’ broadcast activities included the provision of 7-day-ahead EPGs and a range of templates for programme information that scaled from headlining, flagship multi-series shows down to one-off documentaries. Because the on-demand service was based on the Brightcove platform, it was essential that the framework supported both short-form and long-form content, with and without adverts.
Natural search queries were always a huge source of visitors to the sites. But now, users who arrived via this route were greeted by a far richer and more relevant content experience that prompted lots of exploration.
Highlights
- A brilliant exercise in ‘measure twice, cut once’: taking a rigorous approach to distilling all of the requirements on the single-design framework.
- Combining what was essentially four separate design challenges and three distinct use cases in one execution.
