Watchparty

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  Watchparty start screen

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  Choose what media service will be used

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  Invite friends to watch with you

Inspiration

As a young person, I don't watch a lot of TV. I created Watchparty as something that would make TV more appealing to Gen Z customers like me, by bringing in the social aspect I'm used to having from games in Steam and frequent Discord calls with friends.

What it does

Watchparty is an app for smart TVs that lets people view a movie or a show simultaneously. One host can start and stop it for everybody. This replicates the experience of piling together on a couch in a living room to watch the same thing, without requiring that everybody physically be in the same location to look at the same screen.

How we built it

Figma

Challenges we ran into

As a product designer, I don't have much coding experience. Several Synamedia employees generously helped me figure out the basics of the technical side, enough to know that it was possible. Ultimately, I decided my time was best spent figuring out the user experience and the business case of Watchparty.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

I identified a niche in the market and created a product pitch to capitalize on it in a little over a day.

What we learned

Navigating a TV screen with a remote is very different from navigating a computer with a mouse or a phone with a touchscreen. In some ways, it's similar to keyboard navigation, which is an important part of online accessibility. Thinking about how the user would go through this demo with a remote really encouraged me to try new things in my Figma prototype.

What's next for Watchparty

Watchparty is a pitch for a service that doesn't exist, which is enabled by having Senza technology in smart TVs. I don't have any particular plans to develop this app, but I'm interested in the potential uses this technology can find!

Built With

• figma