STN Video Players: Designing Mobile Video For Performance and Engagement

ROLE: Lead UX/UI Designer
CLIENT: STN Video
INDUSTRY: Digital Media & Video Technology

As part of a broader revamp of STN’s video player interface, my work included designing two focused product experiences: the Optimized Mobile Player (OMP) and STN Engage.

OMP addressed the specific challenges of presenting video on smaller screens, while Engage introduced a prompt for viewers to decide whether to continue watching the current video or move to the next one.

Together, the projects explored how thoughtful player design could support viewer needs and publisher goals at the same time—improving clarity and control without losing sight of viewability, engagement, and monetization.

KEY SKILLS DEMONSTRATED: Product Design • User Research • Mobile UX • Interaction Design • Responsive Design • Video Player UX • Measurement Strategy • Cross-Functional Collaboration

SCOPE:

  • Conducted discovery interviews with current publishing partners and viewers

  • Redesigned the STN video player across mobile viewing contexts

  • Created the responsive interaction model for the Optimized Mobile Player

  • Designed STN Engage’s required Stay and Next interaction

  • Defined a post-launch qualitative and quantitative measurement plan

  • Partnered with Product and Engineering throughout discovery and delivery

Online video players sit at the intersection of several competing needs. Viewers want an experience that respects their attention, publishers need video to remain visible and engaging, and advertisers depend on measurable viewability.

Mobile amplified these tensions. Screen space was limited, layouts changed across devices and orientations, and a player that became too dominant could interfere with the article experience. At the same time, conventional playback experiences gave viewers little control over what played next.

The Challenge: Balancing Viewer Experience with Publisher Performance

Key Challenges:

  • Keep video visible without overwhelming page content

  • Adapt the player across portrait and landscape orientations

  • Support inline, persistent, and full-screen viewing states

  • Make player controls clear and touch-friendly

  • Improve viewability without creating a disruptive experience

  • Require an explicit viewer decision to increase active participation and support publisher outcomes without adding unnecessary complexity

Discovery & User Research

Understanding the needs of publishing partners and the people viewing their content:

Before exploring solutions, we interviewed current STN publishing partners and viewers to understand how the existing player performed within real publishing and viewing environments.

Partner conversations focused on mobile implementation challenges, viewability, close-out behaviour, monetization priorities, and how the player interacted with surrounding editorial content. Viewer interviews helped us understand playback habits, expectations around persistent video, comprehension of player controls, and reactions to interruptions or required interactions.

We synthesized the findings into recurring needs, areas of friction, and product hypotheses that could guide both the initial designs and post-launch evaluation.

Research Activities:

  • Interviewed current STN publishing partners

  • Interviewed viewers using online video experiences

  • Documented existing player behaviours and pain points

  • Identified competing viewer and publisher needs

  • Translated research findings into product requirements

  • Defined hypotheses for OMP and Engage

  • Aligned research insights with Product and Engineering

Defining Success

Translating research into product and measurement goals:

The research helped the team establish a shared definition of success. The redesigned experiences needed to improve mobile performance and encourage active viewing while remaining clear, usable, and considerate of the surrounding content experience.

We also wanted to ensure the products could be evaluated after launch. Success criteria therefore included both experience goals and the signals we would use to understand whether the designs were working as intended.

Success Criteria:

  • Maintain a clear and usable experience across mobile layouts

  • Minimize friction between video and editorial content

  • Make required player actions immediately understandable

  • Increase active participation in the viewing experience

  • Support publisher viewability and monetization goals

  • Establish baseline and post-launch performance measures

  • Create a framework for ongoing product iteration

Planning for Measurement & Iteration

Building a feedback loop beyond the initial launch:

Because OMP and Engage introduced new player behaviours, launch was treated as the beginning of the learning process rather than the end of the project.

Before release, we developed a measurement plan that combined quantitative product data with qualitative partner and viewer feedback. Performance data would show what people did, while interviews and direct feedback would help explain why they behaved that way.

Together, these signals would allow the team to validate initial assumptions, identify unexpected friction, and prioritize improvements for future releases.

Quantitative Signals:

  • Mobile video viewability

  • Player close-out rates

  • Player loads and total video plays

  • Videos viewed per visitor

  • Stay and Next selection rates

  • Viewing behaviour following each selection

  • Mobile revenue and monetization performance

Qualitative Signals:

  • Follow-up interviews with publishing partners

  • Follow-up interviews with viewers

  • Feedback on persistent player behaviour

  • Reactions to the required Stay and Next interaction

  • Partner implementation feedback

  • Recurring usability themes across publisher environments

Iteration Process:

  • Compare post-launch results with initial baselines

  • Evaluate results against product hypotheses

  • Identify patterns of viewer friction or disengagement

  • Review findings with Product and Engineering

  • Prioritize improvements based on user and business impact

  • Release refinements and continue measuring performance

Creating the Optimized Mobile Player

Areas of Focus:

  • Responsive portrait and landscape layouts

  • Inline and persistent player states

  • Clear and discoverable close-out controls

  • Touch-friendly playback interactions

  • Balanced use of limited screen space

  • Consistent behaviour across publisher implementations

  • Flexible patterns that could support different mobile contexts

Designing a mobile-specific experience instead of a smaller desktop player:

The Optimized Mobile Player was created to address the particular challenges of presenting video on smaller screens. It needed to adapt smoothly across mobile layouts while preserving familiar controls and remaining considerate of the surrounding article experience.

I focused on establishing a clear hierarchy between the video, essential controls, and page content. Persistent states kept video accessible as viewers moved through an article, while clear close-out behaviour ensured they could easily dismiss the player when it was no longer relevant.

The responsive interaction model also needed to account for changing screen dimensions and device orientations without creating separate, disconnected experiences.

Designing STN Engage

Areas of Focus:

  • Establishing a clear, required decision point

  • Making Stay and Next actions immediately understandable

  • Communicating the result of each choice

  • Minimizing the burden of the additional interaction

  • Supporting smooth transitions between videos

  • Tracking Stay and Next selections

  • Supporting additional video plays and advertising opportunities

  • Maintaining consistency with the wider player system

Turning passive playback into measurable viewer participation:

STN Engage introduced a required decision point within the viewing experience. Viewers were prompted to select Stay to continue watching the current video or Next to advance to new content.

Although the options gave viewers control over what played, the interaction itself served a deliberate business purpose. It transformed passive playback into measurable participation, generated clearer signals of viewing intent, and created additional opportunities for video plays and pre-roll inventory.

I designed the interaction to be immediately understandable while minimizing the effort required from viewers. The prompt needed to attract attention and generate a response without feeling disconnected from the wider playback experience.

The Outcome

Creating measurable player experiences and a foundation for continued improvement

OMP and Engage extended STN’s player system in complementary ways. OMP introduced an experience designed specifically around the constraints of mobile publishing, while Engage created a deliberate interaction point that encouraged active participation and supported publisher outcomes.

The post-launch measurement plan established a framework for evaluating both products through behavioural data and ongoing feedback. STN later published product and publisher performance results associated with these experiences. These figures demonstrate the products’ performance after launch rather than directly measuring my individual design contribution.

Results:

  • OMP launch partners maintained consistent viewability of 90%

  • OMP launch partners recorded close-out rates below 2%

  • OMP launch partners saw a 20% increase in mobile revenue

  • After broad Engage adoption, one major publisher saw 25% higher revenue and approximately 75% more video plays

  • Established a mobile-specific player experience across responsive layouts

  • Introduced measurable viewer participation through Stay and Next

  • Created a framework for combining behavioural data with qualitative feedback

  • Established a foundation for continued testing and product iteration

Reflection

This project reinforced the importance of involving both customers and end viewers when designing a product that serves multiple audiences. Publishing partners helped us understand operational and commercial priorities, while viewer research provided insight into how those decisions affected the viewing experience.

It also demonstrated the value of making the business purpose of an interaction explicit. Engage was designed to give viewers a clear choice, but requiring that choice was ultimately intended to produce measurable participation and stronger publisher outcomes.

Planning for measurement before launch helped frame both products as evolving experiences. Combining quantitative performance data with qualitative feedback created a more complete picture of product behaviour and gave the team a clearer path for evaluating and improving the experiences over time.

Key Takeaways:

  • Research both the customer and the end-user experience

  • Make business objectives explicit during the design process

  • Translate research findings into measurable hypotheses

  • Define success signals before launching a product

  • Combine quantitative behaviour with qualitative context

  • Design responsive systems rather than isolated screens

  • Treat launch as the beginning of an ongoing learning cycle

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