HBO Max - Photo Upload
Led the redesign of the profiles experience to include character avatars, refined visual design, and photo upload capabilities.
Photo upload was the first major improvement for profiles after launch. It was an exciting opportunity to create a differentiating feature that would allow our users to insert some of their own personality into their experience. The opportunity came up quickly and required that we design and deliver the entire experience within two months. This required us to design all flows for both avatar selection and photo upload, design and provide creative direction for the character avatars, identify and create errors for all error states, and document it all for our engineering team in around a month. I led the design effort with support from a team of 2 other designers and a writer.
Role
Lead Designer: Responsible for end-to-end UX, architecture, research, ideation, visual design, and prototyping coordination. Team of 2 additional designers and 1 writer.
I was the lead designer on a redesign of the profiles experience to include character avatars, refined visual design, and photo upload capabilities. This redesign upgraded the profile creation and edit experience from one that was streamlined and utilitarian to one that is dynamic, visually appealing, and fun. Photo upload was the first major improvement for profiles after launch, delivered within two months with a team of 3 designers and 1 writer.
In a Nutshell
Most Fun
The lunatic pace of the project really brought out the best collaboration from all involved. The energy was infectious.
Biggest Challenge
The timeframe. It was exhilarating, but could have led to bad outcomes if the team hadn't risen to the challenge so well.
In Retrospect
Would have managed personal energy better during the intense periods — the pace was sustainable for the short term but required careful self-management.
Character Avatars
The feature allowed users to express personality in their profile experience. We designed flows for avatar selection and photo upload, created character avatars, identified error states, and produced thorough documentation — all within approximately one month of design time.
Photo Upload Flow
The photo upload experience needed to be intuitive while handling numerous edge cases — camera permissions, image cropping, file size limits, upload failures, and more.