Android Design & Development

Disney Movies Anywhere

Disney Movies Anywhere launched in 2014 as an app that allows users to link Disney films purchased on iTunes Store and other digital services into a unified library.

My team was brought onboard to integrate Chromecast into the app, but we continued to work on features for over two years.

I focused mostly on interface development and was pivotal in bringing Material Design to DMA.

role

Senior Android Developer, Product Designer

Contribution

DMA for Android, Android TV, & Amazon Fire
Design system using Android styles
UI development, animations, & transitions
Chromecast client & receiver
Video player & accessibility features
Movies Anywhere prototype
Training & mentoring designers

Tools

Android Studio, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver

Design Story

Dawn of Material Design

Google introduced Material Design at Google IO in 2014, less than six months before DMA was scheduled to launch on Android.

Design conflict

The design comps were approved months before Material Design was announced. The design & product teams were all iPhone users. They were reluctant to make changes, despite obvious iOS 6 influences.

Meanwhile, Android users were frustrated about being treated as “second class citizens” due to Android apps looking like quick knockoffs of the iOS version.

Material Design goes live

Two things happened in October 2014 to add pressure: the Play Store received a massive Material Design update and Google released the Lollipop SDK (with Material Design features) to developers.

My impact

As soon as the new SDK was released, I spent two weeks updating the app to the new SDK and Material Design as a proof of concept.

My version caused some intense last-minute debates among the teams and stakeholders, but ultimately we implemented my redesign and used it for the launch.

We received mostly positive reviews for the launch. The sites that mention the design were overwhelmingly positive.

“The app does feel purely native to Android, using Google’s design language throughout — it doesn’t feel at all like a quick and dirty port of the iOS app.”

- The Verge

“The Android app is bright, bold, and very close to the new Material Design guidelines… in line with Google's vision.”

- Android Central

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