Disney Movies Anywhere

Android Design & Development

Disney Movies Anywhere

I was pivotal in bringing Material Design to DMA.

Disney Movies Anywhere (2014) allowed users to link Disney films purchased on iTunes Store and other digital services into a unified library.

My company was contracted to add Chromecast features into the soon-to-be-released Android app. We continued to work on features for the next two years.

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

Design Story

Dawn of Material Design

Material Design was introduced at at Google IO in 2014 as a massive design update that would reinvent the platform.

It was also scheduled to launch at the same time as DMA for Android.

Material Design examples introduced at Google IO, 2014

Laying the groundwork

I was excited about Material Design and did my best to update the UI where I could. My designs include the Chromecast client & receiver, the video player, and native interfaces.

I also refactored the app to use XML styles (Android SDK’s built-in design system).

DMA for iOS vs. DMA for Android

Design conflict

Many high-profile companies were releasing Android apps that looked like iOS knockoffs. Android users were frustrated about being treated as “second class citizens”.

DMA's design was completed months before Google announced Material Design. The design & product teams were reluctant to make changes, despite the fact that their design was heavily influenced by iOS 6.

(They also were all iPhone users.)

Material Design goes live

Six weeks before our launch, Google released the full Material Design SDK for developers. They also updated the Play Store with a massive Material Design overhaul.

Disney’s VP of Technology called me aside and asked me if I could do something similar. Yes!

Google Play Store's first Material Design update, October 2014

Video Player: before & after slider

My impact

I spent the next two weeks updating the app to the new SDK and Material Design.

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.

Android 5.0 was released on Nov 3, 2014. DMA launched the next day.

As soon as the new SDK was released, I spent two weeks working on a proof of concept using the new Material Design component library.

My update caused some intense debates among the teams and stakeholders, but ultimately the redesign was implemented for the launch.

We received very positive reviews for the launch and the Android app ranked a full-star higher than the iOS release. In press reviews, the tech sites were overwhelmingly positive.