ITVX | UEFA Euros
A cross-platform sports experience
Company:
ITV
Duration:
12 weeks
Platforms:
Role:
Product Designer
TL;DR
ITVX was restructuring its genre categories, which would have removed all reference to Soaps from the app entirely - despite Coronation Street and Emmerdale being ITV's most-watched shows with over 4 million monthly views. I identified the problem, conceived the solution and led the end-to-end design of a dynamic Soaps Category Page - a first-of-its-kind destination on ITVX bringing live catch-up, short-form clips, classic episodes, character bios and related content together in one place. The concept was fully validated and stakeholder approved, ready for development.
My Role
This was my concept from the start. I identified the problem created by the restructuring, proposed the solution, led all research and discovery, facilitated the stakeholder workshop and delivered the end-to-end design including the Switcher component, Character Bios and Premium upsell experience.
The Problem
Removing Soaps from the navigation would strand ITVX's most loyal and most active audience. Soaps fans are habitual, high-frequency viewers who return daily - losing them to direct search or abandonment would have a measurable impact on engagement and retention.
The broader opportunity was also clear: companion sites for Coronation Street and Emmerdale were generating 4.5 million yearly page views with an average session time of over three minutes, yet that appetite for extra content had no home on the ITVX app itself.
If Soaps had their own standalone category page, what would it look like and how might it work?
Objectives
Process
Data dive
Using Google Analytics, I analysed Soaps viewers' demographics, viewing behaviour and interactions with ITVX, alongside performance data from the companion sites. The data confirmed what the workshop had suggested - Soaps fans are among ITVX's most loyal users. They consistently search directly for their content, return habitually, and have a genuine appetite for related material beyond the core episodes.
User reseach
Using UserZoom, I designed and ran a research study to understand what Soaps fans thought of the current journey on ITVX and the content available on companion sites.
The findings were clear. Most Soaps watchers were frustrated by the number of steps it took to access their content on the TV app. While they knew extra content existed, they rarely knew where to find it. Those who used the companion Show Sites found them clunky and difficult to use. Many viewers were completely unaware that Classic episodes were available, and a significant number expressed a desire for short-form clips to be available on their TV — a format they were already consuming on YouTube and social platforms.
Internal stakeholder meetings
A conversation with the Editorial team surfaced a significant untapped opportunity - the ITV Coronation Street YouTube channel had hundreds of popular short-form clips that weren't available anywhere on ITVX. Bringing that content onto the platform had the potential to increase ad revenue, improve dwell time and give users a reason to explore beyond their core viewing habit.
Set visit
To properly understand the world I was designing for - and the content being produced - I visited the Coronation Street set. Meeting the Production and Editorial teams gave me a much richer understanding of how content is created, what exists beyond the broadcast episodes, and what could realistically be surfaced on the platform. The teams were enthusiastic about the concept and the visit shaped how I thought about the Character Bios feature in particular.
Wireframe testing
Wireframes were tested with users to validate the proposed structure before moving to high fidelity. The test focused on usability, user flow, content placement, visual hierarchy and content preferences. The response was overwhelmingly positive - users were engaged, discovered content they didn't know existed, and found the experience intuitive.
The Solution
Character Bios
The only feature that navigates users away from the main category page during discovery. Each character has a dedicated mini page with a brief description of the actor and their role, with curated related content including short-form highlights and guest appearances on other ITV programmes. It rewards engaged fans and drives consumption of content they wouldn't otherwise find.
Outcome
The concept reached fully validated, stakeholder-approved designs ready for development. User testing responses captured the value of the proposition clearly - users described it as intuitive, were surprised by the volume of content available, and expressed genuine delight at having everything in one place.
The project also validated a broader opportunity - the dynamic page structure designed for Soaps could be repurposed as a scalable template for other genre categories across ITVX, reusing existing design system components in new ways.
Learnings
Advocacy is a part of the design role.
This project started because I identified a problem that nobody had explicitly asked me to solve. Spotting that the restructuring would strand ITVX's most loyal audience and building the case for a solution was as important as the design work itself.
Go to the source.
Visiting the Coronation Street set gave me context I couldn't have got any other way. Understanding how content is produced and what exists beyond the broadcast shaped the design in ways that desk research alone wouldn't have.
Short-form content behaviour is platform-specific.
The data showed that short clips were primarily consumed on mobile via YouTube and companion sites - not on the TV app. Designing for that behaviour on a TV-first platform required thinking carefully about how to introduce a new content format without disrupting the established viewing journey.
Loyal users deserve a better experience.
Soaps fans are among the most consistent, high-frequency users on ITVX. The research made clear they were being underserved - and that a relatively contained design intervention could have a disproportionate impact on engagement, retention and revenue.
