NBCUniversal


NBC App: America’s Got Talent

TV screen displaying 'AGT' app advertisement with phones showing voting features and app download buttons.

The Highlights

  • Enhanced voting experience for AGT fans

    • → Designed a seamless in-app voting system, making participation more intuitive and engaging.

  • Optimized live content interaction

    • → Improved user flows for engaging with real-time AGT events, boosting audience retention.

  • Refined UI for accessibility & scalability

    • → Standardized interactive elements for a more inclusive and consistent multi-platform experience.

The Challenge

Design Improvements

Mobile screen displaying "America's Got Talent" website with videos of Sofia Vergara celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and magicians Mat Franco and Dustin Tavella performing.
Smartphone displaying "America's Got Talent" app, congratulating a winner, with options to watch episodes, participate as a judge, and audition for next season.

The Process

I had to review the existing AGT app and propose enhancements for Season 17. It was not necessary to create any comps.

Mobile screen displaying "America’s Got Talent" app interface with a red buzzer icon, options to change buzzer sounds or choose a golden buzzer.

To discover how AGT’s features stack up to similar voting apps:

  • First, I deconstructed the AGT app and three of its closest competitors.

  • Then, I brainstormed solutions to improve the America’s Got Talent app.

Competitor #1: The Voice

Mobile app interface mockups for a TV show, displaying menu options, videos, team building, leaderboard, social media interaction with coaches, and artist profiles.

Competitor #2: American Idol

Screenshot of a mobile app interface for "American Idol" featuring multiple screens, including onboarding, fan feed, videos, voting, talent, and settings sections. The app displays options for signing in, creating an account, enabling notifications, and accessing various show-related content like latest clips, contestant profiles, and judges' details.
A series of mobile app interface screenshots for a "Love Island" app, showcasing sections such as Home - Latest, Home - Discover, Shop, More - Explore, and More - More. The screens feature promotional content like season finales, social media links, merchandise like reusable water bottles and neon signs, and policy information.

Competitor #3: Love Island

After deconstructing the competition’s apps, I started to address the things to consider.

Things to Consider

  • What features in the Voice aren't included in the latest AGT app?

  • What features appear in competitor apps that could apply to AGT?

  • Are there any areas for improvement in terms of accessibility?

  • How can we drive more video clip plays within the AGT app?

  • How can we add more moments of delight for the users?

  • Can we improve any transitions / animations?

  • How much of a design and/or dev lift will this require?

  • Are there any features in the backlog or older wish lists that we can resurface?

Diagram comparing features of 'The Voice' and 'American Idol' apps, accessibility opportunities, and strategies to enhance video clip plays and user engagement. Highlights include color contrast awareness, dynamic backgrounds, and adding video search options.

America’s Got Talent

User interface design for an "America's Got Talent" mobile app, featuring multiple screens including a hamburger menu, home landing page, video clips, buzzer sounds, episode results, judge tweets, viewing acts, and social media links.

Structuring the Competitive Analysis

Besides the other NBC show, The Voice, I noticed that AGT’s competitors used the standard iOS menu layout for iOS devices. I knew the ‘hamburger menu’ is more commonly used for Android apps but not for iOS.

Since all my screenshots were from an iOS device and iOS menus tend to be more straightforward, I started to reorganize all the categories from the existing hamburger menu.

Mobile app menu for America's Got Talent featuring options like Home, Buzzer, Tweet the Judges, Watch Clips, Episode Results, and more.

For comparison consistency and to help simplify the menu, I opted to build around the standard iOS mobile structure. Typically, this structure can hold up to five icon categories on the main menu bar.

I reorganized the existing app content to fit five main buckets. The idea was to group content with a similar theme under a mutual umbrella title. This is how I came up with the five titles below: Home, Videos, Vote, Talent & Audition.

Diagram of an iOS menu example with five categories: Home (Feed), Videos, Vote, Talent, and Audition. Each category lists sub-items, such as Featured Clips and Episode Results under Home; Clips and Full Eps under Videos; Buzzer and Save under Vote; Contestants and Judges under Talent; and Sign-up and Rules under Audition.

The Solution

Sharing initial suggestions for design improvement

After considering all the current AGT features and card sorting the existing content categories, I revisited the ‘Things to Consider’ table.

I started to make the findings more presentable to share with other members of the design team and the Product Manager. I also considered more incremental improvement opportunities such as close captioning and warning prompts.

Storyboard outlining features for talent shows like 'The Voice,' 'American Idol,' and 'AGT,' alongside accessibility opportunities and user engagement strategies. Shows suggestions like video search features, better navigation, and accessible design options.

Then, I sorted the ‘Primary’ suggestions into ‘High Priority’ and ‘Lower Priority’ categories.

Flowchart for video priority detailing high and low priority tasks related to America's Got Talent app. High priority includes zero search results handling, closed captions for videos, exit warnings, video sharing options, and carousel videos. Lower priority involves navigation and background color. Sticky notes highlight user flow suggestions.

For the improvements considered ‘High Priority’, I presented visual examples to help convey the goal in a clearer way.

Flowchart titled 'Priority - High' with columns for Recommendation, Current Visual, and Suggested Visual. Includes suggestions such as making CC available on videos, providing user info in null cases, sharing video clips, adjusting text leading, adding a Scroll to Top button, and ensuring clear user instructions before leaving an app. Each recommendation has corresponding visuals.
Screenshot of a design audit showing recommended changes to a mobile app interface. The suggestions include changing the logo for the 'Watch Full Episodes' section to an NBC logo, moving video clips higher on the homepage, grouping videos by category on the videos page, changing the background, considering bottom navigation, and increasing image sizes for acts.

The Impact

Due to budget and development constraints, I could not implement all the new findings. I shared these findings with the Product Manager. The quick wins were implemented, including a more reliable and consistent close captioning for featured video clips and giving users a ‘no results’ message instead of a ‘Showing 0 of 0 Results’.

I am aware more research and user testing would have been needed to justify adding some of the other features. The change from hamburger (Android) to bottom (iOS) Navigation for the iPhone version of the app, grouping video content by category, and creating a more dynamic background would take more time to develop and implement. These findings were likely not part of the business goals at the time.

The next step would have been conducting A/B testing between the existing Android and suggested iOS navigation.

Company

NBCUniversal

My Deliverables

Competitive Analysis, User Flow

Timeline

3 Weeks

Tools

Miro, Photoshop, Sketch

Team

Uba: UX Designer

Micah: Partner Marketing Manager

Thank you for reading!

Thank you for reading!

For more work inquiries, reach out at uba.e.obasi@gmail.com