Mobile App Design
Theme-Based Streaming (NUX)
At-A-Glance
NUX is a theme-based streaming concept that helps people stay in the same narrative “vibe” while moving across TV, movies, games, books, courses, and other media types.
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Solo (Class Project)
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My Role
Product Design - Information Architecture, Prototyping, Usability Testing, UI Design
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Timeline
November-December 2025
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Tools
Figma, Miro, UXtweak, Useberry
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Solo (Class Project)
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My Role
Product Design - Information Architecture, Prototyping, Usability Testing, UI Design
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Tools
Figma, Miro, UXtweak, Useberry
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Timeline
November-December 2025
Starting Point
Can we reinvent the on-demand streaming experience?
Most streaming services organize their content around media type and traditional genres (Action, Romance, Thriller). That works when you know what format you want, but it breaks down when what you really want is a feeling: survival tension, mind-bending ideas, cozy social comfort, etc.
Solution
Make streaming theme-based
NUX starts by learning the themes you’re drawn to, then recommends and connects content across formats, so you can continue exploring the same theme whether you’re watching a TV series, watching a movie, playing a game, or listening to an audiobook.
01 | Prompt
NUX is a fictitious mobile-only streaming service for travellers, commuters, and young users. Its differentiator is theme-based discovery: Instead of browsing only by genre or media type, NUX curates narrative “bouquets” that connect movies, TV shows, games, short courses, and other types of content around the same theme.
For this project, I designed NUX’s information architecture and prototyped key mobile screens for developer handoff.
Constraints:
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Class constraint to design for mobile landscape use
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Clear paths to explore and continue within a theme
02 | Information Architecture
NUX’s key differentiator is its theme-based content discovery, but users don’t naturally group content by theme, they default to media type or traditional genres.
The goal for the IA was to make theme-first discovery feel intuitive while still supporting familiar search/filter behavior.
Card Sort: Exploration
To understand how users group cross-media content, I ran open card sort with 20 cards and 10 participants, which yielded three key insights:
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Theme isn’t the default mental model. Several participants first sorted by media type/genre and only switched after re-reading the instructions, suggesting NUX needs clear onboarding and cues for theme-first exploration.
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Theme clusters become stable once users understood the task. Example clusters included The Hunger Games, Squid Game, and The Walking Dead as Survival/High Stakes, and Dune, Mass Effect, and Godzilla vs. Kong as Epic Sci-Fi/War.
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Educational items form a distinct “Mind/Ideas” cluster, typically separated from high-adrenaline and feel-good content, better positioned as “go deeper” options rather than dominating the first screen.
Sitemap v1
Based on the card sort, I designed a theme-first hierarchy:
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Top-level: Home, Search, My Library, My Account
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Home became composed of theme rails (Survival & High Stakes, Epic Worlds & Sci-Fi, etc.)
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Search: media types became filters to preserve traditional browsing.
Tree Test (Validation)
I then ran a tree test with 7 participants to validate two key tasks. It showed the first IA worked well for routine playback (task 1), but broke for theme exploration (task 2):
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Continue watching (task 1): 5/7 participants successfully completed “Continue watching Squid Game” using Home → Continue Watching, suggesting the placement and label were clear.
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Find similar content within a theme (task 2): Only 1/7 participants used Home → Themes/Bouquets → Survival & High Stakes to find “similar survival-style content.” Most tried alternative routes, often expecting to use Search and filters, which indicated that “Themes/Bouquets” was not an intuitive label and that theme discovery needed stronger visibility and alignment with users’ expectations.
Sitemap v2
This iteration better aligned theme discovery with both exploratory browsing and goal-driven behavior.
Following what I learned from the tree test, I kept the overall structure but improved discoverability through labeling and exposure:
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Themes/Bouquets became Explore by Theme
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Recommended for you became More Like What You Watched
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Themes under Search reuses the same thematic categories as “Explore by Theme,” meaning there are two correct paths to reach the same theme (Home or Search).
03 | Wireframes
After iterating and validating the IA, I moved on to creating low-fidelity wireframes for the NUX app. The goal was to create a first prototype to test whether users understood NUX’s core mechanic: theme-based discovery that is clear, findable, and actionable in a few taps.
I wireframed the minimum set of screens needed to validate the end-to-end loop:
General Landing → Login → Onboarding → Personalized Home → Home After Streaming → Content Details → Viewing
What the wireframes were designed to test
Instead of visual polish, these focus of these wireframes was on understanding and findability:
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Is the value proposition immediately clear?
The landing screen is intentionally minimal to test whether “theme-based streaming” makes sense right away and whether users can quickly choose a next step. -
Can users get through onboarding without friction?
The login and create-account flows test straightforward input, password reset, and whether first-time users are guided toward signup/onboarding. -
Does the survey feel easy and worth doing?
I designed the survey as a modal triggered from onboarding, covering theme interests, preferred formats, and past favorites so personalization feels immediate. -
Do users understand the Home feed is theme-based (not genre-based)?
The personalized home (“Based on your onboarding choices”) is built as theme rails, and I explicitly tested whether users recognize what’s personalized and how to go deeper into a theme. -
Can users continue within a theme without losing global discovery?
The “Landing after streaming” screen separates theme-continuation recommendations and the option to switch themes, and tests whether users can keep exploring the same theme or switch themes or jump back out. -
Is the content details page doing the job?
The details page prioritizes: clear metadata, a primary Play/Resume action, visible theme tags, and an obvious path into related themed content. -
Can users browse while watching?
The viewing layout tests discoverable controls plus a way to browse recommended content without losing progress.
04 | Usability Testing
Before moving to hi-fi UI, I ran a task-based usability test with 10 participants. I measured task success rate and time on task, with click heatmaps.
Test Design
Participants completed 8 tasks covering onboarding, theme discovery, and post-streaming exploration.
Task 1: Find where to access payment options
Time on task: 5.2s
Task 5: Explore deeper within a theme
Time on task: 3.7s
Task 6: Continue exploring the same theme
Time on task: 8.9s
Key Insights
What worked:
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Users understood the theme-based home organization (Task 3: 10/10 success) and could start browsing within a theme (Task 4: 9/10).
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The onboarding selection task performed well (Task 2: 9/10).
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Global navigation back to the broader feed was strong (Task 8: 9/10, fast completion time).
What needs iteration:
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Payments/membership discoverability was only 5/10 (Task 1), suggesting the CTA needs stronger visual prominence or placement.
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“Explore deeper within the theme” failed completely (Task 5: 0/10) due to weak click affordance on the theme header and a task label mismatch with user expectations.
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Continuing within the same theme after watching was only 5/10 (Task 6), indicating that the “continue within this theme” path needs clearer hierarchy and labeling.
05 | Hi-Fi UI
I then used my findings from the usability test to translate the wireframes into a hi-fi mobile UI while tightening hierarchy, wording, and affordances so that theme-based discovery stays obvious in just a few taps.
What I changed based on testing
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Membership/payment options are now harder to miss
In the test, only 5/10 participants found where to access payment/membership options. I addressed this by making membership a dedicated onboarding step and surfacing a clear “View Options” call-to-action. -
“Go deeper in this theme” is now an explicit action
Going deeper within a theme had a 0/10 success rate when it relied on clicking a header that didn’t look interactive. In the hi-fi UI, I made the header clearly clickable with an arrow next to the header. -
Continuing within the same theme is now clearer
Continuing within a theme was only a 5/10 in the wireframes. In the hi-fi iteration, I clarified the hierarchy and labels so that there is a clear differentiation between continuing deeper within the same theme versus exploring a different theme. -
Theme context stays visible beyond the Home screen
To reinforce NUX’s core mechanic, the theme label remains visible from all screens so users don’t lose the theme thread once they start watching.
Onboarding Screen
Initial Home Screen
Home Screen After Streaming
Design principles I incorporated
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I made theme exploration explicit and action-oriented
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I made sure to support both browsing and search/filter mental models
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I kept the theme context visible from discovery to details to playback
06 | Reflection
What I learned
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Theme-first discovery wasn't the users’ default mental model. People naturally start with media type or traditional genres unless the product clearly guides them toward themes.
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Labels and placement matter as much as structure. Even a solid IA can feel “invisible” if the wording doesn’t match what users expect.
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Testing early prevents over-designing. Wireframe testing quickly revealed where hierarchy and affordances were unclear, so I could fix the concept before polishing visuals.
Next Steps
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Introduce users to theme-based streaming with possibly a 10–15 second onboarding moment that teaches what themes are across formats.
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Expand personalization controls. Let users tune their feed by adjusting theme intensity, excluding formats, and saving themes for later.
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Re-test the hi-fi iteration. Run a shorter follow-up usability test focused on theme exploration and deepening to confirm that the changes actually improved findability.