Managing Director, A+E Networks:
"We are proud to launch BLAZE as our first free-to-air channel in the UK"
BLAZE is a new entertainment channel which celebrates people who achieve the extraordinary through determination, courage and a hint of maverick spirit. American by nature, but distinctly British by nurture, it raises the flag for real people who boldly follow their own path.
I interpreted the challenge as a balancing act. To accommodate different platform views and keep the design of the pages clean and straightforward, it was important to design side by side and understand the flow on each device. Starting off with a strong and clean UX is important in any apps first steps, especially when the project is ranging across multiple platforms.
When compared desktop of mobile, designing UIs for TV is still a relatively new area. It’s also a fundamentally different platform. Design for TV requires a unique set of considerations, including screen size and distance, technical constraints, and context of use.
BLAZE will simultaneously launch as a TV Everywhere (TVE) service, offering live streaming and catch up viewing on mobile and tablet for both iOS and Android. Designing on such a large number of platforms requires consistency. The biggest challenge is making sure the user is comfortable switching from one platform to another with ease.
In order to keep a clean design it is important to keep a clean workspace. The end result is a full set of TV, iOS and Android mobile and tablet designs all neatly organized within a design file. Each component of the app is carefully sectioned for cross platform integration in the design library. In the instance that one icon needs to be changed, it takes a matter of seconds to be perfectly sized and exported in the format it needs.
