Bringing families and friends closer than ever, no matter the distance,a TV-first co-viewing experience designed end-to-end, from blank canvas to shipped product.
01 · Outcome
Watch Together launched in June 2023 as part of a Sky Live software update. Post-launch engagement data confirmed the core design hypothesis: usage peaks during Prime and Early Prime time bands,exactly the living-room, evening co-viewing context the product was built for.
Session distribution shows users engaging 1–5 times per week, reflecting purposeful, social usage rather than casual browsing. Daily launches showed a week-over-week upward trend in the weeks following launch.
Entry point patterns, PiP overlays, and room-code flows were adopted into the wider Sky TV design system,extending impact beyond Watch Together itself.
Influenced engineering, product, and partnerships through a clear, prioritised design vision,shaping how Sky Live evolved beyond its core camera use cases.
02 · Challenge
Sky Live is the smart camera for the living room,enabling video calling, fitness, and interactive TV experiences. Despite being inherently social hardware, it had no way for users to watch content together remotely.
The brief: design a seamless, TV-first experience that balanced social interaction with uninterrupted viewing, while accommodating varied living-room setups, lighting conditions, and user comfort levels.
How might we create seamless co-viewing experiences that help households feel connected?
End-to-end UX for Watch Together: entry points, onboarding, call setup, synchronised playback, error states, and cross-device behaviour.
Sky customers, early adopters, and fans of sports and reality TV seeking richer Social TV experiences,often watching in groups across different homes.
03 · Discovery
Research with Sky Live users revealed a clear emotional need: people wanted to feel present with remote friends and family,not just watch the same content simultaneously. The design had to create genuine connection, not just synchronisation.
Four experience goals shaped every design decision:
A simple 9-digit room code eliminated the need for user-lookup or friend graphs,reducing cognitive load and technical barriers to joining a session.
Video calling with auto-framing and echo cancellation made every watch session a genuine shared experience, not just parallel viewing.
A lightweight, non-disruptive overlay preserved Sky Live's existing user journeys,Watch Together had to feel additive, never interruptive.
Creating a reason to return to Sky Live repeatedly,increasing platform stickiness and overall device value for Sky customers.
04 · Design Process
The project evolved across three phases,each building on the last, with increasing scope and complexity. I moved from Senior UX Designer on the first MVP into a lead role as the product expanded.
Designed the core Watch Together experience: room creation via 9-digit code, synchronised playback, and video calling with PiP. Established the interaction model and design foundations.
Stepped into a lead role as the feature expanded. Integrated multiple entry points across Live Guide, VOD rails, and full-screen playback. Added active speaker view and refined camera controls.
Led QA and delivery through to the June 2023 launch. Served as UX/Product consultant for Sky Glass integration, ensuring cross-device consistency.