Empowering Viewers with Video Engagement
Summary
I led the evolution of Vimeo’s video player into a flexible, interactive platform that empowers viewers to engage with content in new ways. Through features like embeddable transcripts, enhanced chapter navigation and sharing, and Live DVR with transcripts, we redefined how viewers find, follow, and share moments that matter. We improved accessibility, discoverability, and engagement for millions of viewers across Vimeo and embedded players.
Role
Principal Product Designer
Date
2023-2024
Team
2 PMs, 5 Engineers, 1 UX Researcher, 1 Designer
Outcomes
Enterprise Growth: Directly tied design to millions in total Enterprise ARR impact.
Elevated Engagement: Achieved 40,000 average daily transcript views and 7,800 weekly video segment shares.
Competitive Edge: Established Vimeo as the only platform offering Live DVR with transcript capabilities.
Problem
A Passive Player
Vimeo’s core strength was its high-quality video playback, but to capture the lucrative Enterprise market and maintain a competitive edge, the video player needed to fundamentally change. It had to transform from a passive display container into a sophisticated, interactive, and accessible knowledge-sharing tool, both on-site and in embedded scenarios.
Approach
Research-Informed Design
My role as Principal Product Designer was to lead the end-to-end design for the player's most critical engagement and discovery features, aligning product development directly with the company-wide goal: “Be the best discovery and interactive video tool.”
Scope: End-to-end design ownership across three major feature launches impacting both on-site and embedded player experiences.
Collaboration: Worked directly with a dedicated cross-functional pod consisting of a Product Manager, User Researcher, and a team of 5 Engineers.
Design Leadership: Regularly presented work to the larger design team for critique and managed the rigid sign-off process to ensure absolute consistency with Vimeo’s overall design system and user experience principles.
Research Highlights
Design Audit: Through a design audit and user feedback, we learned that the previous chapter markers were not only confusing but also cluttered with unnecessary visual elements.
A/B testing: I led the A/B testing of different iconography to determine the optimal entry point for content discovery features in the player.
High-fidelity prototype: User testing was conducted to help determine how information about the video behaved during playback.
High-fidelity prototype: I used feedback from prototype testing to validate my preferred approach to showing search results.
Solution
Transforming Passive Viewing into Discovery
We transformed the viewing experience by adding new, interactive features that empowered viewers, directly addressing the need for interactivity and knowledge sharing.
Embeddable Transcripts
We introduced a transcript view synced with the video, allowing users to search for keywords and jump directly to relevant sections. Users can personalize the transcript to show or hide timestamps and view in their preferred language.
Chapters & Sharing
We redesigned chapter navigation to show the full duration of each segment and added a one-click sharing feature for specific chapters. Chapter links bring users to Vimeo.com with the video playing at the chapter’s start time. Sharing with a duration parameter clips the video to only play the intended segment, while giving users the option to view the full video.
Live DVR
We added DVR capabilities to live streams, allowing viewers to rewind up to four hours and catch up on missed content, with transcript support. Viewers can scroll back along the progress bar, with a prominent ‘Skip to live’ button that will bring a viewer to the live broadcast. DVR is available both on-site and in embedded videos.
Outcomes
Driving Enterprise Value & Viewer Engagement
The launch of these interactive features successfully transformed the Vimeo player into a sophisticated knowledge-sharing platform, delivering significant new revenue and cementing our competitive advantage in the Enterprise market.
Positive user feedback and social media buzz confirmed the transcript feature immediately solved a high-value user need for content discovery.
✔️
Millions in ARR Impact
Directly influenced and secured millions in total Enterprise ARR, including strategic renewals and expansions
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Industry First
Established Vimeo as the only platform offering Live DVR with transcript capabilities, providing sales with a strong differentiator.
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Strategic Expansion
The Live DVR feature alone was associated with a multi-million dollar ARR opportunity.
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40K Daily Transcript Views
Demonstrates strong user adoption for content discovery and accessibility, solving long-standing creator requests.
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7.8K Weekly Segement Shares
Virality is high, with this segment sharing accounting for ~6% of total onsite sharing activity, significantly boosting content reach.
✔️
Massive Adoption
Over half of all live events now use DVR, with over 800 viewers a day entering DVR mode to catch up on content.