NBCUniversal was scheduled to launch its streaming app, Peacock, in July 2020. The big problem: it was a crowded market. On top of subscription fatigue, consumers were experiencing decision paralysis and nearly infinite scrolling, spending 10 minutes on average each day to find content to watch. NBCU aimed to launch a streaming service that would stand out from its peers.

NBCUniversal has different offerings than other entertainment companies as well as acquired content, so our streaming service had to be different. We decided to take the best of TV and bring it to the best of streaming.

To ease decision paralysis, we created a Channels mode that allowed users to lean back and watch passively, just like they would with traditional TV. To help viewers keep a pulse on day-to-day events, we created Trending. And for traditional on-demand content, we blew out our Browse experience to incorporate curated collections and algorithmically driven recommendations for our content library.

The design approach was focused around four key principles: physicality, clarity & consistency, progressive disclosure, and frictionless experience to content.

• Physicality: Mirror the physical properties of the material world. Everything comes from a certain place and goes back to the same place. Nothing has magical properties.

• Clarity & Consistency: Fewer colors. More contrast. Simplicity. Bigger and clearer is better than small and granular. We believe if it can be small and gray it shouldn't be there. Glancing at something should be enough to understand it.

• Progressive Disclosure: A way of disclosing information. Fewer and more certain choices are better than plentiful but harder choices. Users should just be presented with enough information to make the next choice, never more nor less than that.

• Frictionless experience to content: Bring users to content in the best, most intuitive and most frictionless way.

Peacock smashed expectations. In the first year, Peacock amassed 42 million sign-ups, which is about 33% of US households. So far, they’ve watched over a billion hours of content.