DirecTV
Different platforms, one experience.
Overview
DIRECTV LATAM was one of the region's largest telecom providers, with millions of subscribers across multiple countries and a set-top box infrastructure ranging from legacy SD decoders to the latest HD/4K devices.
I joined the product innovation team to modernize outdated experiences and design scalable solutions across platforms with very different technical constraints. The work covered four fronts: channel navigation redesign, an internal content management tool, a special app for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in collaboration with DGO, and UX support for SKY Brazil's user channel update.
Problem
The core challenge was designing for platforms with radically different capabilities. Legacy SD decoders had hard constraints: limited fonts, reduced color palette, restricted image sizes, and basic remote-control interactions with no support for gestures or complex navigation. HD/4K devices enabled more, but any solution had to work across both without degrading the experience on either.
On top of that, internal communications teams had no tools of their own to manage the client channel. Every update depended on development, making slow and costly what should have been a daily operation.
And in parallel, there was an unmovable deadline: the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 needed a special, immersive experience deployed on time.
The World Cup Qatar 2022 campaign teaser on the DIRECTV guide.
Design Process
The first step was understanding the real limitations of each platform. Before designing any screen, I mapped the capabilities and constraints of both SD and HD/4K STBs — what could be rendered, what interactions the remote control supported, what fonts were available. Without that map, any design decision was a risk against implementation.
With that context I defined a component architecture that could scale across platforms — solutions that worked on SD and enriched on HD without requiring two parallel systems.
For the client channel I designed the admin tool with the communications team as the primary user, not developers, but people who needed to publish and preview content autonomously. I led onboarding workshops to ensure real adoption of the tool.
For the World Cup I collaborated with the DGO team to co-design the Qatar 2022 special app — dynamic content, intuitive flow, adapted to platform constraints.
For SKY Brazil I delivered UX recommendations and a structure proposal for their user channel update, maintaining regional identity within shared UX patterns.
The range of screens the redesign had to support — navigation, content rows, account and billing, promotional placements — each constrained differently across SD and HD/4K devices.
Design Philosophy
Designing for constraints isn't a limitation, it's where the real design thinking starts.
Solution & Results
A unified interactive TV experience that worked across all device types — from SD decoders with hard constraints to 4K devices — without sacrificing consistency or usability on either end.
An admin tool that gave the DIRECTV communications team full ownership of the client channel: they published, edited, and previewed content autonomously, without depending on development for every update.
A special app for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, deployed on time, with dynamic content and an immersive experience for millions of subscribers across LATAM.
A modernization proposal for SKY Brazil that maintained regional identity within a shared UX system.
SKY Brazil's updated guide, carrying the same UX patterns while keeping the regional brand identity.
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