Spreading ideas to millions of people worldwide.
Android
Android TV
Fire TV
Industry
Entertainment
Our Role
Software Architecture
Android Development
Android TV Development
Fire TV Development
UX Design
UI Design
QA & Testing
User Research
Project Management
Team
4 People
Duration
2011 – 2020 (9 years)
Gallery
Key Considerations
Uncharted Territory
Because of a TED Android launch partnership with Sony, we went beyond the daunting task of supporting all of the numerous Android device sizes to also supporting Sony’s short-lived dual‑screen Tablet P.
Going Global
TED has a substantial international following, and the TED app quickly outgrew Android’s early localization offerings. Working together, we’ve expanded the app’s localization offerings to include UI support for twenty languages, including right-to-left and over a hundred subtitle languages.
Future-Proofing
Planning for the long term with maintainable, future-friendly code is key for an app like TED’s. Along with our own code, over the years, the app has changed analytics, notifications, and ad partners multiple times.
FAB Not Always Fabulous
We introduced a search FAB to TED’s Material redesign launch but quickly realized that users were overlooking search’s new location. Our first step was to adjust the FAB so that it no longer hid as the user scrolled content. Eventually, we decided to forgo the FAB altogether and promote search to its own top‑level section.
Audio Feature Onboarding
Since TED Talks are often not visually driven and work just as well in audio form, we chose to allow users to continue to play talks they were watching in the background as audio-only, even once the app was closed. This required extensive consideration to educate users on how to use the feature and how to disable it.
Timeline
Insights
Creating a Great Experience for Global Users
An excellent experience for non-English and international users means more than offering video subtitles. Since TED’s talks are translated into right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the app’s UI also needed to be, and these translations had to be vetted and accurate.
Text sizes also needed to be considered for labels in more verbose languages so they didn’t overlap or prematurely clip. Content presented to non-English users (and the priority in which that content was presented) also needed to be considered. For example, TED’s latest talks may take a few days to translate into other languages. Since users prefer talks with subtitles available in their language, the latest TED Talks were not always immediately promoted in all languages.
Sometimes, we also needed to think beyond the core mission. TED talks have long been used as a language learning resource. To make the TED experience better for language learners, we added dual subtitles so that users could follow along with two subtitles at the same time.
Changes Can’t Impact Quality
Throughout our extensive partnership, we experienced changes in team members on both TED and Mercury’s sides. Despite these transitions, we effectively managed new relationships, adjusted our goals, and aligned expectations. As a result, we maintained a stable, productive, and successful product, demonstrating our ability to thrive even in the face of inevitable changes.
