Audio & Visual
Only Modes
Another impactful project driven by community feedback was the implementation of viewer indicators for audio-only and visual-only modes in chat. In audio-only mode, users solely listen to the stream, while visual-only mode indicates they are watching without sound.
Realizing the potential of this feature as an accessibility enhancement for users with disabilities, I developed a novel chat badge system. These badges allowed users to transparently communicate their mode to others in chat, ensuring inclusivity and understanding.
The introduction of this feature garnered immediate adoption and was celebrated as a significant success within the community.
Audio Only and Visual Only Badges in Chat
Shoutouts
In our ongoing efforts to enhance channel discoverability, we launched the Shoutouts project. This feature was developed in response to numerous requests and up-votes from the Twitch community, gathered through a feedback tool used by our product and design teams to understand user needs.
Shoutouts enable streamers and their moderators to promote other channels while live. I designed a callout that appears at the top of the chat column, featuring an easily accessible follow button. When users open the callout, they can see more information about the promoted channel, including its upcoming stream schedule.
The community's response has been overwhelmingly positive. Many users quickly adopted the feature into their streams and praised its effectiveness on Reddit.
Shoutout at the Top of Chat
Expanded Shoutout
Shared
Moderator
Comments
This project aimed to enhance site safety by enabling moderators across different channels to share information about problematic users. With this new feature, streamers could permit other channels to view comments made by their moderators about troublesome users. This way, moderators in other channels would be prepared if these known bad actors entered their chat.
In the channel's moderation view (Mod View), I designed a mechanism to alert moderators about known bad actors participating in the chat. Given that Mod View was already a densely packed interface with crucial information, the new feature needed to be both noticeable and easy to comprehend. I achieved this by designing a distinct container around the shared comments, ensuring the messages stood out without being too obtrusive.
Shared Comments Configuration Page
Updates to
Terms of Service
As part of the Twitch Privacy team's responsibilities, we ensured users were promptly informed about any changes to our Terms of Service or other policies. When updates to our policies occurred, it was crucial to announce them consistently to all users across various platforms.
To achieve this, I designed banners and modals in a manner that balanced legal compliance with user experience, ensuring the least obtrusive presentation possible across desktop, mobile, and TV applications.
Terms of Service Notice on TV apps
Terms of Service Banner on Web
Segmented sign-up flow
Research data showed that the vast majority of Twitch viewers were “lurkers” who watched content without creating an account and logging in. Users are unable to participate in Chat without logging in, and therefore are unlikely to find a sense of community.
Finding community in one or more channels is what makes a “hardcore” user who is willing to spend money to support the creator. Our team’s charter was to find ways to incentivize users to create an account and login.
One of our first experiments was to break the sign-up flow into three screens rather than one long form. The hypothesis was that users would feel less intimidated by shorter looking forms and would be more likely to finish signing up.
The results were positive: there was a 1.5% increase in users who successfully completed the sign-up flow.
Segmented Sign-up Flow
Login Wall
We conducted an experiment with 1% of logged-out users to evaluate their response to a "login wall," which required them to create an account and log in before accessing Twitch content.
Participants in the experiment were split evenly between those arriving from the Homepage and those from the Channel Page.
The outcome was clear: the majority of users chose not to create an account and log in, resulting in them opting not to watch Twitch. Although the results were not favorable for user retention, the experiment was successful in providing valuable insights into user behavior.
Twitch Homepage Covered by Login Wall
Account
Recovery
In parallel with the "login wall" experiment, we focused on addressing an issue that had been long overdue for improvement: the account recovery flow.
We recognized that the existing process was not only error-prone but also counter-intuitive for users. Furthermore, after completing comprehensive accessibility training with Fable, I discovered that the flow was nearly impossible to navigate using a screen reader due to live error responses that changed dynamically as the user typed.
To tackle these issues, I simplified the account recovery process for both web and mobile platforms. I also modified the error checking to occur upon form submission rather than in real-time.
These changes significantly enhanced usability, allowing users to recover their accounts more easily, which in turn led to an increase in successful logins.
Unfortunately, this was the last experiment our team was able to run as the team was eliminated as part of a company-wide reorganization.
Account Recovery Flow on Web and Mobile Apps