THE HALO CHANNEL

CASE STUDY: DEVELOPING A PREMIUM ENTERTAINMENT PLATFORM

ROLE: PRINCIPAL DESIGN MANAGER

 

COMPANY: 343 INDUSTRIES & MICROSOFT CORP.

Halo is a military science fiction media franchise. The franchise is managed and developed by 343 Industries and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios and Microsoft Corp. The games in the series are critically acclaimed, with the original considered the Xbox's "killer app."

The games had sold over 81 million copies worldwide, with more than $6 billion in franchise grosses. Halo has since become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time, spanning multiple best-selling novels, graphic novels, comic books, short movies, animated movies, and feature films, as well as other licensed products.

 
 

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Develop The Halo Channel, an entertainment experience to encourage continual engagement with Halo’s universe from, games to community-generated content.

PROJECT GOALS

Create a destination for all Halo content named the Halo Channel, a multimedia hub available on Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Android, and iOS. As the successor to the Halo Waypoint app on the Xbox 360, the Halo Channel expanded its platform reach, and gamified consumption of original content, interactive features, and unlockable content is housed. Provide the gaming community with unprecedented, personalized

access to the Halo Universe and an immersive experience with seamless transitions between games and an abundance of interactive Halo features.

At the same time, drive revenue growth by expanding in-game and web-property interactions and making new content and products more visible and accessible within the Halo universe.

REQUIREMENTS

  • Build a platform-agnostic experience across device types. 

  • Localize the application interface and content for 13 countries. 

  • Support data exchange between games, community statistics, and interactive content. 

  • Enable content-specific integrated features and interactions between the Halo franchise and Xbox platform. 

  • Create a seamless transition between a companion app and the in-game experience. 

 

SUCCESS MEASURE

  • User engagement and time spent in the application. 

  • User engagement with additional components of the Halo universe. 

  • Interaction with integrated game features, data, and statistics. 

  • Viewing completion of long and short-form content. 

  • Engagement with social features. 

 

TARGET METRICS SUPPORTED BY THE PLATFORM

13

SUPPORTED COUNTRIES WITH LOCALIZED CONTENT & UI

4

SUPPORTED PLATFORMS & DEVICES TYPES

1000+

PIECES OF CONTENT GENERATED AND DELIVERED TO USERS

 

PROJECT SCHEDULE & TEAM

PROJECT SCHEDULE

The Halo Channel and the entertainment platform were critical to evolving the franchise, expanding its revenue opportunities, and supporting various business verticals.

The first version had a one-year runway to ensure the product's viability, research and design a unique experience for a discerning and loyal audience.

 

TEAM

I led the project, supported by a multidisciplinary design team of six.

In addition to the immediate team, I also worked with the other teams for product definition, development, and quality assurance.

 

9

DESIGN TEAM MEMBERS

UI/UX DESIGNERS, PROTOTYPERS, RESEARCHER, CONTENT PRODUCERS, VIDEO EDITORS

 

15

OTHER TEAM MEMBERS

ENGINEERING, PROGRAM MANAGMENT, QA

As Principal Design Manager, I was the design leader on all products and franchise initiatives at Axiom. Initiatives I was responsible for included The Halo Channel, e-Sports league, brand management, supporting our consumer goods, and franchise game titles.

For The Halo Channel project, I assumed two roles: design lead and manager of people, and individual contributor.

 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AS LEAD & MANAGER OF PEOPLE

  • Cultivated design and engineering excellence within the product team and studio. 

  • Promoted best practices and processes across disciplines. 

  • Led efforts to evolve the brand and experiences at all customer touchpoints. 

  • Oversaw content and experiences to support the Halo franchises. 

  • Created an inclusive and supportive environment to attract and retain team members with unique and valuable skill sets.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AS AN INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR

  • Collaborated with a multi-discipline team to develop and evangelize a design vision that resulted in green-lit projects within 343 Industries and Xbox. 

  • Designed and directed work for multiplatform products aligned with vision, brand, community, and marketing efforts.

  • Managed the production schedule for the Transmedia and Design team

DESIGN APPROACH & PROCESS

The design approach we adopted required us to align to the product development agile process. Using all three design methodologies – Agile, Lean, and Design Thinking – we harmoniously integrated with our engineering and program management counterparts. It was critical to the success of our product because each process has a key role to play in creating customer value, by enabling the team to learn and react quickly.

 

DESIGN PROCESSES

  • Design Thinking is how we explore and solve problems to find our “why?”

  • Agile is how we adapt to changing conditions with communication and transparency

  • Lean is our framework for testing our beliefs, learning the right pathway to the right outcomes, and giving us confidence in our decision making

DESIGN SPRINTS

  • Find innovation points to create value for clients and their customers

  • Identify the purpose behind the things we’re building and when to build them

  • Take learnings quickly, respond to change, and adapt our plans


 

The design team was able to stay two sprints ahead of engineering, allowing explorations and testing of the design. By creating this hybrid process the design team was able to efficiently and sufficiently go through all the necessary design exercises to create great designs and solutions.

 

DESIGN TOOLS

Design tool sets for project management, mock-ups, high-fidelity vision documentation and presentations, prototypes, developer documentation, and in-app usability research.

 
 
 

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

My design and research team explored concepts for an interactive media experience that best showcases the extensive Halo content library and in-game experience through extensive analysis of target audience game usage and behavior, consumer habits of both digital long-form content, in-game digital assets, and gamified community engagement, such as esports.

 
 

1000+

HOURS OF HANDS-ON TESTING

500

BETA PARTICIPANTS

 
 

This research provided direction on specific investments in the types of content the studio should be creating and curating, impacting the planning and strategy of the entire studio, from monetized gaming assets to physical consumer goods. These decisions regarding the content and consumer goods directly affected the entertainment platform and the design decisions made to create The Halo Channel.

 

RESEARCH ACTIVITES

Discover

• User interview, Gameplay and Beta testing
• Stakeholder interview
• Requirements & constraints gathering

Listen

• Survey
• Analytics review
• Search-log analysis
• Usability-bug review

Explore

• Design review
• Persona building
• Task analysis & Journey mapping
• Prototype feedback & testing (clickable or paper prototypes)
• Write user stories

Test

• Qualitative usability testing (in-person or remote)
• Accessibility evaluation

DESIGN WALK-THROUGH

The screens represent the design work and explorations I led to guide the product development and key decisions while also building design systems, prototypes, and component libraries.

THE HALO CHANNEL

Main Menu UI - Final Design

 

Mobile UI - Final Design

Tablet UI - Final Design

Information Architecture - Detailed

Information Architecture - Comprehensive

UI SYSTEM EXPLORATION

UI Componet Library

UI System Framework

VISUAL EXPLORATIONS

Interstitial Exploration 1

Interstitial Exploration 3

Interstitial Exploration 2

Interstitial Exploration 4

SUMMARY

343 Industries was successful in creating the Halo Channel and its premium entertainment platform, enabling the franchise to expand its transmedia offerings with hundreds of hours of live-action TV, esports, and short-form content.

 

85%

TARGET USAGE PER WEEK

95%

USERS RETURN TO GAMEPLAY

80%

USER ADOPTION AND ENGAGEMENT TARGET

 

The free, platform-agnostic, premium service for fans included social media capabilities, interactive content, and an immersive encyclopedia for the Halo universe. This work introduced new ways for Xbox and its game studios to leverage an existing platform to materially increase revenue. 

Though retired, many of the platform features and design elements live on within Halo and throughout Xbox platform, strategies, and game studios.