Interactive TV. Bringing live participation into JOYN.

Executive brief

The challenge

9 months to integrate SevenOne's interactive TV ecosystem into JOYN mobile
Enable live voting and quizzes within JOYN for live! primetime TV shows
9 months before JOYN.ME was sunset and its users to be converted to JOYN

My role

VP UX, program lead and product leadership sponsor
Defined experience vision, MVP and integration strategy
Aligned two teams from separate product orgs to deliver in time

The shift

Turned a deadline-driven integration into an embedded JOYN product capability
Reduced operating costs by retiring the standalone JOYN.ME app
Gained deeper insights into the motivations and behaviours of highly engaged TV show fans

01 · Overview & starting point

Two products, one deadline and no shared direction

Two hands each hold a smartphone. Left, labelled 'After': the JOYN app, now extended by a 'Jetzt mitmachen!' landing page for The Masked Singer. Right, labelled 'Before': the JOYN.ME app for engaging with primetime TV shows. Arrows labelled 'Interactive TV shows' and 'incl. DAVE interaction platform' show the capability moving from JOYN.ME into JOYN. — One app to be sunset, one other app to be extended with interactive tv show participation

JOYN.ME and the underlying SevenOne interaction system, was an award-winning TV companion experience that allowed audiences to vote, play quizzes and participate in live prime-time shows of the Pro7Sat1 broadcasting group. Following JOYN’s acquisition by Pro7Sat1, these capabilities had to be integrated into the JOYN mobile apps and the separate JOYN.ME service sunset.

The deadline was fixed by broadcasting schedules and operational dependencies, but the integration strategy was not. Two teams entered the project with different goals, product cultures and expectations towards the future of interactive TV Show experiences within JOYN.

02 · Understand · The context

Three competing perspectives shaped a bumpy start

Three pairs of opposing goals, labelled definition of value, product ambition and delivery reality: JOYN's streaming adoption versus JOYN.ME's fan engagement, a lightweight capability versus a full fan world ecosystem, and fixed broadcast commitments versus an uncertain technical integration. All three lead to 'Define a shared, feasible MVP'. — Three tensions between JOYN and JOYN.ME - resolved by defining a shared, feasible MVP

The integration began with three unresolved tensions:

Business value — JOYN prioritised app adoption, onboarding and watch time, while JOYN.ME measured success through deeper engagement with individual shows. Interactivity mattered strongly to some fans, but was not a primary reason most people used JOYN.
Product ambition — JOYN aimed for a lightweight participation capability that felt coherent within its streaming experience. JOYN.ME envisioned a prominent fan world eco system that connected audiences with show narratives before, during and after broadcast.
Delivery reality — JOYN.ME was due to sunset in October 2023, while commitments to upcoming TV productions had already been made. At the same time, the feasibility of integrating Seven.One’s interaction ecosystem into JOYN’s React Native architecture remained uncertain.

Resolving these tensions and defining a feasible shared MVP became the project’s first task.

03 · Understand · Interactive TV show format

Participation could expand what JOYN meant to audiences

Diagram of an interactive TV show at the centre, surrounded by lean-back streaming media – live stream, episode stream, clips and trailers, show details and news – and lean-forward activities from gaming and social media – live voting, live quizzes, surveys and polls, chat. — Interactive TV shows - unifying lean-back and lean-forward experiences in one entertainment format

Streaming TV Shows with JOYN was primarily designed for lean-back streaming: finding a programme and watching it.

JOYN.ME introduced a different behaviour—leaning forward to vote, predict, answer or respond while a TV show was live was another way to interact with streaming content, it was adding engagement, a KPI we didn’t measure and designed for yet.

Our job was to explore whether participation in interactive TV Shows could add a new dimension to JOYN’s value proposition without disrupting its core streaming experience. We, at the time, just didn’t know how well participation would be anticipated, liked and fancied by JOYN’s lean back user base.

04 · Understand · User needs

We understood participation data - but not the fans behind it

Friends on a sofa vote with their phones during a live TV show. An overlay summarises a MaxDiff study with 1,600+ JOYN users (February 2023): content choice and live-TV access ranked highest, interactive entertainment lower but relevant to specific audiences. Conclusion: high relevance in specific moments, but not for every viewer. — Interactive TV experiences had not been a priority for most of JOYNs regular user base, but data still showed strong engagement during selected live shows at primetime

JOYN.ME usage data showed that participation in JOYN.ME could generate strong engagement of up to 300,000 users participating during selected shows at primetime. However, existing research offered little insight into audience motivations or how participation fitted into JOYN’s broader streaming experience.

I initiated a MaxDiff study conducted by our user research team with more than 1,600 JOYN users ranking interactive TV entertainment way below established streaming needs such as content choice, live-TV access or offline consumption. As a result, we needed to treat the interactivity of TV Shows as a high-potential experience for specific live audiences—but not as a universal priority for every JOYN user.

This insight affected the design of the MVP onboarding experience and how deep, how visible and how permanent interactive TV shows became available in JOYN’s mobile experience architecture.

05 · Understand · The user journey

Users had seconds to move from broadcast to interaction

Journey diagram: a TV moderator asks 'Who has to leave? Vote with JOYN on your phone today!' with a QR code. A timeline shows: before the show – notify me and check out tonight's candidates; on start – watch live and get ready to vote; during the show – vote now on the second screen and chat; after the show – follow-up interactions and catch-up. — Step-by-step journeying into interactive TV Show participation

For most users, participation started on the TV, not in the app. A moderator or on-screen prompt invited viewers to act while the programme continued live. New users then had 20-30 seconds to scan a code, find or install JOYN, complete onboarding and reach the active interaction before the moment passed. Mapping this cross-device journey exposed the central experience requirement: every avoidable step reduced the chance of successful participation and users needed to be guided instantly into participation.

06 · Understand · Onboarding

Onboarding and activating new users

Activating new users in the JOYN app after a prompt on TV or converting existing JOYN.me users to use JOYN after prompts on TV required a series of barriers to be overcome additionally:

A JOYN.ME to JOYN app conversion experience needed to be designed
A JOYN’s app store promo and USP communication needed to be updated with interactive TV capabilities (“Jetzt mitmachen!”) now being part of the JOYN app
A Registration-Wall needed to be overcome, at least existing JOYN.ME users had it a bit easier, as they already used 7Pass, SevenOne’s Authentication service, which also worked with the JOYN app.

07 · Define the MVP

Four user goals aligned ambition and MVP delivery

Four columns from shallow to deep integration with phone wireframes: 01 'One tap away' (attention), 02 'One central home' (discovery), both marked 'required for launch'; 03 'Connected to the show' (details context), marked 'next up after launch'; 04 'Participate while streaming' (participation in the live player), marked 'longer-term vision'. — Four levels of integration - from shallow to deep - from required to vision - from 01 to 04

I framed four progressive levels of integration around the user goal each one served:

One tap away — Use contextual notifications and prominent teasers to make time-sensitive participation quick to enter and difficult to miss.
One central home — Provide a reliable destination for discovering and returning to interactive shows before, during and after broadcast.
Connected to the show — Embed participation within the existing programme-/format-page and its wider JOYN journey.
Participate while streaming — Bring interaction into the live player and EPG experience, removing additional steps between watching and participating.

The first two levels defined the MVP: a reliable experience that could meet the deadline while allowing us to learn before investing more deeply in interactive TV Show capabilities. This required trade-offs. JOYN postponed integration into programme-/format-pages and the live player, while JOYN.ME accepted no primary navigation entry until demand was proven. Instead, a permanent lane within “Neu & Beliebt” gave fans permanent visible access to interactive shows.

08 · Ideate · Level 1 · Required for launch

“One tap away” - Timely guidance into interactive TV Show participation

Phone wireframes from timely access to permanent access: app notification 'Voting started! The Masked Singer' on the lock screen, in-app hero notification, hero lane live teaser and TV show interaction lane on the JOYN home, all leading to the voting dialog 'Vote now! Select who is out' with four candidates. Marked 'required for launch'. — One-tap-away - a fast entry into single tv interactions by notifications and teasers

As there was only a very short period of time available for users to act upon a moderator’s prompt on TV, we needed to make sure an invitation to participate was not to be missed out on the smartphone.

By the use of notifications and various teaser formats, triggered from within SevenOnes interactive eco system studio software, we delivered a moderator’s prompt into the hands and attention of a JOYN user in real time, enabling instant participation on “one tap away”.

09 · Ideate · Level 2 · Required for launch

“One central home” for all interactive TV shows

Phone wireframes: interactive TV lane on the JOYN home, a new in-app hero teaser, the 'Jetzt mitmachen!' home listing live shows, a show home with access to all interactions, and the voting dialog. Marked 'required for launch'. — One central home - guiding users into a central home for all interactive TV shows on air

To keep the comfort established by the JOYN.ME app in providing access to all currently broadcasted interactive TV Shows, a dedicated and prominently placed “Mitmachen!”-Lane on the JOYN Home screen was introduced, calling a landing page to browse all interactive Shows currently on air and with all interactive quizzes, votings and sweepstakes made available by the editorial team.

Additionally, further teasers into all or specific TV Show interactions could be placed inside the new hero-teaser lane in case a user has disabled app notifications.

10 · Ideate · Level 3 · Next up after launch

“Connected to the format” - Full integration into the streaming journey

Three phone wireframes: the format home of The Masked Singer with an interaction section ('centralized' – all of a show's interactive and streaming content in one place), the voting dialog, and a later version showing 'Your vote last week' ('personalized' – gamification and the user's interaction history). Marked 'next up after launch' and 'longer-term vision'. — Connected to the format - all a show's content curated in one place - centralized and personalized

All content related to a TV Show streaming was curated and SEO optimized in Format Details Pages in JOYN. For those users familiar with entering the streaming experience from here, all of a show’s interactive quizzes, votings and bonus content needed to be provided here as well.

Otherwise, the contents of a show would become spread across different places inside JOYNs information architecture, providing a challenge for learned user behaviour of traditional JOYN users. Due to this, “Connected to the format” was a user goal, especially dear to the JOYN’s ux design team.

11 · Ideate · Level 4 · Long-term vision

“Participate live! while streaming” - Barrier-free participation

Live TV Player integration – Interactive TV Show Teaser

Live TV player integration: a 'Vote now!' teaser inside the fullscreen live player of The Masked Singer opens the voting dialog on top of the stream – participate while watching live TV in the fullscreen player. Marked 'longer-term vision'. — Direct participation while streaming - the most immediate, seamless and deepest integration for fans of interactive TV Shows.

Two places inside of JOYN are relevant for interactive live streaming, the EPG, the electronic program guide with its smaller player experience on top and the fullscreen player experience.

EPG integration – Interactive TV Show Teaser

EPG integration: in the electronic programme guide with its small live player, a 'Vote now!' teaser for The Masked Singer opens the voting dialog – participate while watching live TV in the EPG view. Marked 'longer-term vision'. — The endgame for interactive live streaming inside of JOYN's live experience - not yet realised.

Even though the most challenging from a technical point of view, having full integration of a TV shows interactive features in the live streaming experience was and still is the highest goal for making this experience truly differentiating, easy and seamless.

Level 3 and 4 of the experience are still waiting to be developed.

12 · Build and deliver

Participation needed to feel like JOYN

Two layers: the JOYN system frames each interaction, the show layer carries its brand

JOYN.ME’s visual language had been designed as a standalone experience. Inside JOYN, interactive content needed to remain expressive enough for individual show brands while still feeling coherent with the product’s navigation, components and interaction patterns.

Finally, the designers of both teams aligned and shipped a flexible visual system that combined JOYN conventions with format-specific colours, imagery and game mechanics. In essence we built a little design system dedicated to support interactive TV shows.

13 · Deliver · Learn · Adjust

Deadline met, interactions shipped, but it was not done yet.

A fully integrated live-player experience was not technically feasible within the deadline. We therefore prioritised fast entry points, a central “Mitmachen” destination and the interaction flows required by the scheduled productions.

This allowed five prime-time shows—including Wer stiehlt mir die Show, Promi Big Brother and The Masked Singer—to launch with interactive companion experiences while JOYN.ME was getting retired without losing its fan base.

However, we discovered another challenge: some of the interactive content seemed to lack quality again and again.

14 · Scale · With quality in mind

Better tools helped editorial teams to create better interactions content

More and more interactive content was produced, but the editorial teams struggled to produce consistent quality: copy text overflowed, copy or images went missing, color schemes seemed broken.

Because contributors had different levels of interactive-design experience, we created guidelines and reusable templates covering visual quality, interaction patterns and production best practices. This helped editorial teams to quicker onboard new editors, to create more consistent content and reduced the need for support from the designer of my team to zero.

Entry teaser guideline – cover — Seven guidelines for editorial and content producer teams, made available in September 2023 - designed by Bastian Rothdeutsch and Alexander Bach (the DAVE designers)

Entry teaser – overview of the three teaser variants: design, text, and image & text — Seven guidelines for editorial and content producer teams, made available in September 2023 - designed by Bastian Rothdeutsch and Alexander Bach (the DAVE designers)

After the production and editorial teams had more guidance at hand, the quality of the interaction experience improved dramatically, saving the design team a lot of time because no more content reviews needed to be facilitated.

Interaction pattern: fullscreen survey/game · TV show: 'Wer stiehlt mir die Show' – Du gegen Joko. Sequence of app screens from the entry teaser via the 'Du gegen Joko' intro to quiz questions with Joko's portrait and the result.

Interaction pattern: battle voting · TV show: 'Big Brother'. Sequence of app screens from the entry teaser via the show page to portraits of four candidates – 'Who should do the weekly shopping?' – and a thank-you screen.

Interaction pattern: quiz · TV show: 'The Masked Singer'. Sequence of app screens from the entry teaser via a mask character to a multiple-choice name quiz and a thank-you screen.

15 · Outcome & Reflection

Five shows launched and JOYN.ME sunsetted in time

By the end of 2023, interactive experiences for five scheduled prime-time shows have been delivered.
Up to 300,000 unique smartphone users participated on a single primetime episode broadcasting
JOYN.ME became successfully sunsetted, costs saved and its fanbase secured

What didn't work as hoped

Analysing onboarding, app store conversions and watch time during the 2023–24 rollout showed that JOYN.ME brought few new users to JOYN. Most fans engaging with interactive features were already JOYN streaming users.

Reflection

To achieve these outcomes I had to establish a shared vision and a co-ownership model between two previously separate teams, defining clear cross-functional responsibilities for interactive content delivery.

Through a synchronized delivery cadence tailored to live-broadcast schedules, we built trust and aligned all stakeholders, proving our ability to seamlessly integrate new engagement formats into the main JOYN platform.

Credits

Elena Winitschenko (Product Design Lead, JOYN), Alexander Bach and Bastian Rothdeutsch (Product Designer, JOYN.ME/DAVE), Christian Walter (Director Product, JOYN), Patricia Manley (Agile Delivery Lead), Martin Altvater (Product Lead DAVE/Interactions Platform).