O1
Project Context
Where theming Lived
PROBLEM
JioHotstar's female audience sat at 29%.
The Problem
Benchmarks run 65:35 on YouTube India and 55:45 worldwide. The business raised the gap before design did, and a number that size is hard to argue with
Post merger, platform MAUs and EVVs climbed. Female EVVs stayed flat over the same window. We were growing past the audience we needed most.
Inside the org, people pushed back. If women get a profile, does every segment get one? Nobody settled that. We built on the number we had.
O2
The Solution
What did I build?
My Intent Was To Make Onboarding Seem Personal
A profile with an entry moment built into it.
Entry does more for how personal a profile feels than the algorithm behind it.
The Move
Profile selection worked as a switch. Pick a face, move on. I started with the women's profile because it already claimed to be a personal space, so the distance between the claim and the experience was widest there.
Identified theming surfaces across the app that we designed
Intent
The app should feel like it's in the day with the user, not asking them to celebrate it on the platform's behalf. Every themed surface is placed by function and capped by rule, so the moment lands across the app without ever competing with what a user came to do.
Approach
Introduced motion to create a sense of arrival
Used microcopy to reinforce tone and belonging
Building Scalable Framework
SETTING THE FOUNDATION
Introducing a theme layer on top of each profile icon, starting with women’s profile.
DESIGNING FOR SCALE
handling space constraints even with up to 8 profiles on screen.
EXTENSIBLE ACROSS CONTEXTS
enables dynamic theming across moments like IPL, Christmas, and Diwali.
Shipped Lottie Layer
A themed layer on top of the existing profile icons, tested against the worst case of eight profiles in one view.
Building Spec File
A motion designer built the concept out, wings opening as the profile loaded. The file ran too heavy for Lottie and stuttered on the one moment we wanted to feel effortless. I rebuilt a lighter version in Dev Mode, which I had never used before this task.
I owned the sizing and the Lottie layer inside the profile-icon component, and tested it across eight profiles in one view and every screen size the app supports.
When to use it. Festivals, marquee events, platform-level profile categories.
Behaviour. Three sizes, backend-driven triggers, a fallback when media fails.
Guardrails. Selection ring behind the media layer, one theme per avatar.
Theme priority. Diwali overrides IPL season for its window, then the season resumes.
O3
Bet 02
IPL personalisation
LIVE SPORT
One input, personalised everything after.
The Use Case
A viewer checking the scorecard already has a stable preference sitting right there, unused.
Which team do you like the most?
Asked once, inside the match
how do we ensure the experience is Which team do you support. No onboarding flow, no settings page. The question sits in a surface a viewer already opens. without becoming intrusive.
FAN ZONE
One choice unlocks a tray built from that side's players.
PLAYER LEVEL CONTENT
Tapping a player opens content built around them.
Score Card Personalisation
The scorecard is a high-frequency, information-heavy surface, and a strong opportunity to make the experience more tailored.
Transforms a passive viewing surface into a more engaging, emotionally aware experience, making users feel understood, while subtly nudging deeper engagement
Captures user preference as a signal, enabling both personalized experiences and downstream use cases like C2E
Visual Expression Change
Adapting feedback and match signals based on user preference and match context
Shifts the scorecard from a neutral information display to an emotionally contextual experience
O3
Bet 02
MicroCopy
PERSONALISATION IN MICROCOPY
The action gets registered. Nothing about it feels acknowledged.
A snackbar seen dozens of times a week moves the feel of the whole product more than a hero animation seen once.
Context
I improved how the product communicates with the user emotionally.
explored making this communication more expressive and tailored to the user’s action.
Positive -- Encouraging
Negative -- Empathetic
