Facebook Social Player

A redesign of the mobile video player, to bring more types of content to billions of people on Facebook.

There were many lengths and types of video on the platform, from quick clips to full episodes and live broadcasts, and live and post-live videos had to work in any orientation or aspect ratio.

The goal: unify playback for any length and format of content, let people see what’s next without turning back, and make it easy to have conversations and share from anywhere.

Shipped in the Facebook mobile apps to over a billion monthly users. It was later deprecated, but evolved into the video feed.

The tabs and the shelf under the video held everything needed to make viewing a richer experience: info about the video and the show, the conversation, and what’s up next.

The shelf could be easily dismissed so vertical videos could take the full stage, with an easy way to see what’s coming next without pulling more info back up.

Working with partners like the World Surf League, I designed standings and scoring modules that could be reused for future sports on Facebook Watch.

Anticipate vertical video
We had tried a few scrolling feeds of video before this player, but didn’t fully grasp how much shorter content needs a scrolling feed.

Accommodate all content types
Making sure any length or aspect ratio fit in the player was a great way to test things as we built, since there’s such a variety.

Make it more social
A place for fandom and conversation around the content was the goal, but pushing it even further would have helped videos take off socially.