2025
Shipped
OTT
Smart TV
Tencent Video TV: Daily Film Picks
A curated daily recommendation feature to form habitual visits and reduce decision fatigue in Smart TV
Role
Product Designer
Skills
Concept Development
UIUX Design
Interactive Prototyping
Motion Design
Duration
June 2025 → July 2025
(6 weeks)
Team
2 PMs
2 Developers
01 Background
Tencent Video TV, A Massive Platform
Tencent Video is one of China's leading long-form streaming platforms, with
350M+ monthly active users across all devices
110M+ paid subscribers
Its Smart TV app, Tencent Video TV, is the dominant platform for Smart TV, that
reaches 119 million monthly active TV devices
covers 41% of China's active Smart TV ecosystem in 2025
Monthly Active TV Devices
119 Millions
Across China's Smart TV Ecosystem
41% Market Share
China's Smart TV market has entered a mature phase, with key market signals include:
Smart TV Penetration
Surpassed 70%, with over 310 million devices in active use
Average Viewing Time
Over 4 hours daily per household
Long-form video
Remains the #1 use case for Smart TV
→ At this scale, Tencent Video TV's opportunity is no longer reaching users. It is activating them more often.
03 Why Movies?
Within the platform, not all categories are equal
Within the platform, not all categories are equal. Tencent Video TV's content spans TV Dramas, Movies, Variety Shows, and Documentaries, and others.
Engagement is heavily concentrated in episodic content: TV dramas and variety shows benefit from release schedules and social momentum that naturally drive repeat visits.
Others
Variety Shows
Documentaries
TV Shows
Movies
The Movie channel is the outlier. Despite housing thousands of titles and representing a significant portion of the content library, it consistently underperforms on daily revisit metrics compared to episodic categories.
This is not a content quality problem. It is a structural engagement problem.
04 Content Ecosystem
Why Movies Fall Behind?
Within the platform, not all categories are equal. Tencent Video TV's content spans TV Dramas, Movies, Variety Shows, and Documentaries, and others.
Engagement is heavily concentrated in episodic content: TV dramas and variety shows benefit from release schedules and social momentum that naturally drive repeat visits.
(1)
More Commitment,
Low Entry Frequency
Movies require a full-session commitment, and users visit the Movie channel less frequently.
(2)
Choice Overload and Browsing Fatigue
With thousands of movies available in Tencent Video TV, users face hesitation and browsing fatigue.
(3)
Lack of
Habit Signals
Movies lack continuity cues such as “new episode.” Without structured rhythm, repeat visits remain weak.
→ These challenges lay the necessary context for adding the Daily Film Picks feature
03 Target Users
Designed for All Users, Grounded in the Most Representative Smart TV Viewer Profile
Life Stage
25–40 Years Old Adults
Digitally engaged adults and a dominant segment in China’s Smart TV ecosystem.
Viewing Habit
Long-Session Viewers
Use Smart TV for focused, extended viewing. Prefer immersive and uninterrupted experiences.
Decision Friction
Overwhelmed by Large Catalogs
Thousands of films create decision friction, leading to hesitation before playback.
Trust Signal
Trust Human Recommendation
Editorial framing builds confidence. A human voice reduces browsing fatigue.
Habit Gap
Low Habit in the Movie Category
Unlike episodic TV series, movies lack built-in rhythm. Users need a daily trigger to return.
→ This audience doesn’t lack content. They lack confidence in choosing.
04 Ecosystem
Daily Editorial Curation as a Core Engagement Strategy
Curator
Each day, a curator selects one film
and writes a short recommendation.
→
Audience
Instead of browsing thousands of titles,
audience see a clear, human-framed choice.
Goals
Beyond the basic goal to boost audience engagement, I saw this feature as an opportunity to reinforce Tencent Video’s premium positioning.
Problem
Concluding the goals, I framed the problem statement as follows:
How might we…
Design a daily film recommendation feature that builds consistent viewing habits, increase engagement, and highlights quality content?
Solution
To answer this question, I proposed three solutions. The first and second are directions for UIUX design, while the last one aimed at branding for this feature.
Flowchart
I crafted a flowchart, mapping users workflow from entering the Daily Film Picks feature through the Movie Channel to the video player interface.
Visual Identity
To reflect this feature’s focus on human curated film recommendations, I designed a visual identity inspired by print textures and the aesthetic of art magazines.
Inspiration
Long exposure photo freezes time into a visual form
— extracted horizontal lines as connectors
Art publication cover design, clean and tactile
— extracted solid color blocks paired with serif type
Logo
Colors
Entry Card Design
A/B Testing
In this project, I designed 3 interfaces in total. For each interfaces, I designed two versions for A/B testing.
High-Performance TV Entry
Tencent Video classifies TVs into high and low performance versions,
for which I designed two corresponding entry pages.
Selected Version
Improved information hierarchy
Feature logo iteration
Selected information display
Unselected Version
Weak date-recommendation relevance
Excessive information
Redundant, repeated logo display
Low-Performance TV Entry
Selected Version
Improved information hierarchy
Differentiated visual style from other components on this interface
Unselected Version
Over-emphasis on film titles
Visual style not distinct
Film Selection Subpage
Selected Version
Improved timeline design
Improved information hierarchy
Featured quotes from selected films
Unselected Version
Complicated date design
Weak information hierarchy
Final Design
To communicate with the developers, I created an interactive prototype with motion design.
Outcome
This project successfully launched in July 2025.
By August 2025, the Daily Film Picks feature achieved the following metrics:
1.92%
Click-through Rate
exceeding the target of 0.92%
3.35%
Unique Click-through Rate
exceeding the target of 2.35%