OVERVIEW
Enhancing Pluto TV User Experiences
At Pluto TV, I worked on initiatives focused on increasing user sign ups, deepening engagement, and improving the overall viewing experience. My work spanned upsell strategy, content discovery systems, and interaction audits. My work combined storytelling, systems thinking, and scalable design. In this case study, I've split my work between two main objectives. Click either objective to jump to the section!
CONTEXT
Paramount+ As The New North Star
While I was on the Pluto TV design team, the product was mid-transformation, part of an internal effort called Convergence: merging Pluto TV's design system into Paramount+'s so the two products would feel like siblings instead of strangers. In practice, that meant Pluto TV was getting rebuilt from the UI up, with every new component and pattern measured against Paramount+ as the north star, phasing out legacy Pluto patterns in favor of a shared system that could scale across both platforms.
Since I joined during this transitionary period, all of my work was designed in parallel to Paramount+ design parameters.
left: Paramount+ marquee , right: Pluto TV Marquee concept (Component designed by lyon huang)
Objective 1
Finding Opportunities for Micro-Interaction Improvements
The Goal
Enhance user delight by identifying and improving micro-interactions within Pluto TV’s CTV experience across WebTV, Roku, and Android platforms. Also, align with current Paramount+ functionality to streamline convergence efforts.
My Contributions
I audited micro-interactions across different platforms as well as Paramount+ on the same platforms to identify inconsistencies and opportunities for improvement. I designed and prototyped motion focused proof-of-concepts to demonstrate refined interaction patterns and presented findings to the product design team to inform future iteration.
Final Prototype reel
Process: Audit -> prototypes
I documented a comparative analysis between Pluto TV and Paramount+ on WebTV, Roku, Apple TV, and Chromecast platforms with callouts for interaction opportunities. Most of the notes related to the fluidity of the micro-animation and aligning interactions with expected Paramount+ behaviors. After the initial audit, I chose 3 key opportunities to address and move forward with in creating recommendation prototypes.
Key opportunities to address
Inconsistent focus states
Across WebTV, Roku, and Chromecast platforms, the focus state treatment (yellow ring around content tile) while browsing content was inconsistent. Defining a interaction standard would improve pattern recognition as well as make the browsing experience more cohesive across platforms.
Hero Marquee Animation
Each platform has different approaches to the hero marquee content for both the "Home" and "On Demand" pages. Paramount+ has consistent treatment of the hero marquee across all platforms.
Overall content navigation
There are many individual areas where micro-animations could be improved or added. For example, opening the global navigation or between content categories while browsing On Demand titles.
Prototyping!
After determining what areas could be improved on, I made 11 different prototypes in Figma that demonstrated subtle changes or Paramount+ alignments that would improve the overall cohesiveness of Pluto TV on different platforms. I presented these prototypes to stakeholders after each round.
Focus state treatments
These prototypes demonstrate static vs floating treatments of the yellow focus ring with the new convergence UI.
Hero marquee card behavior
The team wasn't sure how they wanted the peek ahead cards to transition into the main title focus. I prototyped 3 options that vary in the amount of motion involved.
overall navigation approaches
These prototypes touch on individual navigation interactions across the entire product.
Hero updates immediately with top nav interaction
Hero update is delayed to reduce flashing sensitivity
Objective 2
Turning Viewers into Users
The Goal
Design a cohesive, cross-platform conversion experience that increases user sign-ups by communicating Pluto TV’s value clearly and effectively across both OTT environments (TV, tablet, mobile) and web entry points.
My Contributions
I designed and refined cross-platform upsell experiences spanning TV, tablet, mobile, and web. I translated value propositions into visual-first storytelling systems that reduced reliance on copy while maintaining clarity and hierarchy. Through high-fidelity prototyping, I simulated real interaction behaviors to validate usability and align stakeholders.
CTV Upsell Experience
This project involved creating graphics that paired with dynamic value props that would convince the user to create a PlutoTV account. After landing on a visual style, I developed multiple prototypes for how the graphics and value propositons would circulate.
Final selected prototype for ctv
Visual exploration
I was responsible for the visual direction of the upsell assets. Since the overall structure was the same as Paramount+ , I explored different uses of the Pluto TV branding to make these designs unique. Ultimately, the team chose to go in a more minimal direction that aligned closer to the Paramount+ graphic treatment.
Responsive Work
With each visual direction, I had to keep in mind how it would be adapted for responsiveness. This is how the final treatment ended up being adapted.
Prototype exploration
While exploring different options for micro-animations and transitions, I met with the accessibility team and presented these prototypes. We worked together to find a solution that involved smooth motion, but didn't trigger any kind of motion sensitivity for users. This included the graphic image transition, the dynamic value prop transition, and the treatment of the pagination in the bottom right corner.
WEB FRONT DOOR UPSELL EXPERIENCE
Unlike OTT users who are already watching, web users are often first-time visitors. I needed to create visual aids that could convince users to sign up within seconds of reaching the landing page.
My approach was to create graphics that strengthened the clarity of the vlaue propositions as well as stold a story to the user.
Final WFD Graphics
Visual exploration
OUTCOME
What I Learned!
Cross Team Collaboration
I worked with marketing, product and accessibility teams to align goals with user centered design
Stakeholder Communication
I presented design concepts and prototypes to leadership, strengthening my ability to explain design intent and rationale
prototyping for communications
I used prototypes to bridge understanding between design and non-design teams
design systems thinking
I designed and contributed assets that spanned Web, Tablet, Mobile, and CTV to the Pluto Tv Nitro design system
What I'm Excited For…
As of July 2026, the new convergence designs are rolling out on Pluto TV platforms! While the shipped designs are slightly different from my contributions from last summer, I'm proud to have worked on such a large scale overhaul and to finally be able to see it live. I'm no longer on the Pluto TV team, but I'm really interested in seeing the long term impact on user sign ups, browse / watch times and cross platform consistency.