Blu-ray – official website

Website: UX & UI design, project lead

click any image above to view in full

images (from top left): 1: Initial UX/wireframes. 2,3,4: Final page designs.

We pitched for and won the opportunity to completely redesign and build the official Blu-ray website – to bring it up-to-date, showcase new releases, and promote their 4K / Ultra-HD format.

The focus was on creating a site that was both a pleasure to use and ensured that relevant information was clear and easy to access.​ I was UX and design lead on this project. I also created UX animations to show the development team how certain elements should ideally be displayed.

As the site’s content was really visual, my designs focused on large, full-width images that would look great whether viewed on a large TV screen or a small mobile device. I found simple ways to demonstrate the Ultra-HD experience (without going into too much technical detail). Once the design visuals were created and approved, we moved on to site development where I liaised closely with the development team to ensure the site matched as closely as possible.

Interestingly, despite the wealth of fantastic content, one of the key issues was getting ‘official’ up-to-date images from the various movie studios – it’s harder than you’d think!

Unfortunately, even during site creation, our clients admitted that they were concerned about the future of the Blu-ray format, recognising that it probably had a limited shelf-life in the age of streaming. The timing couldn’t have been worse; shortly after the site was launched, the global pandemic hit and effectively sped up this process – driving people to streaming and away from physical media. Whilst the site is still running, it looks like content updates have now been pretty much abandoned – the downside of ‘disruptive’ progress. You can still view the site here: https://us.blu-raydisc.com/