Hulu on
Disney+
Sr. Product Design Manager: Jaina Rodriguez
Sr. Design Lead: Ryan Fernandez
Product Designers (Set Styles): Josh Maldonado, Niquita Taliaferro, Cat Beaver
Product Design for Navigation, Search, Home Page: Gaby Tabachnik
Product Manager:
Design Project Manager: Kate Ernst
My Role:
-
Led design and systems framing for brand integration, visual cues, and navigation strategy
-
Delivered scalable UX for the multi-phase rollout of Hulu within the Disney+ ecosystem
-
Managed beta labeling, platform parity, and home screen evolution in partnership with product, engineering, motion, and exec stakeholders
The Challenge
The integration of Hulu into Disney+ was a strategic move with enormous product implications.
Key complexities:
-
Disney+ was originally designed for a fixed brand architecture (Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Nat Geo)
-
Hulu introduced mature content, mixed tone, and a broad catalog spanning prestige, comedy, drama, unscripted, and animation
-
The phased rollout (R1, R2) meant that the experience at launch would be incomplete—potentially confusing users without clear signaling
Design Objectives
-
Signal Work-In-Progress Status (Beta)
-
Implemented a Beta tag on the Hulu Brand Tile across platforms
-
Balanced clear messaging with brand elegance and engineering feasibility
-
Navigated multiple rounds of executive review (up to CEO level)
Beta Tagging - Hulk
-
-
Reframe Hulu as a “Supercharged Brand”
-
Developed a flexible framework to position Hulu alongside legacy Disney brands
-
Defined Hulu's tone, content taxonomy, and placement strategy
-
Incorporated feedback from brand marketing, content programming, and global UX teams
-
-
Reimagine Brand Row Discovery
-
Drove alignment around new interactive brand tiles, animated previews, and content-forward navigation
-
Elevated Hulu’s positioning while supporting personalized brand engagement over time
-
Key Design Solutions
Beta Tag Implementation
-
Explored badges, banners, and burned-in overlays
-
Due to short turnaround (about 5 business days)- we ultimately recommended a corner badge baked into the Hulu tile asset for ease of engineering
-
Factored in hover/focus states, platform-specific constraints (e.g., Apple TV vs. mobile), and motion timing
Beta Tagging - Hulk and rolling beta launch across clients.
Hulu Brand Row Strategy
-
Defined Hulu’s sub-brands and thematic groupings: Hulu Originals, Comedy, Unscripted, Emmy Winners, Holiday, etc.
-
Partnered with merchandising and metadata teams to drive personalized content clusters
-
Designed pathways that feel immersive but don’t duplicate Hulu’s original IA
Navigation & Home Framing Used data to reposition brand tiles for higher engagement and lower friction Contributed to a revised Home layout with Goal Zone, Browse Zone, and Pivot Zone Hulu content could appear in each zone depending on user behavior and recency
Impact
-
Beta Tag shipped on time for the Dec 2024 soft launch and was live across all clients until March 2025
-
Helped avoid confusion during phased content rollout without undermining Hulu’s value perception
-
Brand Row evolution supported broader FY25 OKRs around content discovery, personalization, and fandom
Key Metrics
Hulu Beta Tile CTR: 4.12%
Increase for Hulu Brand Tile (Hulk) From 0.71% → 4.12%. That’s a ~480% increase in effective click-through rate
Average Plays Per Account
Clarified branding led to more users trying Hulu-branded content. Resulted in a +0.2% increase in APPA, especially among general entertainment (GE) segments and new-to-Hulu viewers.
