Scheduling portal built for broadcast

A systematic UX overhaul of the internal scheduling portal at the heart of ABC's national broadcast operations.

Company

Disney ABC

Role

Product Designer

Focus

Enterprise · Information Architecture · Design Systems

Overview

OTTO is the internal scheduling portal used by more than 200 ABC owned and affiliated stations. Station teams use it to view network schedules, replace non-rights-cleared content, switch to emergency content, and distribute the resulting stream to Digital MVPDs. It had gone more than a year without a dedicated designer.

The problem

The app was functional but fractured. Months of adding features had created navigation that no longer matched how users worked, turning routine tasks into multi-step ordeals. I developed an improvement plan, pitched it to management, and got buy-in to move forward.

Research & strategy

I kicked off with a heuristic evaluation, documenting findings and prioritizing issues for the team. Moderated usability testing followed, surfacing four clear areas for improvement: information architecture and navigation, status indicators and system feedback, UI consistency, and content strategy.

I also partnered with the lead developer to create a service blueprint, giving the team a shared view of OTTO's role in the broader ecosystem.

OTTO service blueprint: a swimlane diagram mapping content flow from national feed through affiliates and OTTO to DMVPDs and the television audience. — The service blueprint I built with the lead developer, mapping OTTO's role across the broadcast chain from national feed to television audience.

Consistency & enhancements

I built a design system with reusable components, working closely with the dev team through implementation. Navigation was the top frustration in testing: the structure was disorienting and unclear. I redesigned the page structure and delivered annotated designs for review across dev, product, and management.

The OTTO design system: button, input, dropdown, modal, and toast components documented with their states and usage guidance. — The OTTO design system I built: buttons, inputs, modals, and toasts, each documented with its full set of states and usage guidance.

Annotated pagination component showing page-selected, disabled, active, focused, hover, and ellipsis states. — An annotated pagination spec from the system.

The outcome

After over six months working toward improved usability and user satisfaction, OTTO is thriving. The tool is the first of its kind and has been nominated for an award for internal digital products at Disney.

Redesigned OTTO dashboard at the station-group level, showing station schedules and role-based access annotations. — The redesigned navigation at the station-group level: a clearer dashboard where available features and permissions adapt to each user's role.

Station-level OTTO view with a schedule timeline and annotations explaining how navigation adapts to the selected station. — At the station level, the navigation reshapes around the selected station, surfacing schedules, recurring rules, and uploads where operators work.