Guest Star is a tool that makes it easy, safe, and fun for streamers to bring guests onto their streams. By reducing the friction streamers faced bringing guests on stream, Guest Star empowered users to produce new types of content, inspired new streamers to try their hand at producing content, and created a first-party workflow that allowed for additional engagement/content interactions.
The purpose of Guest Star was to create a frictionless way for Twitch streamers to bring guests onto their stream. Our three guiding principles were to make it: Easy, Safe, and Fun. The team and I started this project to aid streamers who were already bringing guests onto their stream but finding it difficult or cumbersome to do so with third party tools. Our goal was to make it as seamless and as easy possible for new or existing streamers to use. Guest Star is available on browser desktop, and the mobile experience allows guests to join creators in the experience as well across Android and iOS.
In collaboration with my teammates, we created an innovative product that delighted our customers and served our business goals. Guest Star has been a success in making it easier, safer, and more fun to bring on guests to your Twitch streams. Adoption has been strong amongst streamers and we’ve seen an increase in collaborative streams. Time spent streaming this content has increased substantially and theres been a high increase in engagement with channels running Guest Star. Streamers have found new and unique ways to create content by using Guest Star, and we’ve seen an explosion of new and emerging content/ categories on Twitch by using this feature. They’ve lauded how easy it is to use and found it a valuable product to increase engagement on their stream. Viewers who watch Twitch found it exciting to be able to interact and engage with their favorite streamers by being invited to star in their streams.
The Guest Star team saw our existing users struggle to bring guests onto their stream with third party tools and we partnered with UX Research to learn more about their difficulties as well as their wants and needs. Through a series of interviews we learned that streamers found third party tools unreliable and hard to setup. These tools lacked the safety features that were incorporated in Twitch which made users hesitant to bring guests onto their stream. There was a need for a product that could make it easier and safer to invite people onto our platform.
I crafted a high level user flow with my colleagues to map out the user journey as well as documenting the users needs, and emotions throughout using our product. After working with product, engineering, and uxr on the vision for our product, I created a series of clickable/tappable prototypes which we tested with our users to validate our assumptions. I worked closely with UXR to summarize our findings and quickly iterate on designs between research sessions to help create a product that served our users’ needs.
As a lead designer on this project I led the vision and execution on a high level and dug into details when needed. I was fortunate to collaborate with a few other designers on this project and managed everything from initial brainstorming, execution, and followed up post production to refine our product to cater to our users' needs.
Guest Star is a web-based application that works by integrating seamlessly with Open Broadcast Software (OBS). Streamers start by setting up their camera and microphone so guests can see and hear them and then use Guest Star provided browser sources to import to OBS. Browser sources allow the streamer to fully customize where and how their guests will appear in their streams.
Examples shown above how streamers are introduced to, and start using Guest Star. Streamers can join our first time user experience wizard or jump right in and be guided through the process. Guest Star uses browser sources which will be filled by guests when you invite them!
The streamer has imported their browser sources and laid them out in OBS. Users can customize the visual appearance of their guests to their hearts content. The next step is to invite guests to fill those spots.
Streamers start by inviting Twitch users as guests onto their stream. Guest Star provides detailed information on guests to vet them before bringing them on stream. We also warn a streamer if a guest might be suspicious based on their past experience on twitch.
Examples of various invite modal states. Guest Star pulls a streamer's recents, favorites, subscribers, followers, mods, VIPS & teammates to get people started quickly. It also offers detailed background info on potential guests for safety purposes.
Once invited, guests accept their invitation and are brought "Backstage" where they are not live yet. Streamers can adjust guests' video, audio and vet their safety before pushing them live onto their stream. They
Examples of various video controls and states. Streamers can choose between video or audio only experiences and manage their guests by hovering them and revealing full sets of controls.
Once a Streamer has adjusted the audio and video of their guests just, they can "push" their guests live by clicking the "Show on stream" button.
Clicking the "Show on stream" button pushes their guest live on OBS and their Twitch channel. A streamer's guests info appears below the video allowing viewers to learn more about those specific guests on stream.
Guest Star allows any Twitch user to join their favorite streamer as a guest whether they’re on desktop or mobile. The following mocks were created by my colleague Mandy Zhang with original guidance from myself.
Potential guests invited to Guest Star receive an invite notification from the streamer and are promptly added to a welcome screen. Once they accept the invite they are taken to a "haircheck" where they can set up their webcam and mic.
Once the guest is let in, they are brought backstage where the streamer can preview their audio and video. When the guest and streamer are ready, they are pushed live to the stream.
With the ability to collaborate with up to 5 guests, Guest Star provides endless possibilities for collaboration. It seamlessly integrates with first party tools like chat, predictions, and polls to bring variety and fun to your streams.
