Designing Tangy TV: A 0→1 Short-Drama Platform Built in Just 3 Weeks
Tangy TV is a short-drama entertainment app built to compete with fast-growing platforms like DramaBox and ShortMax. The business goal was simple: launch quickly with feature parity to capture the growing short-drama audience.
I led the end-to-end design in just 3 weeks — from branding and logo design to wireframes, final UI, and developer handoff. The focus was on execution speed, polish, and delivering a premium OTT-like feel, even though much of the feature set mirrored competitors.
Problem Statement
Aggressive timeline: The business priority was speed-to-market, giving just 3 weeks to design the entire app end-to-end.
Complex flows under pressure: Features like discovery, player, and retention loops needed to be designed quickly but without usability compromises.
Clarity & polish: Competing apps often felt cluttered; Tangy TV had to feel cleaner and more premium despite the fast turnaround.
Consistency at scale: With multiple flows and developer handoff happening in parallel, ensuring a cohesive design system was critical.
My Role
Conducted competitive audits of DramaBox/ShortMax to identify must-have features.
Designed branding, logo refresh, full user flows, wireframes, and final UI.
Oversaw developer handoff — providing specs and assets under tight timelines.
Delivered a consistent design system to keep the rapid rollout cohesive.
Execution Highlights
Competitive Parity with Polish
Replicated discovery, streaks, watchlists, and player flows for feature parity.
Simplified cluttered layouts into a cleaner OTT-like experience, building user trust.
Discovery & Player
Designed a curated feed with genres, trending, and “Continue Watching.”
Optimized player for bingeing with auto-play, minimal controls, and smart resume.
Retention Loops
Incorporated streaks, reminders, and watchlists — familiar but more polished than competitors.
Branding & Visual Identity
Created a new brand identity and logo aligned with OTT-quality entertainment.
Visual language emphasized bold typography, clean layouts, and trustworthiness.
Process & Collaboration
Competitive Analysis: Benchmarked DramaBox/ShortMax → simplified their cluttered UX for Tangy TV.
Rapid Execution: Completed branding → wireframes → final UI → handoff in 3 weeks.
Cross-functional: Worked closely with content and dev teams to ensure fast rollout and smooth integration.
Impact
On-track launch: Full end-to-end design completed in 3 weeks, with the app now in final finishing changes.
Improved perception (anticipated): Cleaner, OTT-like design expected to build more trust compared to cluttered competitors.
Retention supported (anticipated): Streaks and watchlists designed to encourage repeat visits, validated in internal usability tests.
Execution excellence: Demonstrated ability to deliver a full product design cycle rapidly while maintaining cohesion and quality.
Reflection and Learning
Learned how to balance speed-to-market with design quality.
Reinforced the value of competitive benchmarking + polish in copycat markets.
Gained experience in rapid design cycles, delivering branding, product design, and dev handoff in record time.
Showed how strong design execution can differentiate perception, even when core features are cloned.
