Modernizing a legacy media player
As the primary designer, I led the rebranding of the Brainshark Player, a media player that had become outdated with a rigid, antiquated interface. The goal was to modernize the player while maintaining the existing functionality and layout constraints, as well as ensuring WCAG AA compliance.
Design team:
Katie Schmitt, Design Manager
Chris Keramidas, Lead Designer
The existing player
Originally built in Flash before being ported over to HTML, with decades of updates piled on top, the existing Brainshark Player was a pain point for customers, and was causing Bigtincan and Brainshark to lose deals. The visual boxiness, lack of modern features, and general inconsistency made the Brainshark Player a weak link.
The existing Brainshark Player felt boxy, stuffy, and visually outdated. Patterns and components such as download buttons and navigation were inconsistent with the rest of the platform, and information hierarchy was unclear.
Process
To approach the redesign, I examined similar products to gather insights and identify pain points in the current design. I then developed three wireframe iterations:
Reskin
Initial wireframes imagined a reskin of the Brainshark Player, mirroring existing functionality and UX patterns but using updated components from the Bigtincan Design System to modernize the appearance.
We discovered quickly, however, that much of what made the existing Brainshark Player feel outdated was tied to behaviors, and not just visual design.
Knowing that our ideal Brainshark Player redesign would involve new behaviors and UX patterns, I created a reimagined version of the Brainshark Player, which introduced new layout conventions inspired by contemporary learning platforms to enhance hierarchy and user experience.
With the resources and support we had on hand, however, it wouldn’t be possible to make these updates while still retaining support for legacy presentations.
As a high impact yet feasible approach, I created a balanced version of the Brainshark Player, which refines the original layout with strategic updates to high-value areas, blending the best elements of the reskin and future-forward approaches.
We ultimately chose this approach, making targeted improvements to ensure the player felt modern while retaining familiar usability.
Impact and reflection
The redesigned player has been very well-received internally, with positive feedback on its updated appearance and improved usability. Early customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
This project reinforced the importance of careful planning in the design phase, especially when working with legacy products. By taking the time to fully understand the existing system, we were able to create a design that modernized the player without compromising its functionality.
The redesigned Brainshark Player leveraged the Bigtincan Design System to ensure visual consistency with the rest of the Bigtincan platform.