Meg the Artist on Twitch

01 / OVERVIEW

Role

Visual Designer & Video Editor

Responsibilities

Strategy & Planning
UI Design
Illustration
Video Editing

Creating a cohesive and interactive space isn’t limited to creating on your own. Quite a few experiences have been previously created, all you need to do is make it your own.

Enticing visitors is primarily the expected outcome of making an about page on Twitch.tv. Using their predefined areas, I was able to make my own page on brand, enticing and exciting to look at, and personable. It makes people want to seek out my livestreams and stay for awhile.

02 / CONTEXT

Branding and Maintaining a Cohesive Look

My first idea was to create something fun and interactive but make it also very personal and portray my personality in a positive way. I first developed the idea of using illustration of our cats to introduce me and my gameplay. Then I developed the color scheme, panels, video cards, and animations.

Exploration of Video Editing Came Later…

My intention with creating this space was truly to explore what could entice visitors to my page to click the follow button and sign up for livestream alerts. Generally, it is the variety of games, the interactions and personality of the streamer, and an overall fun place to be for the visitor. I also wanted to ensure that the visitors had a way to see the streams later (well past the erase date that Twitch enforces.) So I began dutifully editing the streams and uploading them to YouTube. Where the brand cohesiveness continues!

03 / ART & TWITCH LAYOUT

Staying Within Twitch’s Defined Guidelines

While it is nice to have things well defined as far as basic layout, there are some areas where creativity is encouraged and helpful for incoming visitors. This can also be an area of exploration as to what keeps users engaged.

1. Development of Panel Headings

Understanding who I wanted to entice and encourage to attend my livestreams, I got to work on creating interesting panels. These panels were restricted to a certain size though, at 320 pixels wide. So the information needed to be concise and to the point. But I also wanted them to be whimsical and adhere to my established brand.

2. Development of Artwork and User Interactive Emojis

As a streamer, you are encouraged to create (or purchase via 3rd party artists,) user emojis that can be used during a livestream in the interactive chat. This gives you the opportunity to interact almost one on one with your visitors and encourage engagement. Staying on brand for my first set was incredibly important to me. Though it is also encouraged by the streaming community to enhance your streams with additional artist renderings. Especially as your popularity increases, it’s difficult to keep up with the vast amount allotted to you!

Why is This Artwork Important to the End User?

Is it important? In my mind it is, creating this artwork not only gives the visitor an idea of what your streams and participation could be like, it also allows for your personality to shine through. If a cohesive brand is created, it also makes it easier to implement new things or artwork in different channels. (Such as on YouTube or on a Facebook page.)

Most importantly, they can use your artwork to engage with your content on the spot during a livestream. Seeing your artwork fly through chat is pretty thrilling too! Seeing visitors actively use your content can also give you a sense of satisfaction at a job well done.

04 / EMOJIS

Creation of the First Set of Emojis for User Interaction

Creating the first set of emojis for use by the visiting user was quite fun. Not only do these visitors get the opportunity to use them in livestreams, they can also use them in other user streams. It’s a very small way to “advertise” the streamer to others in a way.

Emojis for user engagement is a pretty useful tool in gaining additional followers and even subscribers.

05 / VIDEO EDITING

Once the VODs are Ready, Video Editing Begins

After the stream is finished for the day or timeslot, and the VOD (Video on Demand) is ready, it can be downloaded. This allows me to download it, edit it within Creative Suite, and upload it to YouTube for folks who aren’t on Twitch, missed the livestream, or have stumbled upon my page there.

Here are a selection of different types of videos that I’ve created.

06 / MOBILE VIEW OF MY PANELS

Mockups Of How The App Looks On A Mobile Device

To fully see how my page would look on a mobile device I’ve included mockups on an iPhone here.

08 / RESULTS & OUTCOMES

What Was Learned

After Creating my Panels on Twitch…

While this is a personal and ongoing project, I have found that putting in the time and effort into this hobby has been helpful. Not only has it been helpful in furthering my understanding of what users and visitors are looking for, it has also increased participation and followers to my content on both Twitch and YouTube. My goals with this are to maintain my brand and possibly start earning a small income from this type of content creation.

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