CANAL+ ESCAPE
Background
Responding to the 2026 Canal+ D&AD brief, asking designers to 'invent a new way to experience entertainment' in the future. This project was in collaboration with Lauren Morley.
During idle time, including commuting, waiting around or micro moments in the day, mindless scrolling has become the default for entertainment on the go. Over 60% of the global online population now watches ‘swiping’ short-form video content. However, it has become a compulsive habit leading to mental exhaustion and brain fog causing a lack of focus.
Solution
Canal+ Escape is a new feature to view and discover entertainment, and redefines streaming on the go. The aim is save people from the emotional numbness of empty scrolling by replacing it with meaningful and enriching entertainment. It eliminates decision fatigue by simplifying options and provides high quality content that fits exactly in the time you have.
Research
The brief specified an audience of 18-35 year olds who are at the heart of the streaming market, however, the rise short form video content has changed viewing habits. Despite the benefits of watching TV making you feel more satisfied and calmer, young adults are favouring mindless scrolling as it doesn't require choice and fits seamlessly into any time slot without a fixed commitment.
Ideation
Our target users are individuals on the move, leading us to explore how we could transform the mobile streaming experience. The aim is to replace mindless scrolling with high-quality Canal+ content. To do this, we had to address the three main friction points: decision fatigue, impersonal recommendations, and the need for content that fits into short windows of time.
Solution
Canal+ Escape is a new context aware feature that redefines the typical algorithm for streaming on the go and gives users the best entertainment exactly when they need it. It's about simplifying options to make choosing easier but the unexpected twist is there will be no titles, thumbnails or description. The options are disguised as escape portals which are mood based visuals so users can make quick decisions based on intuition and feeling alone.
The escape portals encourages users to look beyond the surface, where they aren't picking a 'genre,' they are picking a 'cinematic mood' instead. By maintaining a minimal UI, the user doesn't feel overwhelmed by choice and draws focus to the content. The portal inspired visuals represents a metaphor for escapism and opens the door to high quality entertainment that they never would have discovered through traditional browsing.
Click through the Prototype:
https://www.figma.com/proto/Bq2UY8J7PffMvk39Ye571j/Canal--Escape?page-id=432%3A519&node-id=432-630&p=f&viewport=296%2C96%2C0.11&t=37uHbFiE6sjvl0ok-1&scaling=scale-down&content-scaling=fixed
