Redesigning Comhem Play

Brand and product transformation to compete in the streaming market.

Impact at a Glance

As Design Director, I led the redesign of Comhem Play—transforming it from a bundled TV add-on into a standalone streaming product.

In just 6 months, I:

• Defined a new brand vision, logo and design language

• Led a cross-functional team across 6 platforms

• Introduced a new design system and scaled the team

• Launched a redesigned purchase flow and Smart TV experience

• Helped position Comhem Play as the fastest growing streaming service in Sweden by summer 2020

Background

Comhem Play originally served as a companion service for Com Hem’s TV subscribers, offering time-shifted access to linear TV and recordings across devices. Visually and structurally, it reflected the Com Hem brand: light color schemes, familiar typography, and a strong link to TV subscriptions.

But by 2019, the strategy shifted. Comhem Play needed to stand on its own as a streaming-first, subscription-based product—competing with global players at an accessible price point.

My Role

I was brought in as Design Director, responsible for:

• Defining the brand and design strategy

• Creating directional concepts for logo, identity and product experience

• Leading staffing and planning for the design team

• Acting as a strategic partner to Marketing, TV Product and Tech

• Mentoring and reviewing design work across platforms

The Challenge

The redesign effort was ambitious. In just six months, we needed to:

• Create a new brand and identity

• Redesign the logged-in experience across 6 platforms

• Build a new web-based purchase flow

• Launch a Samsung Smart TV app

• Create a new design system

• Continue improving the existing Comhem Play service—all at the same time

Design Strategy

I defined a three-part design strategy to create alignment across teams and stakeholders:

1. Brand – What we stand for and how we’re perceived

2. Identity – How we express it visually

3. Product Design – How users experience it

We began with a creative kickoff involving Marketing, Product and Management to define our brand pillars: personality, tone of voice, benefits and positioning.

Brand & Logo Direction

I planned and facilitated the kickoff workshop with key management stakeholders to set the cornerstones for the brand: personality, tonality, benefits, position etc. After that I took some time to design different concept directions and started to explore colors, shapes, logo symbol, typography and the usual suspects. Regular checkins with our Marketing, Product Director and design team made progress smooth.

A big strategic decision were about the name itself: should we keep it or rename it? Many debates were between Complay and Comhem Play. After some discussions we landed in keeping the name Comhem Play but upgrade the looks and make it stand out more as a brand, still with a hint of origin. That’s why we landed in using the circles from the Com Hem logo, but modernise the colors and make them shape a triangle to be interpreted as a Play symbol.

Building the Team

After securing buy-in on direction, I staffed and onboarded the design team:

• 2 product designers (Fredrik Suter and Julius Andersson) – responsible for the logged-in experience across all platforms

• 1 UX designer (Sara Frank) – focused on the logged-out web experience and purchase flow

• 1 visual designer (Annelise Müller) – working on logo, identity, and brand assets

My role evolved into coach, design reviewer and strategic unblocker, helping the team stay on track and focused.

Product Design Process

We ran collaborative discovery workshops with product and tech to identify the most critical pain points in the existing product.

We then established a set of experience principles to guide all design decisions, such as:

• “Smart but human”

• “Inspire and guide”

• “Intuitive and smooth”

Designers worked with flexibility within this framework—exploring new interactions, testing early concepts with users, and continuously iterating.

Discovery & Delivery Mindset

I encouraged the team to keep a dual-track mindset—exploring ideas and testing hypotheses while still delivering value in the current product.

We worked iteratively with:

• Paper sketches

• Wireframes and UI mockups

• Motion prototypes

• Weekly feedback loops with users

Web & Purchase Flow

The UX Designer defined a new logged out experience with a functional purchase flow. My role was to coach and mentor the designer, letting her lead the process rather than me. Together with the Product Manager she facilitated workshops with key Engineering stakeholders to understand limitations and challenges.

The main challenge was to design a simplified purchase flow, without confusing the current Com Hem Play customers – who should still be able to use their service as before, but with the possibility of adding a new and more content. This was the biggest challenge from a flow perspective and many different versions were user tested before final version was decided.

Design System & Platforms

While exploring concepts, we also started building a design system in parallel, using it to align the visual and functional language across:

• Web

• iOS

• Android

• Apple TV

• Samsung Smart TV

• Android TV

The Samsung Smart TV app became a flagship showcase of how the design evolved from early direction to final delivery.

Results & Learnings 

The new purchase flow launched in beta in Dec 2019, with full rollout in Feb 2020

• User feedback directly influenced iterations post-launch

• The redesign helped position Comhem Play as the fastest growing streaming service in Sweden by mid-2020

Key learnings:

• Continuous user testing helped us make faster, better decisions

• We initially stripped too much information from the start page—user feedback helped us recalibrate

• Given more time, I would have explored more diverse directions for the branding expression—but the outcome was still something I’m proud of