Deutsche Welle is known worldwide for news. When it explored a separate streaming experience for educational and learning videos, it asked Hureo to find out, before rollout, whether viewers would understand the new offer and find their way around it.

The challenge

Launching a new kind of product under a well-known brand cuts both ways. The brand brings trust, but it also brings expectations. DW needed to know:

  1. How viewers who regularly watch educational videos understand the streaming concept.
  2. Whether they recognise the streaming experience as separate from DW's news platform.
  3. Where navigation, labels and content categories get in the way of discovery.
  4. How branding and categorisation shape what viewers think the product is.

Our approach

  • Exploratory interviews first: how participants find and watch learning videos today, and what they expect from a platform like this.
  • Concept and usability testing: moderated sessions on iPhones, with participants completing real discovery and viewing tasks.
  • Two prototypes, side by side: each participant tested one of two design directions, so DW could compare them on the same tasks.
  • Long-form sessions: enough time to move from first impressions to detailed tasks in a single sitting.

What we found

  • The concept wasn't landing: unclear banners, navigation cues and missing video indicators meant many viewers didn't realise the streaming experience was separate from the news site.
  • The brand set expectations: viewers strongly associated DW with current affairs, so educational and non-news videos felt out of place without a clear reason.
  • Who made the content? Viewers weren't sure whether DW created or curated the videos, which affected trust.
  • Small cues, big friction: thumbnails without play icons, labels such as "Play" and "News", category arrows and "See all" links all caused hesitation.

Impact

The study gave DW clear direction on positioning, navigation, labelling and content hierarchy for the streaming homepage, and surfaced adoption risks early in design, when they were still cheap to fix.