media distribution · VHX · 2015–2016

Monetization tools for
independent creators.

Designing VHX's direct-to-consumer video tools, focused on payment flows, checkout, and audience management. The goal was giving independent filmmakers and creators the infrastructure to sell directly to their fans and run their own streaming channels.

My role: Senior Product Designer · Scope: Checkout, payment flows, customer dashboard & subscriber management · Outcome: Acquired by Vimeo

0→1

Direct-to-fan commerce

Acquired

by Vimeo (2016)

100s

of indie releases

OTT

Foundation for Vimeo OTT

The context

Direct-to-consumer video before OTT had a playbook.

In 2015, independent filmmakers and creators were trapped between YouTube ad-splits and punitive distributor cuts. VHX built the alternative: a white-label platform where creators owned their customer relationships, pricing, and recurring revenue.

The checkout problem

Buying digital video online was historically clunky — forced account registrations, confusing DRM apps, and checkout flows built for physical goods. We needed a frictionless payment experience that converted fans in seconds without making them feel like they were leaving the creator's world.

Subscription complexity

Creators wanted both transactional sales (rent or buy) and recurring monthly subscriptions. Designing checkout states, promo code logic, and cross-device entitlements across web, mobile, and emerging living-room devices required unified data models and simple, transparent UI.

The design

Frictionless checkout & clean transaction flows.

We stripped the checkout flow down to its essentials: price clarity, instant payment options, and immediate access to video playback on any screen.

VHX checkout and payment interface design

VHX modal checkout & payment flow · Web interface Click to enlarge ↗

Brand-first trust

Fans arrived to support a specific creator, not VHX. The modal preserved the creator's context while establishing payment security, clean pricing breakdowns, and immediate one-click purchase capabilities.

Cross-device entitlement

Once a fan completed purchase, their access immediately synced to their account so they could start watching on their laptop and finish on their living-room TV app without entering card details again.

Outcome & impact

From Brooklyn startup to Vimeo's enterprise backbone.

In May 2016, Vimeo acquired VHX to establish its direct-to-consumer and enterprise OTT business. The monetization mechanics, checkout patterns, and creator subscriber portals we built here became the architectural backbone of Vimeo OTT for the next decade.

What worked

Treating monetization as a user-experience problem rather than pure transaction plumbing. By focusing on conversion velocity and instant playback, we proved that fans would happily pay creators directly when the UX wasn't painful.

The through-line

The payment flows, paywall structures, and customer entitlement logic designed at VHX directly transitioned into the Vimeo OTT platform, where they scaled to support thousands of creator channels and hundreds of millions in creator payouts.

Monetization tools forindependent creators.