The document outlines best practices for building Twitch extensions, including user interface and user experience (UI/UX) recommendations, discovery, and management strategies for both viewers and broadcasters. It shares performance stats indicating significant growth in extension usage since launch, with over 15 million devices reaching extensions. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of gathering feedback from users and providing tools to improve the broadcaster experience.

1. Best Practices for
Building Extensions

2. Introductions
#TwitchDevDay
Ryan Lubinski
Product Manager
Twitch Extensions
Twitch.tv/Diogee
Twitter.com/Ryan_Lubinski
Linkedin.com/in/RyanLubinski

3. Agenda
1. Background Information
• What are extensions?
• How are things going?
2. Best Practices – UI/UX
• Viewer-facing features
3. Best Practices – Discovery and Management
• Broadcaster-facing features
4. Q&A

4. Background Information

5. What are Twitch Extensions?

6. Extensions Launch
22 Extensions from 17 Developers
Launch 9/6/17

7. Twitch Extensions Performance
Stats as of 10/6
• Over 1,000 developers registered to create extensions
• 69 extensions released on Twitch (214% increase from launch)
• 18% of streamers broadcasting from PC had an extension active on 10/6
• Extensions have been seen by over 15 million devices on Twitch
• Viewers have interacted with extensions over 400 million times

8. Twitch Extensions Performance (continued)
Stats as of 10/6

9. Best Practice – Sources of Information
How do we know what works?
• Broadcasters
• Direct feedback from dozens of broadcasters across all spectrums of
audience size
• Developers
• Close partnership with the developers of the most adopted extensions
• Viewers
• Users communicating directly with us about the experience of using
extensions on Twitch

10. Best Practices for Extensions
UI/UX

11. Be aware of Twitch UI
Caution Areas UI Layering

12. Be aware of Twitch UI (continued)
Standard
Theater Mode

13. Provide visibility options
• Not all viewers want to interact, many come
just to watch
• Protect the integrity of the lean-back
viewing experience
• First line of defense: Only show extension
content on mouseover
• Other options: Easy to dismiss, easy to
hide, opt in to show

14. Showcase what you have
created to users (carefully)
• Not all users are familiar with the concept of
extensions yet
• Many do not know what may be interactive,
or what that interaction may do
• Subtly nudging discovery of your interactive
content will increase engagement
• Be sure to collect feedback from
broadcasters as you experiment

15. Let viewers customize
• Different viewers care about different
portions of content in a stream
• Underlying content location and priority
changes over time
• Providing viewers the ability to customize
the location and/or presentation of your
extension can save you UX & setup pain

16. Fail gracefully
• When operating at Twitch scale, things are
bound to go wrong
• Build smart failure handling into your
systems
• For video overlays – hide all extension
content if failure is detected
• For panels – display an actionable (or at
minimum, non-disruptive) error message

17. Best Practices for Extensions
Discovery & Management

18. Provide descriptive details pages

19. Make setting up your extension easy

20. Use all tools to improve
broadcaster experience
• The process of installing and managing
extensions is still new for many users
• Twitch has created tools to help you
shepherd your users in the right direction
• Utilize required configuration, required
broadcaster abilities to minimize opportunity
for user confusion and error

21. Take feedback well
Positive Constructive

22. Talk to Twitch
Dev.twitch.tv Forums
TwitchDev Server
Twitter Twitch.uservoice.com

23. Thank you

24. Q & A