The setup
Qube XP is the digital cinema server. It's the computer in the projection booth that decrypts movie files, builds show playlists, and sends everything to the projector. Projectionists use it daily to load movies, create shows, hit play, and monitor what's happening.
The interface was designed in 2005, during the early days of digital cinema in India. After that, engineers added features directly as needed with no design oversight. It functioned, but it had accumulated years of patchwork.
Understanding the users
I worked from two sources: years of accumulated user feedback that the product team had collected, and my own interviews with projectionists.
I also ran a competitive analysis to understand what other cinema server manufacturers offered, making sure the redesign wouldn't leave feature gaps.
The projectionists I spoke to ranged widely. Some were tech-comfortable operators managing multiple screens. Others were in their 60s, had been running projectors for decades, and had a very specific, physical relationship with the controls. I needed to serve both.
What I designed
Dark mode as default. The projection booth is dark. The old interface was a bright screen in a dim room. I made dark mode the foundation, not an option.
A dedicated system status panel. Projectionists need to know at a glance: is everything healthy? What's playing? How much time is left? I pulled this information out of buried menus and gave it a clear, always-visible home. This was one of the most appreciated changes.
Simplified show creation. Building a playlist was unnecessarily complex. I streamlined the flow and improved clarity at each step.
Automated format tags. Digital cinema files have complex names that encode format information. Projectionists were reading these manually. I added automatic tags that surface the format (2D, 3D, Atmos) without anyone parsing a filename.
Standardized navigation. After years of ad-hoc additions, workflows were inconsistent. I brought everything under a coherent navigation and interaction model.
The thing I missed
In the redesign, I replaced the old large play and stop buttons with a more "modern" control layout.
The feedback was immediate: "Where are our big buttons?"
I'd underestimated how important they were. For some projectionists, play and stop are literally the only controls they use all day. For older operators, the large touch targets weren't a preference. They were a necessity.
How I fixed it
I built a dedicated full-screen playback mode with oversized play and stop buttons. Simple, focused, impossible to miss. Projectionists who need the full interface can exit that mode. Projectionists who just need to start and stop shows get exactly what they need.
It was a good reminder: in a redesign, the things users don't mention are often the things they love most. You only hear about them when they're gone.
Results
- Redesigned interface deployed across 3,000+ screens in India
- Full-screen playback mode became the most-used feature among projectionists
- Dark mode and system status panel reduced booth errors during shows