Disney+ Launching New Navigation & UX Design
To coincide with the global launch of Hulu on Disney+ on October 8, 2025, where it will replace the Star hub in many countries worldwide, Disney+ is undergoing a major overhaul.
This overhaul is happening in preparation for a fully integrated, unified app experience of Disney+ and Hulu in the United States next year. Users will begin to see further integrations of Hulu across the Disney+ app as part of an ongoing and iterative slate of product updates on the homepage and beyond. This includes a series of design and navigation enhancements rolling out over the coming weeks and months — offering a more dynamic and intuitive experience.
In the past week, we’ve seen Disney+ go through some design tweaks, as the front page has shifted from horizontal rectangles, to vertical rectangles.
Disney has revealed an early look at some of the changes coming to Disney+, though it’s unclear if all of these features will be implemented globally, or if some of these may just remain available in the United States, as currently, the Streams function is only available in the US and ESPN On Disney+ hasn’t fully launched in some countries like the UK.
Simpler Navigation and UX Design
Making the user experience more intuitive – A new navigation bar has been added to the top of the homepage. The “For You” tab is the first screen subscribers will see when they click into Disney+. It’s the new homebase for recommended viewing, powered by an updated algorithm that learns user preferences over time. There are also tabs for Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN, depending on the user’s subscription, making it easier to explore each catalogue individually.
The Live hub in the main vertical navigation takes you straight into the latest live news, sports, and events, as well as their 24/7 Streams.
Disney is also adding new badging tags like “Season Finale,” “New Series,” and “New Movie” to show what’s unique and timely right now.
More Personalised Recommendations
Helping users easily get to the content they want and discover the content that is most relevant to them
Disney has been hard at work behind the scenes to evolve and advance our personalised video algorithm that will learn and improve over time. This will power Disney’s recommendation and personalisation engine for the content they surface to users across all touchpoints on the platform, especially in the all-new “For You” tab.
To ensure users are watching in their own profile, Disney will make Profiles more prominent across the UI. From here, users will find titles personally recommended for them based on their unique viewing habits.
More Dynamic and Visual Homepage
A more modern design that brings their characters and stories front and centre. The new design is more modern and intuitive, so users can find and discover the characters and stories they love. This includes a new video display in the Hero carousel and a more dynamic brand row, showcasing the latest titles from each brand. Disney has also updated their content sets to showcase more cinematic poster-style artwork.
While several of these design updates will apply across living room screens, Disney is also going to be making some differences to the mobile experience, as widgets are launching on iOS, which will add another front door to take users directly into Disney’s programming with one click. And in the year ahead, Disney+ will be introducing mobile-first and mobile-exclusive experiences that will expand the app’s reach and engage with new audiences.
There will be more additional updates planned in the lead-up to the launch of a unified app experience of Hulu and Disney+ in 2026. The Disney+ app may require updating on your device to get access to the new design features when they are rolled out.
Roger’s Take: It’s been a long time coming, as the general design of the Disney+ interface has been the same for a while, but with the rebranding of Star to Hulu globally, it makes it much easier for Disney+ to incorporate the changes globally. Although I suspect international users might have a slightly different experience than those in the US. It’ll probably take a while for us to get used to the new look, but eventually, we’ll get used to it.
For me, the personalisation of the home page is one of the most important changes to Disney+, since it lacks the depth that we see on other platforms like Netflix and YouTube, focusing on what you’re interested in, rather than a generic option.
What do you think of these new changes? Let me know on social media!
