One variation of a method includes: rendering a home screen of an ad stream viewed on a display of a streaming device accessed by a user, the home screen including an image player located in a first subregion of the home screen and a set of icons selectable by the user, each icon corresponding to a video advertisement loaded within the image player; in response to detecting a first user input proximal a first icon, reconfiguring the image player to a second subregion of the home screen and triggering playback of a first video advertisement within the image player; and, during playback of the first video advertisement, in response to receiving a second user input proximal the first icon, reconfiguring the image player to a third subregion of the home screen, activating an audio stream corresponding to the first video advertisement, and continuing playback of the first video advertisement.