The "Spotify" of streaming videos, this app shapes the streaming video experience through community.
What do you do after binging through all your favorite shows? What do you watch next? As a cord-cutting couch potato, this dilemma feels like more work than necessary to solve when I’m subscribed to more than one streaming service–Netflix, Hulu and HBONow. There must be an easier way!
Thinking that there must be an easier way, I sought out people like me to design a solution concept. I interviewed five streaming service users and observed a few of their journeys to finding a watch worthy video. Turns out, there are pain points that need addressing, and I wasn’t the only one who felt them.
With all the apps out there, there must be one that allows searching/browsing content across multiple streaming services. Right? Actually, they do exist. But surprisingly, not one of the 20+ people I surveyed knew about the two or three apps available. So where is the disconnect?
After sampling these existing apps, I noticed that they are primarily or singularly focused on aggregating content. They feel basic, like it’s not personable enough to have a memorable experience. I honestly forget that I even have the apps installed on my phone when looking for something to watch. My research hinted at more that can be done to onboard users and, more importantly, spark delight.
To find out what that was, Issa emerged from my research data–aka my persona. She is the foundation that my design is built on.
Getting to know Issa helped me lay out the best path to lead her to her streaming destination–in the form of a user flow. As a baseline, I wanted to understand the high-level approach and determine what areas of the application I needed to create in the first pass.
Establishing the flow gave me direction for sketching out potential solutions in a visual way. It raised questions about the user flow that I hadn’t considered as well as possible constraints. Once I started feeling lost in knowing how to proceed, I shared my drafted flow and sketches with potential users. The insights received helped keep the design process on track, and the wireframe became clearer with each iteration.
With a sketch that users responded well to, it was time to digitalize the wireframe to further clarify how the interactions would play out. But when faced with the design on screen, I realized I needed to learn about the constraints and best practices unique to mobile devices. This pause gave light to a fresh design perspective on how to balance user needs within technological constraints. After many more user-guided iterations, I had a wireframe that I could work with on adding visual details to.
I kept the visual design of the application fairly simple to avoid overload from visually heavy video thumbnails.
With all the work laid out–vis-a-vie user flows, sketches and digital wireframe–building the prototype felt less daunting and more efficient. Each step of the design process required several iterations, and this was no different. I could have gone deeper into every single feature and added more, even. But in the end, I’m happy with the result for this first prototype.
Based on my research, just simplifying the streaming video process by aggregating content from multiple services wasn’t enough. For many, it wasn’t a memorable experience that is top of mind before opening the Netflix app. But, after learning about users’ experiences and motivations, a social layer added to an aggregating application can generate a bit more interest and activity. It’s what makes Spotify so engaging.
Another feature designed to help users digest the overwhelming number of options at hand is by prioritizing social ratings along side video thumbnails. This is a feature that is sorely lacking in the user experience of existing streaming services. Through my research, it proved to be an important factor that enhances the user's decision making process. These and other little design considerations turned out to be the little sparks of delight my primary audience enjoyed and tells me that the product concept is Watch Worthy.
Starting this first major project felt daunting, but exciting. Knowing that my target users would use this solution makes me proud of the work I’ve accomplished. Although the project took longer than I expected–undoubtedly a result of trial and error–I learned a lot about myself and what it means to be a great designer. If I had to summarize my learnings, my top takeaways are:
The hard work it takes to design a product is admirable. As my mentor and other UX designers before me have mentioned, “Design is messy”. Understanding this facet of design is one of the things I love about UX design–I get to tidy up the mess and find solutions that spark delight.
