SPOT UX: Problem Solving For Film Streaming
This is SPOT
SPOT isn’t a real service. It’s born from a mock brief from www.goodbrief.io
Here’s what I got from goodbrief:
We are SPOT, a company that inspires new ways to stream movies by combining big ideas with ease of use. Our main product is an app that impliments new creative technologies. Our target audience are millenials. We want to convey a sense of bravery, while at the same time being down to earth.
This is a follow up to a project from a few weeks ago, where I built the logo and made a colour scheme for the brand. Check that out here.
Set Up
First, I made a quick user persona, someone I could view my UX process through and make sure the decisions I made would help. The target audience in the brief was quite vague so I’m didn’t want to be super specific with my persona.
Meet Jeff
He’s a 28-year-old finance professional. He works big days Monday-Thursday and a half-day on Friday. During the week he likes to come home, loosen his tie, make some dinner (or get takeout), and watch a movie. On the weekends he’s off catching up with friends, but sometimes his girlfriend comes over for popcorn and a movie night in.
Jeff's User Journey- His Happy Path
This is going to be a really basic overview of the SPOT system, so I’m not going to dig too deep into registration, logins, etc. For the sake of this case study, let’s say Jeff has already registered and his notebook has his login details stored. He opens SPOT right to the browse page.
What is his ideal user journey? Our objective is to get him to sit down and watch a film. As I go on to explore some of the problems Jeff might experience, I’ll elaborate on his user journey a bit further.
Research
Before I started sketching my wireframes, I mocked up black and white wireframes of the landing pages for Netflix and YouTube. These are the two biggest streaming platforms right now- both stream movies and specialise in other content as well (TV shows, short series, cat videos). I wanted to get a feel for what common elements they shared and how users are interacting with these platforms.
Browsing for videos works similarly in each. Covers are displayed in a box with the title underneath or incorporated into the image. There are occasionally hero images/films on Netflix that span the whole width of the screen.
One thing I noticed about both services was the amount of clutter in their menu bars- there are a tonne of ways to browse films on Netflix but most of these buttons are quite ambiguous and users might not use most of them regularly. As a regular YouTube user I was surprised when I tallied up 5/9 buttons I’ve never touched on the main page- with only 3 of them being buttons I’ve used in the past 3 months.
While YouTube has an unlimited downward scroll, Netflix offers a large but limited amount of categories, with an unlimited horizontal carousel in their categories.
Netflix’s never-ending carousel and YouTube’s infinite downward refresh. Both services are cluttered with lots of buttons most users will rarely touch.
Objective
I wanted to make the UX for SPOT as simple as possible. The brief told us the platform is bold and approachable, so I didn’t want too many options and buttons immediately visible. When Jeff comes home from work he wants to put his feet up, open SPOT, and start watching, so the service should be simply designed for ease of use.
Here’s a familiar scenario- you open up your favourite streaming service after work and scroll through films trying to pick something to watch. There are lots of great choices, a few of these look really promising, maybe you’ll start a new series…
…soon you’ve spent 15-20 minutes browsing titles. You could have spent that time watching a movie!
Endless scroll is fine on Instagram or Facebook, the point of these apps is to suck you in. But this is a movie service, the fun isn’t the scrolling, it’s the watching!
This is the first problem I set out to solve for Jeff with SPOT. We want to get our users to the best part of our app right away. How can we help them narrow down choices and pick a movie to watch ASAP?
I added another box to Jeff’s user journey at this point. Something I want to help him avoid- the endless scroll.
(gif credit: Augusto Zambonato, via GIFY)
The Big Problem: Decision Fatigue
One of the biggest drawbacks to Netflix and YouTube is the decision fatigue you can experience using the platforms. There are so many options! It’s easy enough to decide which 3-4 minute YouTube video to watch, but as the commitment increases to 1-2 hours on movie streaming platforms it’s increasingly more difficult to make a choice about how you want to invest your time. Users can find themselves compelled to explore all the choices and end up feeling overwhelmed.
Typically, on Netflix there are 15-24 films on your screen at a time, depending on the device you’re using. The scroll isn’t quite infinite going downward, but it is when you scroll horizontally- there is a carousel of films that you might flip through multiple times before realising you’re looking at the same options over and over again.
Side Note- Netflix employs its abundance of choice to prove the value of its platform to users. More choice makes you ultra-competitive in the video streaming space. There should be other ways for SPOT to communicate its competitiveness without detracting from the experience of the users.
When Jeff opens up Netflix after a day of work, his brain is exhausted. When faced with an abundance of films, it’s hard to compare all of them at once and remember everything on the screen. This is compounded by the fact that he uses video streaming as a way to unplug after a big day- it’s the activity he turns to when he’s tired!
Decision Fatigue- Solutions
Limiting visible cards
To help Jeff along, I decided to limit the SPOT landing page to 6-12 covers at a time- with more of an emphasis on filters so he can pin down what he is in the mood to watch. This will reduce the abundance of choices that could distract him, helping him pick his movie faster.
Filters
I mentioned I wanted to put more of an emphasis on filters right? While I won’t distract him right away with filters I wanted an easy to hide, easy to use filter component to the landing page. In addition to this, the first set of cards users should see as they leave their initial 6-12 suggestions should be suggested filters prompting them to narrow down their search criteria right away- before they start a mind-numbing infinite scroll.
The filters themselves can be built quite extensively- from the big and frequently used genre filter, down to microfilters like director, film era, actor, even original language. The more specific users can be about their taste in films, the easier it will be to narrow down options.
Algorithms
There is a lot to learn about Algorithms.
Most streaming platforms use powerful algorithms to suggest titles that users might like, but some recommendations can fall a little flat.
There are lots of reasons that this can happen, but let’s talk about three big ones and how film streaming services could learn a bit from the music streaming world.
#1 Granularity of Recommendations
Take a look at at the three below historical TV shows recommended by Netflix. Which one is not like the others?
They are all historical shows, in a technical sense- but El Chapo is similar to That 70’s Show like The Eagles are to AC/DC- both Rock and Roll but completely different genres.
Spotify is the king when it comes to their algorithm, and a part of that comes down to how granular their genres get. Look at how Blues is broken down into “Soulblues”, “Southern Soul”, “Motown” and half a dozen more.
By meticulously breaking down film genres, SPOT could gain an edge when recommending similar films to users.
#2 Spikes in Usage
Have you ever heard of Steven Crowder? He’s a right-wing political commentator, former Fox News contributor, and host of controversial shows like Louder with Crowder- which has since been removed from YouTube. rationalwiki.org describes him as “a professional asshole”.
In 2018, I watched a few of Crowder’s popular “Change My Mind” videos- not out of actual interest, but to understand what the meme was about.
For months following this, I was recommended politically right wing videos on YouTube from Fox News, Jordan Peterson, Rush Limbaugh, etc. You might not know me, but that’s not exactly the kind of thing I’m interested in- I like mountainbike videos.
The problem? YouTubes algorithm registered a spike in usage as a spike in interest and thought I might want more videos about the topic. Have you ever watched a video on unclogging your sink and been suggested videos about kitchen renovations for weeks after? Same idea.
Spotify, on the other hand, knows that just because you played a Carly Rae Jepsen song at a house party, doesn’t mean you’re a fan. Their algorithm looks for sustained interest before suggesting similar music.
We can learn a bit from Spotify here too. The SPOT algorithm should look for trends in usage- one horror film might only be a taster and if you don’t watch another maybe you aren’t big on the genre.
Remember when we met Jeff? We mentioned he watched films with his girlfriend on the weekends. I wonder if they watch different films than what he watches alone after work? The two of them could make multiple accounts so recommendations don’t get mixed up- but could our algorithm also take note of when he watches certain films?
#3 Predicting Preferences (What makes Spotify better than Netflix)
The daily mixes are great and work on a similar algorithm, but the key to Spotify? It’s their Discover Weekly, a weekly playlist of 30 songs that seem to be perfectly tuned to what you like. It sets them apart from all the other music streaming services. But how does Spotify do it? With a whole lot of data.
Spotify looks at the music you listen to consistently, the music you like, and the music you put into playlists. It then combs through other users music preference and finds people just like you (or at least very close). They look at their music, and find songs that you haven’t listened to yet.
This lets them narrow down on indie tunes from the other side of the world that just gel with your music tastes.
How can our service, SPOT, take a page from Spotify’s playbook?
It’s not enough to look at the films you’ve watched, Spotify is looking at songs you have on repeat, but there are very few films that you watch more than a few times in a year right?
SPOT needs to find creative ways to figure out what users watched and enjoyed, and compare the films to what other users watch and enjoy. This could be non-invasively asking for feedback after a film is over, emailing users a few days after they’ve watched a film to ask for a review, or by keeping an eye on the films users share with friends.
We can’t expect to get as much data as Spotify gets- you might listen to 15-20 songs in an hour, but on a big day probably wont watch more than 3 films. But by being more aware and proactively seeking data we can build a better algorithm for our users.
Wireframing SPOT's Homepage
You sat through all my rationale and it’s time to see what SPOT actually looks like.
If you’re not super interested in UX, I have some bummer news for you- I haven’t done any hi-fidelity mockups (yet). But if you want some black and white wireframes, scroll on!
I’m still in the process of working through my mobile wireframes for SPOT, but hold tight, they’re coming soon!
Wireframe Requirements
Before I put pencil to paper, I came up with 5 requirements.
- 6-12 films on display
- Collapsible filters pane/button
- User/settings Button
- Search Bar
- Logo
And go!
I made 4 separate sketches and wound up settling on one with a simple header pane, 3 column grid for covers, and a collapsible filter pane on the left.
Happy with these, I took them into Adobe Illustrator and made a B&W wireframe for the landing page. I also added in an applied filters bar to show which filters the user is using while browsing.
Additionally, once filters are applied the browse screen could show a highlighted suggestion or genre-defining image spanning the entire first row. Hero images can be made for certain genres, actors, eras, etc. This will narrow down the number of films on display and maybe point to an ideal choice for the user- making their final decision easier.
fig 1.
I considered putting a hero image or highlighted suggestion on the landing page, before any filters are applied. This is something other streaming services are already using a lot- however, they have a lot more titles on display already. I feel like because we have such a narrowed down selection it might be best to leave the hero image or suggestion off. When the product launches and we’ve gathered more algorithm data we could start experimenting with the effectiveness of this.
fig 3.
While doing my research I learned that users will typically go back to where they first found an option to modify it (citation lost, unfortunately). To accommodate for this, I’ve allowed users to remove filters both from their filter bar, and their collapsible sidebar.
fig 2.
While the range of available filters are a key part of the user experience, the algorithm and suggested filters are our big players. This is why I chose to hide the rest of the filters behind this hamburger menu. Curious users might find them, but they aren’t essential to be discovered.
fig 4.
Hero images show up here once filters are applied. This can be either a “top pick” film, more information about an actor/genre, or just a nice photo to take up space. It makes the library more approachable, and eliminates the daunting wall of films to chose from.
But where are the movie details?
To limit distractions and simplify the aesthetic, users will see more crucial information about films while hovering over covers. To make this more intuitive, film boxes should expand when hovered over. This is less practical on mobile, so key information will be stored under the film box here.
Happy Paths- A Final Overview of Jeff's User Journey
Now that I’ve defined how the system should work to get Jeff to his film, I decided to revisit his user journey. Since I’m not exploring sign up procedure, user settings, or other menu items here it’s a pretty simple trip for Jeff. My hope is that the filters, algorithm, and simple UX help deliver him to his destination quickly.
BONUS: Problem 2- The Viewing Experience/Cinema Mode
Problem 1 was more critical- getting our end user to their final selection faster. Once SPOT has made the decision-making process as easy as possible we can start making the viewing process more enjoyable.
The image on the left is how I imagine the viewing experience could work. Here I’ve housed some expanded information about the film, and a Back button to allow users to return to the browsing screen if they need to. When hovered over, the film window will house all the usual toggles, for full screen, captions, etc. but just below the screen I added an additional feature.
In a perfect world, users will choose a movie and watch it from start to finish in full-screen mode- but we know this is not the case. Multi-tab browsing allows millennial users like Jeff to pop back and forth from Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc. when the urge strikes. To accommodate this, and make the “SPOT Tab” more appealing when Jeff returns, I’ve added a cinema mode.
Because I want to give SPOT’s UI a brighter appearance than most streaming platforms, I wanted to give the users the option to apply a darker colour scheme to the page and dim the peripheral information. The end-user will still be able to tell they are using SPOT but will be less distracted by information not relevant to their current experience.
Thank You!
Hey! You made it to the end!
Thanks for reading everything, and I hope it brought you some kind of value! You’re probably wondering what to do next right?
Here is the conceptualisation of the SPOT Logo and Branding– it’s a shorter read I promise.
If you enjoyed this or hated it, please get in touch and let me know! If you have my email please, please send me some feedback! Otherwise, you can send me a Tweet or Instagram DM and I’ll get back to you very soon.
Looking for the Mobile wireframes? I’ve started sketching them but haven’t worked through them yet. I hope to have them online soon!
Posted 24/7/2020
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