Share your Reactions
Engage with your friends on your newest film obsession on your own time and make the most out of your viewing experience.
Engage with your friends on your newest film obsession on your own time and make the most out of your viewing experience.
Self-directed with feedback from mentors and peers
Market Research
Competitive Analysis
User Interviews
Personas
Brainstorm
Task Flows
Low Fidelity Wireframes
UI Components
High Fidelity Wireframes
Findings
Iterations
"Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter, and nearly one million in the second." — New York Times
Netflix is aware that password sharing has been a way for more users to watch without having to pay, therefore, they began to announce implementing a new policy to end password sharing. However, the outcome has been evidently negative from subscribers around the world.
"Netflix has said that it will put an end to [password sharing] starting in 2023, asking people who share accounts to pay to do so." — The Wall Street Journal
Implementing personal profiles for each user where users can connect with other profiles so as not to “worry about alienating consumers.”
In order to pursue implementing a new feature, I explored three options that are currently available for users who are interested in viewing other people's reactions.
Design a feature that will make it easier and feel more personalized for users to view their friends reactions to their anticipated tv shows/films that also works best with their schedule.
I conducted 5 interviews with participants who are familiar with Netflix. After discovering what opportunities there are from the competitive analysis, the interviews focused on understanding how user's currently engage with tv shows/films and their experience with reviews.
Friends often influence what they’re watching & the connection enhances their viewing experience.
However, moments of ‘bonding’ and enjoying their friends' reactions don’t happen often.
"I don’t feel the need to share my opinions with the world, but I’m interested to hear what my friends are saying." — Interview Participant
Finding reactions on social media makes them feel part of a community.
However, they’re more comfortable sharing their own opinions in private with friends.
"I text my friends or family [to share reactions]...unless I think it deserves a bigger audience then I’ll go to social media." — Interview Participant
When users are alone they are able to watch what they want and react with more freedom.
Therefore, we can explore options for users who aren’t interested in watching with others.
"I prefer watching alone because I can do whatever I want instead of having conversations and I feel like I can be more myself." — Interview Participant
Based on the user interviews, I'm able to create two distinct personas that capture their needs and pain points that will help guide me to appropriate potential solutions.
Based on the user findings, my feature can't be focused solely on creating personal profiles. To create a robust feature that prioritizes my user's goals, I will instead work with the assumption that personal profiles already exist on Netflix and explore ideas within that scope.
I posed this question after considering my persona's needs and pain points, by doing so I'm able to come up with potential solutions. Ultimately, I landed on two solutions that will allow users to have the choice to watch what they want in private or with their friends and have the ability to view, react, and connect.
By having a 'social channel' exist in a separate section on Netflix, it opens up the opportunity to explore more potential features within that section to meet future business goals.
Thinking back to my persona's needs and pain points, I prioritized using 3 tasks that will capture the functionality and purpose of the feature's. Each task uses a specific path which will lay the ground work for understanding what areas of the design is or isn't working with it's intended purpose.
Scenario: You see the new feature on Netflix and want to add a series to your social channel for your friends to see.
Scenario: You want to find and start a movie and share a picture of your reaction to a scene in the movie.
Scenario: You just finished a movie and want to share your thoughts for your friends to see.
With the 3 tasks I've developed, I feel as though they're too simple. What about solving the other problem's my user's bought up in our interviews? Referring back to my persona's, I recognize that I've prioritized creating a solution for each of their goals. With that in mind, I make sure to keep a clear picture of what the design should be solving rather than what I believe is enough.
Considering the existing branding on Netflix, I chose to rename 'social channel' to 'community' as a way to create a more seamless integration with the current style and terminology.
I want to include as many different choices for users to react that aren't available on other platforms, most notably the ability to camera react. However, do users want to use a camera to react? How would it feel to have to use a camera? I'll keep these questions in mind as I move on to testing.
I conducted the test with 5 participants who are frequent Netflix users. The good news, there was a high completion rate with over 80% of participants for each task. However, there is still room to improve.
4/5 users felt confused trying to find the button to add the series to their community which caused them to slip and choose the more info button instead. Once they recognized it wasn't the right step, they eventually found the community button.
“None of the buttons resonated when I was looking for the community page” — Interview Participant
In order to minimize user errors in the process of finding the community button, I've changed it to be visible upon hovering over the preview so that the options are immediately available.
Although users were prompted to add a camera reaction, 3/5 users expressed interest in seeing the text and emoji reactions when they viewed the options available.
“I would like to see what it would look like if I added text and emojis since I would use that more.” — Interview Participant
In order to cater to what users are more inclined to use, removing the camera reaction will make it easier for users to choose how to react.
In order for users to understand how the reactions will look once shared, adding examples will make it easier for users to choose how to react.
User unanimously agreed that adding the film to community on the final reaction page felt misplaced. 3/5 users also were unsure if the film was added to their community.
“The only critique I have is that sometimes it’s a little confusing how many times I had to click the checkmark.” — Interview Participant
In order for users to understand the process of completing the final reaction, improving the hierarchy will make it feel more intuitive to complete as well as a info guide to prompt the user on the logistics of submitting their review.
2/5 users indicated that at first they thought that the reactions were live and functioned similarly to a watch party but were able to understand the difference after completing the tasks.
In order for users to understand that the feature is not a live reaction feature, there will be a timestamp on user reactions.
In order for users to understand that the feature is not a live reaction feature, there will also be a reaction count instead of individualized icon colors in the progress bar.
I began this project with doubts that it was a worthy idea to pursue. An idea to implement a way to react to movies and tv shows just seemed too simple, just add the reactions and then you're done, right? Well I was sorely mistaken as time constraints closed in on me. I wanted to make sure that I was covering all the frustrations that each of my users brought up during my user interviews.
However, I learned that even with only 5 participants to cover, even that was a feat to attempt. I had to compartmentalize and prioritize the most common areas. With that, I feel more comfortable going forward knowing that this is what it's all about. No idea is too simple, especially when it comes to discovering what other people will see that I didn't.
Due to time constraints, I recognize that this project can be developed even further and in many other directions. It's part of why I feel so excited and passionate about this one (the other part is because I absolutely love Netflix, of course). In the meantime, these are the next steps in the project:
Conduct another usability test to confirm if my iterations are successful and understand what areas need further development.
Do users want to keep the camera reaction as an option?
Do users have a better understanding of how the feature differentiates from watch parties?
Explore future opportunities within the community page.
Do users like it the way that it is?
Do users want it to have more features? If so, what kind?