Netflix
NETFLIX WITH NEW SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT FEATURE
⸻
Integrated social media application that allows friends & family to recommend & share content.
ROLE
User Research
Visual Design
User Testing
User Accessibility & Experience
TOOLS
Figma + FigJam
Google Forms
Webflow
Zoom
⸻ Problem
Up until this point, Netflix has not implemented any social features that allow users to connect with each other in the mobile application.
Social engagement within applications drives competition, excitement, and higher user satisfaction. Netflix lacks various social features such as rating systems, adding friends, and sharing content.
⸻ Solution
Introducing the new Netflix.
The video streaming market is large and competition is intense. Implementing a social system within Netflix may drive increased profile creation, time streaming, and application usage.
Add Friends
Add your friends on the new Netflix application. Each profile is given a username where you can add and remove friends as you please.
Share Content with Friends
Have a piece of content you wanna share with your friends? Now you are able to share your favorite or hilariously bad films directly within the application.
View Friends Activity
See what your friends have watched and what rating they gave it. Next time you do not know what to watch, you can gain some inspiration from your friends.
⸻ Research Overview
We want to know what users look for when connecting with friends on Netflix, so that we can design the best features and flows that blend seamlessly into Netflix's existing UI.
Before diving into designing, it is important to set the right foundation through thoughtful research. In my research, I will be looking into understanding user pain points, needs, and goals when it comes to utilizing a social engagement feature on a video streaming platform.
Before jumping in, I created a Research Plan to organize my process.
METHODOLOGIES:
1. Secondary Research + Competitive Analysis
2. Survey
3. User Interviews
ASSUMPTIONS/RISKS:
CLICK TO VIEW FULL RESEARCH PLAN⸻ Competitive Analysis
The video streaming market is extremely competitive.
There are many streaming services that flood the market. Many of those include YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO Max, Peacock, etc.
The market is incredibly competitive and streaming services differentiate themselves by creating original/exclusive content, offering additional perks with other services, etc. Ultimately, Netflix holds the most amount of subscriptions currently.
I created a table to compare popular features across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and HBO Max to cover all bases.
FINDINGS:
✦ Top streaming platforms lack a social engagement feature, except for Amazon Prime Video which allows users to rate content.
✦ Netflix is the top streaming video company with 230.7 million subscriptions and 31.8 billion in revenue.
CLICK TO VIEW FULL COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS⸻ Project Goals
Organizing user and business goals to set the foundation for a successful platform update.
By organizing both business and user goals we see the alignment between customer satisfaction, platform success, and a successful result.
⸻ Surveys
Laying out a solid foundation for solutions.
To test my hypothesis and build a better understanding about what social features Netflix users prefer, I administered a survey with 20+ responses.
SUCCESS METRICS:
✦ At least 50% of survery participants agree on one type of social feature to implement.
FINDINGS:
✦ 60% of users find new content by searching on their own, 35% of users find new content through word of mouth.
✦ 50% of users said a good social feature to implement is to be able to see what friends are watching, 20% said they would like to have a rating system implemented.
✦ 50% of users watch content a couple times a week, 20% of users watch content every day.
CLICK TO VIEW SURVEY⸻ User Research
Diving deeper into the research
After analyzing the survey results, I wanted to gain insight on how to best implement the social feature into the Netflix mobile application.
INTERVIEWS:
✦ Remotely on Zoom
✦ 4 participants
✦ Age range from 21-46 years old
Based on the research, I decided to design a social engagement feature that allows users to add friends, view friends activity, and share content with one another on the platform.
I went on to synthesize my interview results on an Affinity Map. Here I extracted key details from the user interviews to gain a better understanding of the commonalities and differences between the users to inspire the best design decisions.
Affinity Map:
FINDINGS:
✦ 4/4 users say that finding new content on Netflix is frustrating and that they rely on friends or social media to find new content.
✦ 3/4 users watch on their TV or phone
✦ 4/4 users share content through word of mouth or social media.
✦ 4/4 users believe that a social engagement feature embedded into the platform would help them find new content that they would enjoy and share with others.
⸻ Define
Empathizing with the Netflix user.
Taking all the information I have learned about the Netflix user’s needs, goals, and pain points, I decided to create an empathy map to better outline their thought process and actions when looking for new content to watch.
EMPATHY MAP:
⸻ Personas
Personas highlight the user's goals, pain points, and needs to represent our most important user group.
Let's meet Jane. She loves streaming content on Netflix and discussing it with her friends & family.
⸻ Ideate
How do we make finding new content to watch on Netflix easier for users?
✦ Sharing content with friends on the application
✦ Seeing friends streaming activity
✦ Rate content that you have watched
Structure Content
After determining the most important features, I created a sitemap to define the overall content structure of the Netflix application and make sure it aligns with the original design.
Sitemap:
Flows:
I mapped out some flows on how the user would interact with the Netflix application to accomplish 3 different tasks. This allows us to gain insight to the Netflix user’s thought process interaction with the new feature.
These flows we will later test with participants to confirm our design decisions.
User Flows:
⸻ Wireframes
Setting the foundation
After some sketching, I built Low-Fidelity Wireframes to start getting a grasp on my platform design.
I created a home, share, friend activity, shared by friends, and a profile screen.
I took my lo-fi wireframes and flows and created my hi-fi wireframes.
My final designs showcase a new social engagement feature that allows users to add friends, share content, rate content, and see friend’s activity.
I utilized Netflix’s UI Kit to make sure my new additions blend seamlessly to the rest of the set design.
⸻ Prototyping
Once my design is finalized, it is now time to prototype my flows so that I can conduct usability testing and make adjustments as necessary.
It came time to testing my design decisions regarding the new Netflix mobile app. I prototyped my final design and I set out to conduct usability testing.
CLICK TO VIEW PROTOTYPE⸻ Usability Testing
I conducted timed usability tests with 3 participants who were asked to complete 3 task flows.
TASK FLOWS:
✦ Viewing your “Friends Activity” and then adding a movie to your “My List”.
✦ Going to your “Profile”, viewing your “My ratings” and then sharing a movie with a friend.
✦ Looking at what your friends have shared and then clearing your feed.
CLICK TO VIEW FULL TESTING PLANRESULTS:
FINDINGS:
Prioritizing feedback is crucial, especially since we cannot apply all iterations.
I used a matrix to organize feedback based on what worked, what to change, questions, and ideas to consider for later.
I made notes for what worked, what should be changed, ideas for future iterations, and any questions my users may have had.
⸻ Iterations
2 significant iterations were made after receiving user feedback.
Using the Matrix I created from usability testing I determined the severity and necessity of the changes I could make with my design. It is important to prioritize which changes are most important, since I cannot apply all suggestions.
✦ Users expect consistent terminology across pages for the same idea.
✦ To address this I changed the term “recommended” to “shared” across all screens
✦ Users expressed desire to select individual items
✦ To address this I created Select options with confirmation so users can Select All, Deselect All, Delete, or Cancel their selection.
⸻ Final Design
Guidelines for accessible & consistent UI design throughout platform.
Design systems are necessary for a consistent and accessible user experience. I utilized a community Netflix UI Kit to set the basis of my UI Design. It is crucial to design with the original UI Kit in mind.
Below are some of the components utilized throughout the Netflix mobile application.
⸻ Learnings
Implementing new features into existing UI.
I learned a lot about utilizing community UI Kits and how to incorporate them into my own designs. I used a lot of what I learned from previous projects in this one. I see myself improving with each project and that is really exciting to see.
Key Takeaways
✦ Users love sharing content and messaging with friends.
✦ Organization is essential for efficient prototyping.
✦ Understand the platforms UI Kit and make sure you are considering it in every step of your design.
✦ Prioritization is key when iterating.
✦ There are many ideas that we can implement, but it is important to remain focused and make the most important changes first.
