Moovy: Direct to Consumer movie release
Introducing the millennial way of watching the newest movie releases — Moovy brings the theatre experience to your living room.
This is an elaborated design exploration I’ve put together to analyze the next generation of viewing experience.
Overview
Forget the hustle of trying to go to the movies. Enjoy the latest releases right from the comfort of your home.
Moovy is an app that delivers Direct to Consumer movie releases to watch at home.
Problem statement
Profits in Hollywood have dwindled as the DVD market suffers a horrible death.
Users are increasingly switching to streaming services than any others forms of video consumption.
Moovy initially aimed to digitally replicate RedBox — a DVD rental Kiosk —for college students, into a digital experience so that users can find a movie, rent/stream on the app and watch from the comfort of their homes.
Value proposition
With a built in “pay as you watch model” users can start the app when they are in the mood for a movie. Without a monthly subscription, the app help users save money.
Who is Moovy for?
Currently, RedBox is the only service that provides movie rentals for under $1 per movie. However, users have to suffer the inconvenience of traveling to a local kiosk to pick up or return a DVD.
When designing Moovy, college students, especially college students on a budget were the primary user segments. College is expensive, thus offering cheaper and more affordable ways to enjoy movies would be invaluable.
At least I thought….
User research led to a different conclusion. I uncovered a theme among students:
I have a Netflix account or Amazon prime account.
Further research led to a pivot where the design geared towards “moviegoers — people who watch movies in a theater — to deliver Direct to Consumer movie releases”
My findings are consistent with studies that suggest 92% of college students have access to Netflix. Another 64% of college students have Amazon prime accounts, which gives prime members exclusive privileges to Amazon’s video catalog of 18,000 movie titles and shows.
According to Variety, some of Hollywood's biggest studios are attempting to figure out Direct to Consumer movie release business models.
Solution Exploration
Constraints
One of the biggest constraints for users will be justifying the price per movie. According to Variety, studios would require users to pay between $30-$50 per movie. Would users pay $20/movie? $30/movie? $40/movie? $50/movie?
This might be a very lucrative deal for families who would otherwise spend more at a theatre. (For example, a family of 4 at $12/ticket would spend $48 on tickets alone). How would this affect non-family user segments?
Another major constraint is digital piracy. How can design play a role in reducing or eliminating piracy?
Opportunity
Despite the constraints, there is a huge market opportunity. According to Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) annual report, “frequent, 11%” of moviegoers contributed to 48% of the tickets sold in 2016.
Can “Direct to Consumer” model reach more users?
RedBox operates on the basis of the “First Sale Doctrine” which enables reselling of trademarked products after the trademark holder put the products on the market. Because of this, RedBox can afford to purchase loads of DVDs and rent them out at a fairly low price.
Replicating a RedBox like digital experience would be very expensive as streaming licensing fees can be as high as $2oo million per year per movie.
At this point, Moovy had to pivot directions and explore other avenues.
I thought, maybe, it’s finally time to bring the theatre home. Studies show theatre ticket sales have remained relatively flat.
Could “Direct to Consumer” movie releases present opportunities to reach more consumers?
consumers spent $6.62 billion dollars in 2016 on streaming services, up by 22% from the previous year.
Netflix has shifted consumer behavior in favor streaming. Consumer behavior is rapidly changing. Consumers in the U.S are spending billions of dollars on streaming services. According to eMarketer, consumers spent $6.62 billion dollars in 2016 on streaming services, up by 22% from the previous year.
Learning lessons from Netflix
Netflix revolutionized the television business by simply understanding user frustrations and pain points. Their user and content strategies are different from traditional television companies.
What pain points can be addressed by designing direct to consumer service?
Pain points of theatre experience:
These are some pain point areas that “Direct to Consumer” model can potentially solve.
Design Process
Goals
The goal is to explore Direct to Consumer design models to promote movie streaming; bringing the theatre experience into the living room.
Brainstorming and Sketching
A pen and paper are one of the best ways to put ideas out of the mind. It’s easy to make quick changes on the fly. I can explore limitless possibilities with no boundaries or restrictions.
Wireframes
Wireframes allow me to think deeper into the interactions of the design. It lays the foundation to build the final drafts upon.
High Fidelity Designs
At this stage, most of the nitty-gritty of the design has been done. This stage calls for colors, fonts, icons and other visual elements that add life to the design.
After selecting a desired color, I focused on the final interactions and user flows.
Design Reasonings
Emoji ratings
Ratings are meant to give users certainty — Is it worth my time? My money? Should I proceed?
Emojis are everywhere. How can I incorporate something so ubiquitous into my design?
Emojis breath life to designs. Emojis are expressive and human like. Emojis allow users to communicate emotions.
Cast Pictures
Humans are highly visual creatures. According to a recent study, it takes the human mind 13ms to accurately guess random visual cues.
Now, it makes sense why we tend to remember peoples’ faces more often than their names.
The cast picture not only provides users with cast members but it’s designed so that users can tap on a picture to discover more movies by the actor or actress.
Retrospective Lessons
Screencasting Devices (Roku, Chormecast…etc)
As streaming became popular so did casting devices that allow users to enjoy streaming on a bigger screen; by casting their phone screens on to a TV. Devices like Roku, Chromecast, Apple Tv and Amazon Fire make it easier to cast your phone onto a bigger screen if the application is supported by these devices. It’s essential to explore those platforms as a means to grow the Direct to Consumer movie release concept.
Reactions Ratings
I believe emojis can be used widely to engage users. Instead of the three emoji faces (sad, smiley and neutral emojis), I can further include more emojis (now called reaction by companies like Facebook and Slack) that can further emphasize emotions; entirely replacing the standard star rating system with emojis.
Blockchain
The blockchain is an emerging technology that utilizes immutable ledgers and smart contracts on distributed computer networks. This technology can potentially put an end to piracy. Further investigation is needed to firmly confirm its application in a Direct consumer movie streaming service.
VR/AR Integration
3D movies have gotten much popularity in the last few years. In a home cinema scenario, I believe VR and AR headsets can potentially add to the movie experience. This is an area where “Direct to Consumer” concept flourish.
