NUDGE — A Friend.

Nudge — User Experience Design Case Study for streaming content online.

The availability of high-speed internet and its accessibility at a low cost has seen a surge in the number of streaming platforms in India. The most popular ones being Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hotstar, etc.

Problem

Most Millennials have busy schedules and choose streaming platforms as a way to relax after a tiring day or on the weekend. With so many streaming platforms available, there is an abundance of content to watch with very little time to decide which one to pick. The algorithm on the platforms that recommend shows based on the users’ watched history is not accurate.

Remember the last time you opened up Netflix to chill? You probably had to browse through “trending”, “recommended for you”, different genres, etc.

You start watching a show only to realise that it is not your cup-of-tea.You keep going back and forth between IMDB and Netflix to check if the ratings of a show are worthy of your time. Before you know it, you are exhausted, shut the platform and move on to other things.

This project is a use case that
1. Looks into the content watching patterns by Millenials.
2. Discovers ways of finding something interesting to watch by getting recommendations from a trusted source.

Solution

Create a social media platform like “Good Reads” but for streaming content. This allows users to get recommendations from trusted sources -friends or family.

Design Thinking

Discovery

Phase 1: Research

User Research:

How do users decide what they want to watch on a streaming platform?

• They depend on the OTT platforms to recommend something to watch based on what they have watched on the platform in the past.
• They ask for recommendations from friends or overhear conversations on social media or in the workspace on what shows/movies to watch.
• Apart from a few popular shows that have high ratings and high budgets for marketing, the other shows remain hidden.

Personas

The following two personas were created after multiple interviews of people between the ages of 18–45 as a part of the research. These personas helped create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) through the user stories.

Persona Josh

Persona — Samanta

Empathy Mapping: What goes through users' mind while relaxing after a hard day’s work and browsing through different OTT platforms looking for something interesting to watch.

Empathy Map

Solutions using HMVs: “How might Wes”

Create a solution that would address the following pain points.

How might we reduce the time taken for a user to find something interesting to watch?

Create an environment where the user could get recommendations from a trusted friend or colleague or a family member.
This removes the dependency on the algorithm of the streaming platform.

How might we make giving and getting recommendations on what to watch less intrusive?

Create a platform to add friends from social media platforms like Facebook or Whatsapp into the application. This allows users to create a community of movie buffs and to give and get recommendations to a friend without being intrusive.

How might we create a system to find external ratings of a show (IMDB, rotten tomatoes) easily in one place.

Create a system to sync the IMDB and RT ratings for each show and make it readily available along with the description and the app ratings of the show.

How might we create a community of people with a similar taste for streaming content?

Provide a feature to create private/public groups of like-minded people that can discuss/post about the content that they are watching online.

Phase 2: Design and Ideate

Listening to user stories and creating personas gave ideas for features that a Minimum Viable Product- NUDGE a social media platform could have.

Features that could be included in NUDGE

Sitemap

NUDGE — sitemap

Sketches

Created a few sketches in the process to ideate the final app. Creating sketches makes ideas tangible. They can be tested using paper prototypes with users before a higher fidelity mockup of designs can be made.

Initial sketches for NUDGE

Wireframes

Wireframes for the red-routes of NUDGE App.

Prototype

User Journey

Usecase 1: Add a movie to your watchlist

Browse through the news feed, see what your friends are watching. The movie that Tara is currently watching looks interesting. You trust her judgment. Add it to your watchlist.

Add a movie that a trusted friend has watched and recommended.

Use Case -2: Add a movie from your favorite OTT platform.

See what is popular on your favorite OTT platform (Netflix). Add an interesting film to your watch list.

Add a movie to your watchlist from what your friends are watching on Netflix.

Final Prototype UI

NUDGE- Final Prototype

Learnings and Conclusion

To conclude, NUDGE hopes to be a great product that could connect a worldwide audience with a passion for entertainment of any form. The term nudge is synonymous to getting a nudge from a friend to watch a show or to see what new in the world of streaming platforms. Looking back on the whole process, I learned a lot. This project taught me products are used by different people with different needs. It helped me empathize with different users. It was a steep learning curve and I learned different aspects of UX design through this project.

This was an independant project done with a narrow scope and with a limited number of people participating in the user research. I hope to be able to conduct extensive research and deeper analysis to be able to build a more refined product with complex use-cases pertaining to the app.