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, Hotstar, Alt Balaji, 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, 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: Before starting to watch something online, most users would look into the genre, ratings, reviews, and the synopsis.
- They depend on the app mostly to save their watched history and rely on the app to recommend something to watch in the future.
- 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.
- There are shows that could be liked by a particular user who would not be able to find it on the app as it is hidden within genres or by the app’s algorithm.
Personas
The following two personas were created after multiple interviews of people between the ages 18–45 as a part of the research. These personas helped create a Minimum viable product through the user stories.
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.
Solutions using HMVs: “How might Wes”
Create a solution that would address the following pain points.
How might we reduce the time taken to find something interesting to watch?
Create a platform 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.
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.
Wireframes
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.
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.
Final Prototype UI
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 individual 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.
