Netflix Syndrome — a UX/UI Case Study on the paradox of choice
An average person makes an eye-popping 35,000 choices per day. I know, it’s shocking, but is it, really? Considering you didn’t even realize that you just made one when you chose to continue reading this case study.
Long gone are the days when we sat in front of the television eagerly waiting for our favorite show to commence. Days when we skimmed through TV channels finding something good to watch. It was a time when TV channels force fed content to their audience. But here’s the thing, we humans like control, we like the very option of being allowed to change our minds. The need for wanting to be the master of our own destinies gave rise to streaming platforms like Netflix. Although the diverse array of content to choose from was successful at evoking a sense of freedom, it also brought us back to the famous saying “too much of anything is good for nothing”.
“What to watch?” is a true brain scratcher and leads to lot of discussions among friends and families, some turn out to be more interesting than the movie they end up watching. The phrase “What should we watch?” in the era of streaming can prompt existential despair.
What we are trying to focus on here is not the plethora of choice but instead the Paradox of choice. You see what I did for the sake of word play:)
“Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard.”
― Barry Schwartz
There is a buzzword called “Netflix Syndrome”. This refers to users who spend more time choosing content than actually watching it. The more choices you have, the more you struggle to choose. This decision fatigue could be attributed to what is famously known as “FOMO — The Fear of Missing Out” because nobody wants to miss out the next best thing.
The Hick’s law is an important design principle, it states that the more options you provide your users with, the longer it will take for them to choose or to make any action.
Speaking in terms of Statistics, there is a positive correlation between the number of stimuli and the time taken for decision making. We have already established that humans like to have options, what we don’t like, is the infinite scroll that we have to through before we make a choice.
What we need is a tool that facilitates decision making on Netflix. Well, it can’t be the Netflix already hasn’t thought of it, they came up with something called as “Play something”, this was inspired by Television or perhaps from the way our Indian mothers parent us, often heard saying “Gharpe jo bana hai chup chap khao!” literal meaning of which is — eat whatever that has been cooked at home without any tantrums.
So as the name of the feature suggests, what Netflix did was played any random movie or show based on how the recommendation algorithm works and we as users were expected to watch it or skip it until we found the one that engaged us. Well it did certainly make decision making easier, what it failed at was, helping users make quality decisions. Skipping the movie 20 minutes into it made one feel similar to how he/she would feel walking out of a movie theatre halfway because the movie wasn’t good enough.
- Low on motivation to start another one.
- Frustrated because of the experience.
- Regretful because of the time wasted!
These User statements obtained from interviewing people from the age group 16–50 acted as major insights.
1. “I have watched FRIENDS more times than the amount of shows available on Netflix, because I never know what new to start and my fear of commitment gets to me.”
2. “I ask my friends “what to watch?”, or often end up watching the most hyped up show at that moment.”
3. “My brain is already exhausted after an entire day of work, the decision fatigue on Netflix only exhausts it more.”
Even though we have intricate minds, we don’t want to think too hard — or too much — if we don’t have to. If there are several ways to do something, we choose the course of action that’s the least cognitively demanding. That’s the reason Steve Krug’s famous book on web usability called, Don’t Make Me Think has become the mantra for UX.
For example, Spotify.
How many times do you open the app and actually search the songs you wish to listen to? Rather, just like most of us, you’ll find yourself tapping on your favorite playlist at the moment. Playlists are a savior every time that you’re on a road trip with your friends or family and you’re passed the aux cable. This is called Principle of Least Effort.
The “principle of least effort” essentially states that people will do the least amount of work to get something done. At the end of the day every human prefers the path of least resistance. The principle of least effort is an adequate explanation for many isolated linguistic changes, such as the reduction of God be with you to good-bye. Interesting, isn’t it?
Netflix does provide a feature of adding movies and shows you would want to watch in the future to be added to your “my list”, but do we really go back to it that often?
That’s when I realized, what Netflix needs to break the Paradox of choice is “Recommendations”. No! Not the Netflix Recommendations. A custom made recommendation by their friend or their famous influencer, one that takes into consideration your mood and what is it that you really want. It would save us all the disappointment of the infinite scrolls done to find something good to watch on Google, just to realize it’s not available on Netflix.
Not only will watchlists be a great conversation starter with your crush (this can be considered healthy stalking), creating watchlists together will help couples plan their next movie night and also solve the ultimate conundrum every armchair guy faces on a Friday night.
A bad movie experience is like a jellyfish sting and friends don’t let friends suffer from jellyfish stings. Remember what Joey said “I stepped up! She’s my friend and she needed help. And if I have to, I’d pee on any one of you!”
Well, it was time for us to step up and redesign Netflix and incorporate the watch list feature, designed keeping in mind the principle of least effort and the element of social curiosity.
I would like to express my gratitude to Netflix for providing such a wonderful streaming service. The vast library of movies and TV shows has enriched my entertainment experience in numerous ways. However, as a user, I can’t help but acknowledge the paradox of choice that sometimes arises. With an abundance of options, it can be challenging to decide what to watch. As designers it’s a dream to get an opportunity to give our design inputs that help solve this problem. Until then here is a functional prototype for you to try this feature out.
We learnt how to incorporate a new feature in an existing application by not disrupting the app’s current ecosystem. As a designer learning to be collaborative during design process is really crucial. The UX Research and Design was done by Arya Gawade and the UI design and mockups were curated by Pramod Ponkanti.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article, this article is written by Arya Gawade. Hope you found it insightful and engaging to see an application you interact with almost daily being redesigned.
