Netflix
Case Study
Fostering relationships while streaming your favorite movies and shows.
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Duration
2 weeks
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Platform
Desktop
Mobile
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Role
Lead Researcher
UX/UI Designer
Team of 5
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Tools
Figma
Asana
Maze
Adobe Color
Google Suites
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Methods
Affinity Map
Persona
User Interviews
Wireframes
Wireflows
Prototypes
Usability tests
Heuristic Evaluation
Business Opportunity
Speculative
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription streaming service and production company. With more than 221.8 million subscribers worldwide how can they keep up this momentum and stay competitive?
They currently us a third party browser extension called Teleparty that allows you to watch movies with others remotely.
Netflix does not have its own local watch party capability.
Our research methods
In effort to understand users behavior here are some of the statistics from the user surveys:
Primary age demographic 22-35
43 people participated in survey
6 user interviewees
They regularly us teleparty with Netflix or live watch parties with other streaming providers
Survey key takeaways
Where users stream
95.3% of the people who took the survey stream via Netflix
User’s preference for watching shows
55.8% of the participants enjoy watching movies/shows with family and friends.
User Interview Insights
“I want to continue chatting after a show is done playing”
“I want to see my friends’ reactions on camera”
“I enjoy real-time discussions and seeing my friends reactions about scenes and characters”
Ideation
User flow
Our team created 2 different user flows the first one was for hosting a private watch party
and the second for joining a public live event. Linked below is the user flow for desktop and
mobile viewing. The majority of users from our research however use desktop to watch Netflix.
These flows were created during a design studio session.
Competitive and Comparative Analysis
To understand the market for watch parties and help us identify gaps in the industry, we performed a feature inventory against three direct competitors, Hulu, Amazon and Disney Plus and three indirect competitors, Instagram, Facebook and Twitch. We listed the various common and unique features. Here are the top features that could enhance the user experience for Netflix:
Share thoughts to social media
Start group party within app
Can watch live streams
Heuristic Evaluation
Our team performed a heuristic evaluation on Netflix, curating a thorough assessment of the user interface.
The purpose was to detect usability issues that may occur when interacting with design and identify ways to resolve them.
There we no consequential areas that needed immediate attention. Please refer to the link below for a more in-depth look.
Matthew
‘The online extrovert’
Occupation
Full time student
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
Age
18
Relationship Status
Single
Pain Points
Matty can’t see his friend commentary to make meaningful connections through shows
Matt wants to see the facial reactions of his friends and family in real time
Matt has to use third party applications to find and watch things together.
Biography
Matthew (aka Matty) is a college student and a Netflix superfan. He loves all of Netflix’s content and binges most shows the weekend they are released. As a new college student, he’s struggling to find community. He feels homesick and misses watching Netflix with his younger sister. He also thinks he could feel more connected if he found his own community of fellow superfans.
Needs
A way to watch Netflix with his sister back home.
Away to find community and a sense of belonging through his love of Netflix
Problem Statement
Matty is a new college student who used to connect over Netflix with his sister, but now that he’s on his own, he’s been struggling to build a new community and needs to find a way to build relationships through shared interests.
How Might We...
Make watch parties more enjoyable?
Allow Matty to feel like he’s connecting with people better virtually?
Make virtual watch parties more efficient?
Journey Map
Full time student
Enjoys watching Netflix after class and tweeting about his thought but struggles with
making meaning full connections
Misses watching Netflix with sister who lives in another states
Finds community within cohort and participates in Netflix teleparty
Solutions
To foster connectivity amongst viewers by allowing users to:
1) Attend closed (private) group watch parties
2) Participate in public, open social events like premieres
Low fidelity sketches
Mid- fidelity sketches
Private closed watch party flow
4 of 5 users questioned why there were so many clicks to inviting a friend.
Added a watch party waiting screen where users can invite friends before
starting the show.
Icons that were implemented into design
Added watch party icons to the preview page. All 5/5 users liked this feature.
5/5 users liked being able to see friends online and wanted to see it more integrated within the Netflix interface
Next Steps
Explore expiring chat options to conserve space.
The watch party icon was updated by adding color which draws the users attention to it faster making the navigation process more intuitive.
Netflix fans found it more convenient to invite friends directly from the home page highlighted in yellow vs taking additional steps to completed this task.