The Final Prototype
With the rise of subscription-based streaming services, users can find it challenging and overwhelming to keep track of the content available on each service. They need to switch between different services to see what’s available to them. Additionally, many streaming services offer content recommendations, but they are limited to the content available to them on that specific platform.
This can result in generic suggestions that may not resonate with the user’s unique preferences and tastes. It can also be difficult to find something to watch with friends or family because everyone has their own preferences making the decision-making process time-consuming.
The problem
Understand the frustrations and challenges users experience with having to switch between multiple streaming services.
Understand how users discover films and series.
Understand the pain points users have while deciding on something to watch by themselves or with others.
Challenges, pain points, & discovery
Is anyone else doing this?
Compared four different apps that consolidate streaming services to see what their strengths and weaknesses were to get a better understanding of what competitors were doing.
Key Insights
Include social features that allow users to create collaborative watchlists with others. Create user profiles where the user can rate and write reviews, share watchlists, and read their friends reviews.
A search party feature that allows watch parties to find something to watch together without the fuss.
Consolidate all of the streaming services in one app, and include the users watchlists from all of their platforms.
Robust search features that allow users to select specific filters to narrow their search to be more specific to what they are looking for.
User interviews
Conducted 8 remote user interviews with participants that used at least 3 streaming services. That being said, findings showed that participants averaged having 6 streaming services. The interviews were designed to get a better understanding of the participants feelings and experiences using multiple streaming services.
100% discover what to watch based on social recommendations
Use Netflix, Hulu, & Prime Video
Find recommendations given by streaming services helpful but sometimes a hit or miss
Have used streaming services to rate films and series, or have written reviews online
On average takes less than 10 minutes to find something to watch by themselves
Use Google to look up films and series to see which platform they are streaming on
Choose a streaming service depending on their mood or what they are looking for
If they can’t find something to watch they will put on reruns or something they’ve seen before
75% use watchlist features
50% take 30+ minutes to find something to watch with others
“I trust my friends recommendations over a platform any day. If I see something on a platform that I’m not sure about but my friend tells me it was really good then I’ll watch it vs the algorithm recommending it.”
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- Participant 5
Write & Read User Reviews
Rate films, series, & read reviews from other users
Cross Service Search
Search for content across multiple streaming services in one place
Group Watchlists
Create collaborative watchlists with others
Price Comparisons
Compare film & series rentals based on the subscription services they subscribe to
Watch Party
Find something to watch with others by matching them with their unique preferences
User Profiles
Create & view profiles
Watchlists & Recommendations
Based on the users ratings & watchlists created, the app will recommend specific watchlists & recommendations
Identified several key features that would help users discover what to watch, find content easily, and include social elements that help differentiate the app from competitors.
Addressing user needs & creating structure
Homepage
Movie Details
Watchlist
User Profile
Based on users “seen” watchlists, & reviews, they will be recommended content hosted on the services they have access to.
Users will have access to their collection of watchlists from the homepage
Users will be able to scroll to see which streaming services the film or series can be watched on along with the price.
Users can mark content as “seen” so it is no longer recommended to them
Shows who is collaborating on the watchlist
Users public watchlists will be visible on their account with the option for users to look through
Users can request to start a watch party from viewing their friends profile
synema
Developing a brand
Name: Synema (sync + cinema) to play on the idea that the app is syncing your streaming services to one place to help users find something to watch.
Color Palette: The media featured on the app adds a lot of color so I wanted the app itself to be minimalistic and let the content pop and speak for itself leaving most of the app black and white with only one pop of color, purple, for the CTAs.
Typeface: Figtree, a sans-serif font with a variety of weights.
Logo: The logo is binoculars since the main point of this app is to help users discover what to watch. The app to help users see where something is located, just like binoculars.
Play
Share
Review
Add Person
Star
Preview
Delete
Home
Search
Social
Add
Save
Like
Profile
Icon Set
Color Palette
Buttons
CAMERA
#16171F
ACTION
#F7F7F7
HOLLYWOOD
#7B61FF
REEL
#27282C
STUNT DOUBLE
#656565
Button
Button
Button
PRIMARY BUTTONS
SECONDARY BUTTON
Font: Figtree
Heading 2 - ExtraBold, 16pt
Heading 1 - ExtraBold, 20pt
Heading 3 - Bold, 14pt
Buttons - SemiBold, 14pt
TOP NAV - SEMIBOLD, 14pt
Small Text - Regular, 10pt
Body Text - Regular, 12pt
Typeface
Logo
synema
PRIMARY LOGO
WORDMARK LOGO
Components
USER REVIEWS
BOTTOM NAVIGATION
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Name
7
Following
HOME
MY WATCHLISTS
SEARCH
PROFILE
HOME
MY WATCHLISTS
SEARCH
PROFILE
HOME
MY WATCHLISTS
SEARCH
PROFILE
Seen
Seen
Seen Toggle
Match Details
Media Card
“Title Here”
Year, Genre 1• Genre 2
7.3
54%
Title
Watch on: Netflix, Max, Prime Video, Apple TV, +2
0%
0.0
Release Year • Rated • Duration
Genre 1 • Genre 2 • Genre 3
User Review
Bottom Navigation
Putting it all together
Using the branding & UI kit above helped develop the high-fidelity wireframes for Synema. Focused on creating a seamless and visually engaging user experience. To enhance user engagement, I integrated social features into the designs, including a way to discover new watchlists created by people you follow and new reviews. It also includes the search party feature allowing users to add filters to which type of media they are looking for, and find matches with their friends similar to a dating app.
Homepage: users can discover films and series that are recommended for them and view content from their streaming services. They can see new reviews and watchlists created by people they follow, browse by genre, start a watch party, view their profile, and search for content.
My Watchlists: the user can view their watchlists, including two default watchlists “Things I’ve Seen” which automatically adds any film or series a user marks as seen, and “Saved” that includes all saved content despite whether or not the user has added it to a specific collection or not.
Nope Film Details: this screen allows users to read the films description, see ratings, read reviews from other Synema users, view the streaming services the film is hosted on as well as price comparisons, watch the trailer, write a review, share the film, and save the film to a watchlist.
Start a Watch Party: when users choose to start a watch party they will be directed here where they select the filters they want to set on their watch party. They can pick multiple genres, the release year(s), and content type. Once they have completed those fields they will generate and copy a link to share with other members of the watch party to start matching.
Takeaways
Conducted an unmoderated usability study with 5 participants. Each participant was asked to complete 5 task flows followed by some open questions to get the participant's feedback.
100% were successful finding the watch party feature, filling out the form, and filling out the matches until they received two matches with the rest of their watch party.
The main issues participants had were with the prototype itself, and my instructions for the first two task flows. The first two task flows were the most difficult for participants. For the first task flow, some users tried to click on the first option under Discover New Watchlists, when nothing happened they continued scrolling and in some cases ended up completing a different task flow.
In the future I will have the first available option active to avoid this mistake. Additionally, if I were to do the usability test again, I would provide more clarity in my instructions.
60% were successful in finding a watchlist that one of their friends recently created. Some participants struggled with this task because they would click the first watchlist available which wasn’t active so they moved on down the screen. However the second option was available.
80% were successful in finding and reading a review their friend wrote, and adding the movie to their own watchlist
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3-5
“I love the matching option! It's so easy to tell what my friends want to watch and it's a feature I've never seen before. In terms of the design, I felt like the opacity of the "it's a match" dialog was a bit light, it would have been nice for it to be more/completely opaque.”
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Active path
Inactive path
Testing my designs
Prioritized Iterations
Feedback: a few buttons were unresponsive at first, but after a few more tries they worked.
Feedback: the “We’ve got a match!” page looked dated and suggested playing around with the opacity of the notification.
Iteration: went through the wireframes and made sure that all active buttons were accessible and updated the touch zone of at least 44 x 44.
Iteration: updated the watch party screens so the buttons were more consistent with the rest of the app, and changed the notification to be completely opaque which elevated the quality of the design.
When I started this project I thought this application would solve one or two main problems: to consolidate users streaming services and make it easier for them to find content. After conducting my research and speaking with users I found that users mainly discover what to watch through social recommendations. Thus providing an opportunity to add more social features to the app.
I would have liked to interview and test a larger pool of participants to get more feedback.
Privacy concerns would need to be addressed. Users may feel uneasy about allowing an app access to their streaming service accounts. I would want to address this by finding a way to let users opt out of syncing their streaming services which would allow them all the same features except for personalized recommendations.
Next Steps & Learnings
How might we create an app that helps users navigate all of their streaming content in one place?
synema
An app that consolidates all of your streaming services into a singular interface, simplifying content discovery for users, while including advanced social features that enhance content exploration and the overall streaming experience.
Your Unified Streaming Universe
In order to visualize how users would use this app, I created two storyboards to visualize the user journeys which helped identify opportunities and explore different scenarios in which a user would find this app helpful.
Visualizing how users would use the app