Overview

Netflix’s initial claim to fame was its DVD-by-mail service which hit the market in the late 90s. Netflix introduced its new streaming media and video-on-demand service in 2007. From that point on, Netflix grew to be one of the most widely used video streaming services in the world. Today, Netflix offers thousands of tv shows and movies available for streaming on a wide variety of devices, including TVs, tablets, phones, computers, games consoles, and set-top boxes.

Challenge

There is currently not a method for accessing reviews on movies and TV shows on Netflix's platform. The company removed its 5-star rating and reviews feature back in 2018 due to the feature declining in popularity. There is some speculation from Netflix users that the feature was removed due to people purposefully “review bombing” a show or movie title with hopes of bringing its ratings down often without having seen the respective show or movie. However, years later, the buzz over the loss of the Netflix reviews and review feature has continued to be a hot topic on the internet. Most recently, this tweet gained 48.2K retweets, 3,624 Quote Tweets, and 568K likes.

It is evident that people want to get a better understanding of what a movie or show is about and if it is good or not before they make the decision to watch it. They desire to have a community where they can share their opinions about movies/shows and have the ability to make informed decisions about what to watch and why.

With the abundance of streaming movie and television content available, it’s important for viewers to have the ability to do their research, sift through content, and connect socially with others through the love of (or dislike of) a particular piece of content.

Solution

Design a new User Reviews feature within the current Netflix product where viewers can read user reviews, write user reviews, as well as share user reviews on movies and tv shows.

NOTE: This is a fictional project and not officially associated with Netflix.

View prototype

Empathize

Market research

To understand how Netflix fits into the current Subscription Video on Demand (SVoD) industry, I conducted market research. I wanted to identify Netflix's target market as well as important facts and statistics regarding online video streaming, but I also wanted to gain some general insight into the movie/show reviews industry. Key points I discovered:

The target market for Netflix includes males and females between the ages of 17-60 and households with income levels of $30,000 and up.
The number of Netflix viewers in the United States was reportedly expected to reach 174.7 million as of 2021, and is forecast to increase annually. By the year 2025, it is projected that there will be over 188 million people in the U.S. watching content on the video on demand platform.
People—especially younger generations—are managing costs by adopting ad-supported options, looking for discounts and bundles, and moving on and off services to meet their content needs. For streaming video providers, keeping these subscribers is harder than ever.
The pandemic has accelerated online entertainment, streaming video on-demand (SVOD) has certainly enjoyed a boom, with an estimated 21% boost in consumer spending on subscriptions in the first half of 2021.
A 2018 Statista report shows that 12 percent of respondents aged between 45 and 54 years old said they always read movie reviews before seeing a movie, the largest share amongst all age groups surveyed by the source. Interestingly, the share of respondents who said that they sometimes read a film review before viewing the film is the same for 18 to 24 year olds and those ages 55 or above.

SOURCE(S): Statista.com, Deloitte.com

Competitive analysis

User Interviews

After completing my secondary research, it was time to talk to current Netflix users and begin to understand:

How may Netflix users go about selecting a movie or show to watch?
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What is a users' experience with reading and writing movie/show reviews online?
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What pain points and needs might the users have when it comes to streaming content on Netflix as well as reading or writing reviews online?

For this research, in-person user interviews were conducted with 5 participants ranging in ages from 25-65. In addition, 15 user surveys were completed by participants ranging in ages from 18 to 50+ (with 73% being 25-36). All 20 participants who were interviewed and surveyed currently stream movies and tv shows online using Netflix as a service.

In synthesizing the results, I gained the following insights:

Half of those interviewed and surveyed choose what to watch based on recommendations from family and friends. Participants will hear of movies / shows by “word of mouth” or via social media.
Slightly more than half, (53.3%) of survey participants read reviews/ratings online at Rotten Tomatoes. The remaining half read reviews on IMBD, Fandango, Cinema Blend, YouTube, etc.
Of those participants surveyed, almost half (46.7%) feel that ratings and reviews are “very important” and 20% find it "important" when it comes to choosing what to watch on Netflix.

View Interview Findings

Ideate

Wireframe Sketches

Utilizing the user flow, I then took to pen and paper to start some wireframe sketching out of the key pages (Movie/Show Details page, User Reviews page, User Review Profile page). Thinking about the existing Netflix user's experience, I wanted to envision how to seamlessly build in the user reviews feature and task flow.

Desktop + Mobile Ui Design

I then created research-based high fidelity wireframes with annotations that detail the user experience when interacting with the user reviews feature.

ui kit

With the high-fidelity wireframes complete, I created a UI kit to focus on UI design for the User Reviews feature.

Test

usability testing

For the Usability Testing, I completed 2 in-person tests where the user utilized their personal desktop or laptop to navigate the Figma Netflix Review Feature prototype. I used a think out loud method; and got permission to record the user while I moderated the tasks and documented observations. In addition, I conducted remote testing with 10 participants using the prototype via Maze software.

Testing Goals:

how easily the user can conduct their search for a review and write a review?
how easily can the user navigate their reviewer profile and Netflix community of reviewers?
is navigation and UI consistent with Netflix's existing site user experience and brand?
What are potential pain points, errors, hesitation, confusion, or difficulties for users to complete task?

Usability Testing User Tasks:

task 1: Find "The Starling" in "my list" and and read the user reviews.
task 2: write and submit a user review for "The Starling".
task 3: find and follow a fellow user who has left a review for "the starling" (user reviewer: joy12)
task 4: find Your profile (user cj123) and then head back to the user reviews page for the starling from there.

usability test Findings

After usability testing was complete, I created a usability test findings created an affinity map to better organize and prioritize potential improvements needed. I grouped similar sticky notes according to common themes and determined the improvements to be made, further prioritizing those improvements for reimagining the design and entering the iteration phase.

View Test Findings

Considerations for Iteration

Priority 1: revising the “write review” icon which currently resembles an “edit” icon.
Priority 2: Consideration will be made in terms of potentially creating a visible privacy policy around writing reviews and sharing accounts.
Priority 3: build out more paths and opportunities for a user to write a review. For example, in addition to prompting users to review a show on the show/ movie title/overview page, they will be prompted to write a review after they finish a movie or show.

Reflection & Next Steps

Ultimately, this project was a great challenge in terms of applying the design thinking process to adding a feature seamlessly into an existing product, yet adhering to the existing user’s experience, brand's UI and business goals. Some next steps will be:

Continue making revisions based on the results from usability testing with priority focus on developing a privacy policy around writing reviews and sharing accounts.
Build out sorting reviews feature and conduct usability testing.
Revisit design thinking process and continue testing in order to make future iterations.

Adding a Feature to an Existing Product