Movie Night Just Got Bigger!

Building up the “Playlist” Feature

NETFLIX

Introduction

Background

A lot of families and friend groups will share Netflix accounts with multiple users. Often the users don’t live in the same household or city. The pandemic displayed how even though we can’t always be physically close, we still enjoy connecting and sharing things that bring us joy. However, Netflix doesn’t currently have features that allow sharing or making recommendations to others.

Problem

Netflix is a streaming service that supports multiple users per a single account. Currently, the service does not provide a way to share or recommend shows or movies offered on the platform. Additionally, Netflix doesn’t allow for users to create their own playlists or view others' playlists, which would allow creating/experiencing curated movie and TV show playlists.

Solution

Design a feature that integrates into Netflix’s design system.

Target Audience

This feature could benefit all Netflix users, especially for those who have defined viewing preferences.

Key Features:

  • Add Playlist

  • Delete Playlist

  • Share Playlist

  • Create Playlist

Scope

80 hours to create an MVP (minimum viable product)

Role:

  • UX Designer

  • Researcher

Tools:

Figma

The Process

The Process for this project followed the typical design process of empathy, collaboration, and iteration. What stood out with this project was the collaboration portion. With Netflix already existing, it wasn’t as much of a collaborator as it was more of a space to design for.

PROCESS

1. Research

Research Methods:

  1. Competitive Analysis

  2. Questionaire

Research Goals: 

  1. Understand what motivates users to create or view content playlists

  2. Understand how users decide what to watch on Netflix

  3. Provide the ability to have curated tv/movie events

  4. Help cultivate a tv show/movie community within Netflix

Competitive Analysis Summary of Findings

The goal of the competitive analysis was to explore the limitations and uses of playlists throughout various types of media. Overall, all of the researched sites used playlists to share content with users. The differences between the various sites’ playlist features came down to varying amounts of user control. In general, the more customizable a product is, then the more personal it is, which can increase the perceived value from the user.

Questionnaire

To maximize how users could most benefit from the new feature, participants were given a questionnaire about their viewing habits and how they share content with others.

Affinity Map

After debriefing participants, one of the more interesting discoveries was that participants who thought that their viewing habits deviated from others, tended to be untrue.

An important discovery was finding that users apply personal reasoning for how they approach sharing content.

This led to thinking about designing a feature that is easily accessible and that can be used in multiple ways.

PROCESS

2. Define

Persona

Tim Tugeau didn’t come together as organically as originally planned. There were difficulties in creating a persona that represented the study participants as well as someone who would use the playlist feature in multiple ways.

This led to Tim encompassing a compassionate and independent spirit that showed his love for others through thoughtful actions.

Page Sketches

With Netflix being an existing product, there was the ability to recreate their pages and use their existing design system to create within.

This was critical to allow users to explore this new feature in a familiar platform.

Sitemap

To create a seamlessly integrated feature, Netflix’s existing sitemap was used with alterations made to the “My List” feature to become the new “Playlist” feature.

3. Design

PROCESS

Task Flow

The task flow shows an example of how the new feature could be used to enhance the persona’s gift idea with a unique touch.

User Flow

The user flow exemplifies the multiple ways a user can craft and think about their own playlist.

This user flow parallels how participants express multiple ways to discover content to watch.

Wireframes

The wireframes are recreated from Netflix’s current design system. The next step was to insert the new “Playlist” feature in the product.

UI Kit

Since the feature was for an existing product, the UI Kit needed to follow Netflix’s current design system.

Detailed Mockups

The detailed mockups show the key portions of how the new playlist feature would be used by the persona Tim.

PROCESS

4. Test

Prototype

The prototype focused on taking the user through creating and then sharing a playlist they created with their father’s birthday.

Testing

User testing showed some minor incongruencies with the flow of the new feature. This was helpful to show the importance of testing and developing new iterations.

Revisions

The revisions focused on blending the transition from the initial idea of creating the playlist to sharing it outside of the app.

PROCESS

5. Conclusion

Challenges

A notable challenge for this project was determining the best way to add the new “Playlist” feature. Ultimately, it was discovered that Netflix’s “My List” feature could be swapped for a more engaging “Playlist” feature.

Final Thoughts

Working within Netflix’s existing design system was a challenge for this project. However, that also proved to be the most beneficial and enjoyable portion of the project.

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