Users want to ensure they enjoy the movies they spend time and money to see. They often feel disappointed after seeing recommendations on other services.
Many apps and services curate recommendations, but how do we keep them accurate? How can we prevent them from becoming too skewed too quickly in order to keep users happy?
Users start with a quiz to determine their favorite genres, actors, and titles followed by prompts to leave ratings moving forward. Users are given the option to filter by genre, occasion, or entourage member.
Users have come to expect a personalized list of curated titles due to many of these apps. Feature highlights include the ability to see lists categorized by genre, cast, network, and trending.
Recommendations can become too skewed too quickly. Pages can feel overwhelming due to the amount of content displayed. Option to rate content is not always clear or available.
Users are often dissatisfied with the recommendations they are given. This gives opportunity to ensure users are happy every time.
Competitor applications have strong and established member bases. Users are familiar with their products and are committed to subscriptions.
Research participants varied between at home streamers, and those that go to theaters in person. As a whole, nearly half of all participants do not have faith they will enjoy the movies recommended to them. They are influenced by the cast & crew or overall production of the film, and enjoy a mixture of thumbs up/down and starred ratings as well as viewer and critic reviews.
Daniel has always enjoyed the experience of going to the movie theater ever since he was a young child. He loves the process of watching a story unfold, and then discussing and dissecting the details of the film with his peers. Daniel spends his free time watching movies and series across multiple streaming platforms.
Users have come to expect a recommendation feature in a plethora of other applications. The recommendations they actually want become non existent or they get lost in the sea of available content.
Users can now filter through curation types they actually want to see, ensuring they are happy with their simplified results.
Users often feel their recommendations in other apps become “too skewed too quickly.” Other apps assume they enjoyed a film just because they viewed it.
Research suggests that users are more likely to watch and enjoy a film that stars their favorite cast & crew members or is part of an existing franchise or film universe. New and existing users will take a “personality quiz” of sorts to determine their favorite genres, titles, and actors.
Research shows that many users prefer to read ratings and reviews or to know more details about the cast and production that are not available when watching a trailer. Currently users have the leave the app to gain this information.
Users now have a movie details page that allows them to watch a trailer, read a synopsis, leave and read ratings & reviews, learn about the cast & crew, and order tickets all on one screen.
Other applications make assumptions that users enjoy a title just because they viewed it.
This rating feature prompts users to rate previously viewed titles in order to further fine tune their future recommendations. Users will see this screen every time they scan their QR code when checking into a movie.
Determine if feature fits seamlessly within existing application.
Determine if users feel confident in the recommendations provided.
Observe any areas of hesitation, frustrations or confusion.
While all test participants were ultimately able to complete the tasks provided within the usability test, none were able to complete it without error in the filter selection. Participants gave immensely valuable feedback which was later incorporated in the next iteration.
Users found the initial filter selection flow to behave in ways they did not expect. Users found it odd that they were directed to a new page, and also were unable to determine if their chosen filters had been selected.
Users noted they would like to see the movie poster on this screen to help remember what movie they are reading about. The director was added to the top of the cast & crew section as during research, it was determined that directors can be a deciding factor when selecting a movie.
Users are prompted to take a quiz selecting their favorite titles, genres, and actors. A search bar was removed as users felt it unnecessary. A check and boarder were added to the selected state of a title.
Icons and verbiage were changed throughout the application in order to provide the user with a more clear and more consistent experience.
