Netflix

The objective of this conceptual project was to tackle a user pain point by adding a feature to improve an existing product. Here, we focus on the relationship between user engagement and Netflix’s algorithm used for the personalized recommendation system.

 

  • Product designer

  • Figma

    Notion

    Miro

    Whimsical

  • user experience

    interaction design

    user research

the challenge

 

Currently, Netflix has over 15,000 titles that users can stream. While the algorithm continues to narrow the choices for users already, the assumption is that users would have a better experience by tailoring the content on their own.

Netflix estimates that only 20% of its subscriber video choices come from search, with the other 80% being from recommendations. While recommendations are a great way to discover new titles, the user may also have a more hands-on approach with these added features.

 

more engagement

 

stronger data to sharpen the existing algoritm

 

increased value for the estimated $1 billion personalized recommendation engine

 

In the existing screens, the cast details are condensed on the right side of the page with minimal distinction.

what the people are saying

I conducted user interviews with a total of 5 participants who fell into the following user groups/types:

  • Users who know exactly what they want to watch — They sometimes refer to recommendations or skip that portion

  • Users who are not sure what to watch — They depend on the personalized recommendation system

  • Hybrid users — They enjoy recommended titles and do their own research

 

“I generally know what I want to watch on Netflix, but the few chances I start a recommendation, I tend not to finish the show/movie.”

— Research participant 1

“Sometimes I wish I was notified of new releases by my favorite programs or actors/actresses, instead of watching preview after preview.”

— Research participant 2

opportunities to explore

 

2 new features:

  • Follow your interests

    • Improve the users’ personalized home feed

    • Strengthen the existing algorithm

  • Save to playlists

    • Allow users to curate what to watch next

    • Increase viewing times

 

user heuristics

The main observation here is to uncover how users engage and contribute to the algorithm on indirect competitors’ products.

We look at indirect competitors to discover gaps between streaming platforms and the general market so that we can incorporate features to differentiate Netflix.

Instagram is notorious for its user engagement for reasons beyond socializing such as marketing, brand allocation, and sales. It all starts when a user follows an account of interest.

These accounts reflect on a user’s feed and stories. From each interaction, a user gives off a signal that allows Instagram to rank recommendations shown in the Explore page.

YouTube has more than 30 million users every day who watch a total of 5 billion videos per day — that’s a lot of content to easily clutter a user’s homepage feed.

To improve usability, YouTube blends the user’s home page with videos from their subscribed channels and videos recommended based on their watch history and engagement.

 

holistic impact

 

Users — They experience a tailored feed and spend less time searching and more time watching content

Streaming platforms — When users enjoy a highly curated feed, platforms maintain a longer watch base and keep engagement levels high

Content creators — The algorithm drives their targeted audience to their content, allowing more views and ultimately increasing potential revenue

 

drawing board

When I began to ideate how I wanted to include the 2 features in Netflix’s product, I sketched out the main pages where users can access the features. The key here was to design the new features in a discreet manner. This way, the features are unintrusive to the current interface, yet provide value to the user’s experience in curating their feed.

Though low-fidelity, the sketches served as my main wireframe to guide me through designing the high-fidelity screens. I referenced and added to Netflix’s current existing product to create the polished versions of my wireflow.

style guide

Using Netflix’s brand assets as a guideline, I designed the components, fonts, and colors as closely aligned with the existing assets as possible.

 
 

the solution

Feature 1

follow your favorites

 

Stay current with your interests and spend less time searching.

The follow feature I designed manifests in the title’s page, allowing users to curate their feed and prioritize which content they wish to see. With inspiration from social platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, I incorporated the follow buttons in a similar approach to reinforce users’ familiarity with the concept.

 
 

Talent profile page — Where users can view talents’ backgrounds, origins, featured works, and associated peers in the industry. This page is designed to:

  • Guide users to view content that is closely aligned with their interests

  • Eliminate the task of manual search and increase viewing times

 

My Following list — Users can view their entire following list and sort by categories

 

Feature 2

save for later

The user interviews revealed that some Netflix users would value the option to handpick their watchlist or queue. These frustrations stemmed from the task of clicking/searching for the next title to view. With the playlist feature, users can anticipate the next title or skip viewing previews once one title finishes playing to determine if they want to proceed with the next recommended title.

Should Netflix ever incorporate a social component in their product, users could share their playlists, as they would on Spotify, for example.

 

‘Add to playlist’ window

 

‘My List’ page — Where users access their playlists/watchlists

 

supporting assumptions

To measure the success of Netflix’s high-fidelity screens, I sought to cover 4 objectives through my usability testing:

  1. To understand users’ memorability when navigating the platform

  2. To gauge ease-of-use via positive/negative feedback from users

  3. To discover any improvements that could be implemented in iterations

  4. To level the value the features add to Netflix’s current design

 

4 participants

In-person & remote usability testing

2 tasks: follow a talent or tag and add title to a playlist

“If Netflix had these two features, I would actually continue my subscription — They justify the rate compared to Netflix’s competitors.”

— User research participant 1

“One time I fell asleep to cartoons and woke up to a horror movie. If there's a way to avoid that situation from occurring, I would 10/10 utilize that feature.”

— User research participant 4

the impact

100%

average completion rate

15 minutes

average time to complete flow

9/10

average user experience rating

 

gained perspectives

This project introduced what it’s like to work on existing products and the challenges of incorporating designs that would open avenues for increased business profits and solidifying customer satisfaction. It was an extremely rewarding, fulfilling feeling when users expressed that they would 100% keep their Netflix subscription should these features be in place.

If I were to have a longer timeline to design these features, I would re-do the feature designs to be even more discreet. Through a walkthrough with a senior designer, I learned that each page should have minimal eye-catching tasks for users. I realize that the follow buttons, for example, increase user tasks and can be distracting from the main flow.