multi-platform design process
Slate
Streaming content discovery app to save you time and money.
My Role
Designing component patterns + prototypes
Leading ideation workshop sessions
Defining user personas and journeys
Timeline: five months
Two interaction designers
Three user researchers
Low on time? Feel free to jump ahead!
You'd miss out on the cool story but no worries – I hope you find what you're looking for!
Overview
Process
Outcomes
Imagine yourself sitting on your couch, remote in one hand and a plate of saucy marinara pasta in the other.
You want to watch something fun and special on TV while enjoying this delicacy.
For this dopamine rush, you spend a few minutes browsing around your favorite streaming app.
As your excitement fades away with every click, you set the remote aside and try to gulp down the now cold pasta, not hitting the spot as it would have a few minutes ago – you sigh, “What a waste!”
“
Research insight
People spend 45 hours/year on average searching for what to watch next *
that's around 7.5 mins per day
*according to vox.com
refined problem definition
How might we design a quick and easy way for people to decide what to watch next?
research insights
We identified four main problem areas by talking to over 50 people who claimed to suffer from this analysis paraysis
SOCIAL ASPECT
"Movie nights with friends are the best, but finding something everyone likes can be tough. Still, it's totally worth it for the fun of watching together."
SUBSCRIPTIONS
"I hate it when I find a movie I want to watch and then realize it's not on my streaming service. I always end up Googling to see if it's even available on the one I pay for."
BROWSING TIME
"I always spend ages picking a series to watch. It's such a big time commitment, so I want to make sure I'm choosing something I'll actually stick with."
RECOMMENDATIONS
"The recommendations on streaming platforms usually don't match my taste. They push the popular stuff, but I like finding those hidden gems that are buried in their huge catalog."
Competitive intelligence
So, who else is solving this and how well?
personas and lofi testing
Am I browsing for a movie night (group/ date) or something to watch while having an evening snack?
Quick recommendations to enjoy with an evening snack
lofi user journey
Quick match needed less inputs, time and effort from users to give them top three recommendations
here's what the final lofi user journey looked like
lofi user testing
Another way to get more recommendations would be to try out taste match by answering a few more questions
Directors, actors you know and movies you've watched before
hi-fiDELITY PROTOTYPING
After the first two rounds of lofi testing, we started refining the flow in hi-fidelity prototypes by adding "mood" and "duration"
More on the color, typeface and icon choices towards the end.
PROTOTYPING
Some testers pointed out that they still needed a way to consider everyone's taste for a group setting
So we took inspiration from Spotify blend and watch party apps
Hi-fidelity design
Colors, Typeface and Icons for the HiFi screens
For a dynamic brand-like aesthetic on both TV and mobile
HI-Fidelity TV Designs
Taste match concept for TV with the Google TV UI Kit
Translating some of the mobile screens and flows into TV
How this project helped me grow as a designer?
Thanks for skimming all the way to the end — here are some outcomes and learnings!
Outcomes
We designed a platform that recommends movies to watch in < 90 seconds.
Before you invest your precious time in watching 9 seasons with 22 episodes of 45 mins each you know whether or not you'll like it?
Learnings
I learned how to iterate with user feedback and how to get great feedback in the first place!
Thinking from a business goals POV. Throughout the design process we talked a lot about how we can monetize this, what features would go into that.
