Disney +

Disney+ is Disney’s very own subscription video-on-demand streaming service. Disney+ offers a vast selection of films and television series and features dedicated content hubs for brands such as Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and National Geographic.

Role: Research, UI/UX

Timeline: Nov 3, 2022 - Mar 29, 2023

Problem + Assumption

The abundance of films and television series offered by video-on-demand streaming services can lead users to have trouble deciding what to watch. As a result, users may needlessly spend an unnecessary amount of time browsing.

Research Goals/Objectives

Scope + Focus

My primary focus is to develop a user-friendly feature that simplifies and helps users quickly find content that is suited to their interests, without having to spend excessive amounts of time searching.

In order to assist users with their trouble deciding what to watch, it was necessary for me to thoroughly understand their needs and expectations, and identify related problems to assess the potential value of the feature and determine how to go forth with the design.

Competitive Analysis

User Interviews

Video-on-demand streaming services used by participants:

Netflix, Disney+, Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Prime Video.

Duration of using streaming services by participants:

2-8 years

I conducted user interviews with 5 participants via video conference and in person.

  • Identify user needs

  • Identify user expectations

  • Identify related problems

Each participant was asked a total of 16 questions based on their experience with using video-on-demand streaming services. These questions led me to extract relevant data required to understand their goals, motivations, reasons, solutions, needs, and expectations.

Ways participants discover new content suited for them:

Browsing (search, discover, recommendations), from a friend, and social media

Interview Details:

5/5 participants experienced trouble choosing content

3/5 participants experience it often

Through analysis, I have identified the primary reasons users believe they faced the trouble of deciding what to watch. Users either found nothing of their interest or felt overwhelmed by the wide variety of content. Additionally, users expressed frustration with coming across out-of-date, incomplete, and region-limited content.

POVs & HMWs

Based on the user interviews, I was able to dig deeper and identify common pain points among video-on-demand viewers. I started with identifying which areas I’d like to explore and hopefully find a solution for and afterwards, I went on to ideating and asking myself, “HMW... help video-on-demand viewers find content suited for them while minimizing browsing time?”

I’d like to explore ways to minimize browsing for video-on-demand viewers because they often have trouble deciding what to watch.

Affinity Map

Following the interviews, I was able to come up with 6 categories based on patterns and commonalities I identified between 5 participants.

We identified 3 common ways participants dealt with the trouble of deciding what to watch.

  • Continuously browsing

  • Rewatching “safe” shows/movies

  • Completely exiting to look for content elsewhere

Task Flows

Having gained a comprehensive understanding of how the feature operates, I developed a task flow to identify the necessary interfaces that would be later on designed for Usability Testing.

Login-Content Search

Component Library

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

I started with sketching and exploring different structures for the key screens. To make things easier, I designed specific screens for 1 flow that’ll best present the main feature.

High-Fidelity Wireframes

Building upon the foundation of Disney+ design, seamlessly integrating our feature became a straightforward process. I mirrored essential elements from Disney+ and customized our feature to seamlessly align with the overall framework.

Startup

Search

Homepage

Search (Results)

Usability Testing

I conducted usability testing with 5 participants via video conference and in person.

  • Identify areas in need of improvement

    • Any areas of confusion/difficulties for users

    • Any areas that can improve the search results

  • Assess the difficulty for users to use the AI Search Bot feature

  • Identify if users would use the AI Search Bot feature.

Each participant was asked tasked to search for a Disney film that they were unable to recall the title and cast of.

Would this feature be effective in situations when you can’t find content to watch?

I received varied responses when asking participants about the effectiveness of the feature in situations where they struggle to find content to watch. Those who responded "no" mentioned they were uncertain about coming up with a suitable prompt and uncertain if it would help them find content of their interest. On the contrary, those who responded "yes" mentioned it would help them find specific content they're looking for and enable them to discover a range of content by inputting vague and specific prompts.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I grapple with the dilemma of selecting content to watch in streaming services, and I found the idea of including an AI feature to address this common problem. However, when it came to implementing the idea, I encountered difficulty in effectively demonstrating the feature's potential impact. I could present the idea itself but struggled to illustrate how it could genuinely assist individuals such as myself, in facing this challenge. During the Usability Tests, I identified the struggle of coming up with a suitable prompt, and participants suggested two potential improvements. Firstly, they suggested adding search suggestions, as a user types input the suggestions will respond accordingly. Additionally, search suggestions would also be displayed without the need of typing. Lastly, they suggested incorporating sort and filter options in the "Search" page to allow them to customize search results according to their preferences.