NETFLIX WATCH PARTY
Now enjoy your favorite movies or shows with your favorite people from wherever you are.
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
2 Months
Oct - Nov 2022
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MAKE OF THE TEAM
Solo Project
SOFTWARE'S USED
Figma, Photoshop
Overview
This is a research project to introduce a Watch Party feature for Netflix website. It enables users to create watch parties or join them and enjoy their favorite content with friends or family from anywhere. Users can interact with their friends through group chats, videocall and reactions while enjoying their favorite show or movie.
THE PROBLEM
Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services with 223 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. But since the Covid 19 pendamic, the whole quarantine period changed the way people socialized and the Watch parties gained huge traction. Many of the streaming platforms like Disney+, Prime video or Hulu introduced group watch features. At the same time different third party applications or chrome extensions like Teleparty (earlier Netflix Party) became popular too. But surprisingly Netflix still doesn't have any such feature which has been a great discomfort for millions of Netflix users.
THE SOLUTION
Through this project I've introduced a new feature "Watch Party" in the current Netflix website based on the research I conducted. It solves the problem of millions of Netflix users allow them to enjoy their favorite shows or movies with their friends on Netflix itself without having to download any third party application or chrome extensions.
MY ROLE
UX/UI Designer
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Market Research & Competitive Analysis
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User Research
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Interaction
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Visual Design
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Prototyping
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Usability testing
Main features introduced in the final solution
Group Chat / Video Call
Users can interact with others using the group chat or video call features. They can send emojis and voice notes too.
Smart Poll
A smart way to decide what to watch. A poll will be generated based on the favorites of all the participants.
Reactions
Send reactions to have a sense of connection with their friends and family without having to miss any entertainment on screen.
Design Process
For this project I used the classic 5 step Design Thinking Process as it suited my approach perfectly.
Before starting my project, I asked myself some initial questions -
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"Which users are most important to the business?"
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"What do my primary users needs the most?"
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"Why would someone want to use this feature?"
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
With these questions in mind, I started my research with some market research & competitive analysis. Based on this I selected my primary user base and conducted user Interviews.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
To start off, I did some market research and competitive analysis to know the ongoing market trends and to learn about the gaps present in the market and the features my competitors are providing. I also read comments of users in playstore. After that I used Amazon prime watch party, Hotstar and various third party applications and chrome extensions like Teleparty (earlier Netflix Party), Hotstar Party, Rave, etc.
With all the insights I gathered through competitive analysis and market research, I selected my target users, recruited participants for interviews, scripted interview questions, and conducted user interviews. This helped me in the further steps to create user personas and empathy maps. Then using affinity mapping, I made a problem statement, and goal statement and got users' major pain points
Meet the Users
ROSE
Age:
Education:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
28
MS in CSE
Nashville, USA
Husband, 2 dogs
SDE
“The best way to get a project done faster is to start sooner”
Rose is a 28 yo SDE at a tech firm in Chicago. She has recently moved here with her husband and two dogs. Rose is an introvert and misses how she used to hang out with her friends and binge-watch their favorite shows back in her hometown. Now she uses teleparty or Discord to host group watch parties, but the process is long and kills the mood.
Goals
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To spend quality time with friends and binge watch the latest season of Stranger Things with them.
Frustrations
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I usually spend a lot of time to decide what to watch on Netflix.
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It’s too frustrating when there is no video synchronization.
ADVIT
Age:
Education:
Hometown:
Family:
Occupation:
19
Pusruing BBA
Indore, India.
Parents
unemployed
"I am not into all the modern technologies. I prefer something reliable and easy-to-understand.”
Advit is a 19 years old boy from Indore, MP, India. He is pursuing his BBA in Delhi. He is not a tech-savvy person. He likes to watch movies with his friends, but they’re in different cities, and other ways to stream movies together are confusing for him.
Goals
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To make new friends and discuss movies with them.
Frustrations
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Do not understand the complex process to create a discord room or a Zoom meeting to organise a watch party with friends.
Empathy Maps
SAYS
​ "I miss hanging out with my friends and binge watching our favorite TV seriese together"
THINKS
There should be a featuer in Netflix, to host watch parties easily.
DOES
Uses third party
applications like
"Teleparty" or create Discord room or zoom meetings to host watch parties.
FEELS
Happy while
watching movies with friends.
Frustrated when I cannot
resize the chat box in teleparty.
SAYS
​ "I wish there was an easy way to syearm the latest season of Stranger Things with my friends on Netflix."
THINKS
Became excited to know about the watch party feature looking forward to it.
DOES
Creates a Google - Meet link or Zoom meeting when all the friends want to watch the latest episode of their favorite TV show.
FEELS
"Its too frustrating when there are synchronization issues in video playback."
MAJOR CHALLENGES
Based on the above research, Three main challenges need to be resolved
Wanted an easy way to create/join a party
Some users who are not tech -friendly are not comfortable with third party applications or chrome extensions. They want an easy way to create or host a party within Netflix only.
Can't decide what to watch
Most of the times the biggest problem while watching in a group is that it's too difficult to decide what to watch.
Wanted to feel connected while watching
It's too distracting for most of the users too see other participants on a videocall while watching movies. The aspect ratio also decreases due to the side bar. But at the same time people also want a sense of connection with their friends while watching their favorite show or movie.
LET'S START DESIGNING!
Once I completed my initial research and got my user's pain points and motivations, it was now time to start designing some initial user flows and sketch wireframes.
Creating a party
Joining a party
Making P&P Wireframes and Low-Fi Prototypes
I sekched out some wireframes on paper. I wanted to be sure of the user flow and the IA before building prototypes
Usually, I perform unmoderated usability testing after making Low-Fi prototypes, but since Netflix is a well-known platform, I decided to conduct the study after creating Hi-Fi prototypes. So that users can feel like they are actually navigating through Netflix's website. This would also help them to give better input.
Style Guide
I recreated the icons and matched the color and typography to Netflix's UI, as its style guide is not publically available.
The UI
Getting Feedback
After making Hi-fi prototypes, I conducted an unmoderated usability study and did a design review with a senior designer.
Following were the insights gathered from the study.
BEFORE
The onboarding overlay was too simple and not visually appealing. It means that when new users come here, they don't know what the Netflix party is and might leave.
AFTER
For this, I added icons and a brief explanation about the Netflix Party feature for users before opening the sidebar.
Some users got distracted because of the videos of other participants while watching a movie, even when they minimized the sidebar. But at the same time, they wanted a sense of connection with their friend.
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The "friends" section can be confusing because more than one profile is linked to a single email id.
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In the "Add Recipients" screen, there should be a "close button" in place of a "back -button".
For this, I added a feature of "reactions" in the minimized bar, so that they can instantly react to their favorite scene without being distracted by videos of other participants and now they don't have to lose the screen size because of the videos.
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Replaced "Friends" with "Recent" which solves the problem.
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Added a close button in place of a back button
Solutions to the Challenges
These were the solutions for three main challenges discussed earlier
Solution 1
Easy way to create/join a party
Users can create or join a party in just three clicks. This helps those users who are not tech-friendly and want an easy and straight way to either host a party or join it.
Solution 2
Can't decide what to watch
I introduced a feature called "Smart Poll" It collects the data from the "My List" of all the participants and selects five common TV shows or movies from which participants can vote for whatever they want to see. In case the participants do not like the recommendations, they can refresh the list.
Solution 3
Wanted to feel connected while watching
Initially, I displayed videos of other participants in the minimized bar, but some users found it distracting and had to sacrifice the aspect ratio too. I introduced a "Reaction" feature to address this, allowing users to react to scenes and feel connected without video distraction.
Key Takeaways
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The project was an enjoyable and challenging experience, as it was my first time working on an established design system.
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I had to consider current UI patterns, interactions, and the mental model of Netflix users, which helped me grow as a designer.
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However, due to the project's conceptual nature, its success rate could not be measured quantitatively, but I received positive feedback during usability testing and design review.
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The "Smart Poll" and "Reactions" features were particularly well-received and addressed a significant challenge faced by Netflix users.