shenjiaweb

Social Recommendation for Prime Video

DURATION

14 Weeks

MY ROLE

UX Research
UI Design
Prototyping
User Testing

TOOLS

Figma
Miro

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Integrate social features with recommendations in Prime Video app to help user socialize with others about streaming contents and provide better recommendations.

PRODUCT GOALS

Help user socialize about streaming contents
Provide better experience when user are watching with others
Provide better recommendation based on social feature

BUSINESS GOALS

Increase monthly active user
Attract new user to subscribe
Make user use the app for longer time

The Process

Research

LEARNING GOALS

Watching
Experience

What services do you use?
Tell me about how you watch on these services?
What device do you use?
What do you like or dislike about these services?

Socializing

Do you like to talk to people about what you watch? (Online and in person)
Do you watch together with other people?

Acquiring
Information

How do you decide what to watch?
Do you read reviews, ratings, comments or critics?
Did you look into more information about the show that you watch?

USER INTERVIEWS

“

It’s painful to choose what to watch. We spend over 1 hour choosing.

“

Reviews aren’t helpful. Except for the bad ones.

“

I prefer to watch with friends. It’s a fun activity.

FINDINGS

Watching
Experience

The seeking experience is the pain point of the entire watching experience.
Seeking is quite different on TV than on computer or phone.

Socializing

People like to watch with others, especially with friends using TV.
It’s sometimes difficult to watch together during pandemic.
People like to talk and share about what they are watching with others.

Acquiring
Information

People often gets recommendations from their friends and family.
People spend a lot of time on deciding what to watch, especially when watching with others.
After seeing clips and trailers, people are more likely to try out the show.

Empathy Map

Sara
Stream

Sara likes to watch TV shows and movies to relax.
She enjoys watching with friends and families.
She gets recommendation from friends.
She watch clips and trailers on social media.

Think & Feel

What is their overall personality like?

Loves to relax by watching shows.
Open to suggestions while having his own thoughts.

What occupies their thoughts?

What to watch tonight?
What is trending now?
Where can I find stuff I like?
Is this movie good?

What occupies their thoughts?

Finding the right show to watch

Hear

What do they hear from friends?

I’m watching xxx, and it’s good/bad because...
You should watch this because...

What do they hear from family?

I want to watch xxx tonight.

Are the being influenced and how?

What’s trending on social media
Friends and family recommendation
Recommendation in streaming apps
Short clips
Plot overview video on youtube
Reviews on google, rotten tomatoes, etc.(Reviews are not helpful for some, but they do sparks curiousity)

See

Watch on TV:

with friends and families
need to find something to watch that all of them like
bigger screen is better
harder to go back and forth

Watch on their phone, tablets or laptops:

on their own
when the TV is occupied
with earphones plugged in
very personal

Say & Do

Look for recommendations
See what’s popular on social media
Browse by category
See short clips
Google reviews
Share subscriptions
Talk about shows with others
Recommend to others
Routine: spend about 0.5 hours to decide what to watch, and spend rest of the time watching

Pains

Don’t know what to watch
Not sure if the show is good
Spend too much time deciding
When watching together, need to find something everyone enjoy
Hard to watch together remotely
Need better recommendations
Hard to get to the desired position when seeking

Gains

Tailored recommendation for personal and group watching
Fast and easy way to share about streaming contents with others
Better ways to watch together
Better seeking experience

The Problem

Streaming apps are designed to watch alone.
They lack social features and recommendations that integrate social features.

Prime Video App

EVALUATION & SOLUTION

CURRENT

Only have recommendation by system for the user
Can only share a link to 3rd party app

SOLUTION

Have a friend system built-in to the app
Allow user to share clips with friends within the app

CURRENT

SOLUTION

(Watch Party)

(Group Watching)

up to 1000 people

3-5 friends

no recommendation

recommendation based on everyone’s preference

traditional chat room

voice chat and reaction emoji

remote only

consistent experience for remote and in-person

Workflows

SHARING A CLIP

WHERE TO VIEW THE SHARED CLIPS

REMOTE GROUP WATCHING

REACTION EMOJI FOR GROUP WATCHING

EMOJI SEEKING

IN-PERSON GROUP WATCHING

User Tests

Iterations

SHARING A CLIP

INVITE PAGE

Users were concerned about what if they accidentally invited the wrong person. Before the iteration, the invite will be sent when user tap on the individual invite buttons. I changed the workflow to first select friends, and then send out invites altoghter. This way user gets the chance to double check and correct errors.

REMOTE GROUP
WATCHING OVERHAUL

Some users were asking for a more efficient way to decide on what to watch. Some wants to decide first and then have everyone in. Some wants to clearly see what their friends responds to watch proposal. So I leveraged the asyncronous aspect of being remote. With Rooms you can schedule time to watch later and vote on what to watch now.

Final Design

Prototypes:

Social Recommendation for Prime Video

DURATION

MY ROLE

TOOLS

PROJECT OVERVIEW

PRODUCT GOALS

BUSINESS GOALS

The Process

Research

LEARNING GOALS

WatchingExperience

Socializing

AcquiringInformation

USER INTERVIEWS

FINDINGS

WatchingExperience

Socializing

AcquiringInformation

Empathy Map

SaraStream

Think & Feel

Hear

See

Say & Do

Pains

Gains

The Problem

Prime Video App

EVALUATION & SOLUTION

CURRENT

SOLUTION

CURRENT

SOLUTION

Workflows

SHARING A CLIP

WHERE TO VIEW THE SHARED CLIPS

REMOTE GROUP WATCHING

REACTION EMOJI FOR GROUP WATCHING

EMOJI SEEKING

IN-PERSON GROUP WATCHING

User Tests

Iterations

SHARING A CLIP

INVITE PAGE

REMOTE GROUPWATCHING OVERHAUL

Final Design

Watching
Experience

Acquiring
Information

Watching
Experience

Acquiring
Information

Sara
Stream

REMOTE GROUP
WATCHING OVERHAUL

Railgun Explained