Streaming App
Kino
As a part of the Capstone project for the University of Michigan's Online User Experience Research and Design Specialization through Coursera, I designed a streaming service app that creates a custom browsing dashboard for the various streaming services a user has access to. As a part of the project, I conducted user interviews, created personas, sketched out solutions, and developed user-tested prototypes.
Client: Student Project
Timeline: 5 Weeks
Role: Lead Designer
Skills: UX Research, UX Design, UI Design
The Problem
The average household in the US is signed up for 4 streaming services, with 10% signed up for 5 or more
With services such as Netflix having upwards of 5,000 content titles, it can be overwhelming to find the right content and keep track of what they’ve watched. This convoluted process takes time away that the user could be putting towards binge-watching the first season of their newly discovered show.
The Goal
Design an app that lets users browse content from their streaming services all from one place
The app will have information on ratings, cast, trailers, and more to fully optimize this tool as a content discovery resource. Users should be able to manage their watchlist, track what they’ve watched, and keep a list of their favorite content for go-to recommendations.
The Process
Over five weeks, I conducted iterative research and design to understand user needs and develop testable concepts. This included analyzing the competitive landscape, creating user personas and storyboards, and designing solutions at varying fidelity levels, which were refined through heuristic evaluations and user testing.
Research
Synthesize
Ideate
Prototype
Research
Overview & Study Goals
For this research phase, I opted to conduct user interviews in order to identify the unmet needs of streaming customers. In addition, I conducted a competitive analysis of the different apps or services where people are currently getting streaming content information. Personas and storyboards were also created to empathize with the users and further understand their needs.
Research
Methods
User Interviews
Competitive analysis
User Needs Analysis
User Interviews
The goals of these user interviews was to uncover how users who are signed up for multiple streaming services browse for new shows or movies across multiple platforms, the problems they face trying to accomplish this task, and the tools, constraints, or external resources they use.
The needs finding assessment uncovered several key findings that proved useful to the development of this app. Overall, the current process for content discovery is quite convoluted, but users are used to their workflows. The barriers of entry were identified as a potential hurdle, so the more optimization the app can have, the better. With users having a variety of touchpoints and platforms that they need to shift between, there is a market for streamlining and consolidating this process.
Paticipants
2*
*Due to time constraints, only 2 participants were able to be interviewed for this project. I recognize that this is not a sufficient sample size to gain meaningful insights, but decided to continue with the process and use these interviews as directional findings for the first prototype.
Age Range
25–30
Time Streaming
5-20 hours per week
Platform Access
2 or more
COMPETITIVE Analysis
Competitors
A competitive analysis was conducted to gain insights into the landscape of what potential platforms or resources users are utilizing. This analysis was helpful in uncovering best practices as well as break down the advantages and drawbacks of each platform.
Synthesize
User Needs
The user interviews and the findings from the discovery phase were used to extract several user needs that would set the foundational flows of the early prototypes.
Research
Methods
User Personas
Storyboards
Scenarios
Storyboards
Storyboards were created to help illustrate potential use cases for the app as well as help empathize with the users.
Ideate
Design Goals
Based on the user needs assessments and competitive analysis, several areas of opportunity were identified to establish the key tasks of this app.
Research
Methods
Sketches
Lo-Fi Prototype
Med-Fi Prototype
Lo-Fi
Concept Sketching
Messy sketches were a quick way to develop high level concepts without getting bogged down on the look and feel.
Mid-Fi
Wireframes
After sketching out a variety of ideas, I was ready to dive into developing key wireframes in Figma based on the design goals and tasks.
Hi-Fi
Prototype
Once a solid flow was developed that was grounded in the key user tasks, I then began to level up the fidelity and establish the look and feel of the app.
Refine
User Testing
Two rounds of user testing were conducted in which users were prompted to complete a series of tasks. Below are some of the main tasks that the prototype supports:
Research
Methods
User Testing
Heuristic Evaluation
Design System
Final Prototype
Analyze
Heuristic Evaluation
From the med-fi prototype, a heuristic evaluation was conducted using Jakob Nielson's 10 heuristics. The evaluation was conducted using notes on the Figma prototype which was then translated into a matrix with the most sever violations pulled out as the key finding.
Next Steps
Reflection
Looking back through this project, while I am proud of the outcomes, learnings, and skills I gained throughout the process, I recognize that there were certain constraints. Time and resources were a constant hurdle. When it came to user interviews and testing, I called upon my social circle which potentially created bias among my recruiting on top of already having a low sample size. I also recognize that UX design is an iterative process that needs constant feedback and analysis. While I've concluded with a high-fidelity prototype that captures several key user flows, in reality, this product is far from a minimum viable product. From onboarding to error states, there are several other features and flows that need to be iterated on, tested, and evaluated for the next steps of this process.
