Although this dilemma seemed apparent, I had to verify that this was an actual problem that users were facing. The objective of my research is to clarify the problem space, identify potential users, find information that’ll help ideate solutions to enhance a user’s video streaming selection experience.
The first step in clarifying the problem space was to conduct secondary research – which is where I stumbled upon eye-opening statistics from Gracenote, a Nielsen company (2022) and The Morning Consult (2020 on the current state of video streaming industry as seen below (click side arrow for next slide):
Having confirmed that this was an actual problem users faced, I was able to move onto the next step of my research plan which was to interview some video streaming users!
To ensure the interviews were done with the right participants and ran smoothly I came up with a research strategy and conducted my interviews as seen below:
Insightful User Quotes 👀
Once I finished conducting interviews with my 5 avid streamers – in order to gain a better understanding of their behaviors, pain points, needs, and goals – it was time to synthesize the results.
With interviews concluded, I complied all the quotes from users that captured key thoughts during their view selection decision making process identify motivations, goals, pain points, and needs — creating an Affinity Map.
Included below is the construction of my Affinity Map from initial grouping to final grouping (Left) and the close-up of the final result (Right):
Affinity Map Construction
Final Affinity Map Close-Up
With the organzied behaviors, pain points, needs, and goals of users completed, I wanted to establish a clear picture of what potential users look like – which was done through Personas as seen below.
Once I clarified the main type of users I was to design for, I synthesized the main findings from the interviews into Key User Insights — and in order to define the main problems users were encountering, I reframed and refined the Key User Insights into challenges for design:
These statements clearly articulate the user problems to be solved for thus ensuring that the correct solution is designed.
Create a one-stop app for all user video streaming needs such as — provide users with ability to explore multiple viewing catalogs from multiple streaming services all at once, find the streaming availability of any searched title, personalized watch suggestions and provide users with a title’s desired film/tv info — all in order to enhance a user’s viewing streaming experience.
To establish what essential features were necessary to accomplish the goals/tasks for users to streamline the video streaming experience, I outlined an MVP (minimum viable product). Once that was done, I prioritized the following features that are to be included in the initial prototype based off my avid streamers’ pain points, wants, & needs:
With the core functionality of the prototype established, it was time to begin sketching what the prototype would look like!
Based on the Key Features to be included in the initial prototype, I sketched the solution screens below:
Homepage
Title Info Page
Search Page
Network Filter Page
Watch Suggestions Page
With the solution screens sketched, I conducted guerilla usability testing in order to get initial feedback on the design with 5 participants. I tested the design by creating a clickable prototype with the sketches.
Through testing, I learned that users:
Having learned this valuable information, the next steps were to incorporate user feedback, create wireframes/high-fidelity screens, and finally — create the prototype!
The usability test consisted of observing 5 avid streamers, through zoom calls, in order to gain their initial reaction to the app’s design and their experience performing the app’s primary task.
The test ran smoothly. All five participants were able to complete the assigned tasks, although there were some difficulties encountered for some of them:
For the second round of testing, with 5 new participants, I focused on testing the updated functionality of the prototype:
Based on our User testing, I discovered that the issues found in the first round of testing were no longer an issue – and that the prototype solution did in fact end up streamlining the video streaming selection experience for avid streamers thus making this project a success. A few user quotes that were gathered from both user testing sessions:
Due to time constraints, I decided this updated version of the prototype will be the final product :)
