INSPIRATION

The Cycle of Finishing a Favorite Series

Every time my cousin ended her new favorite anime, k-drama, or another addicting series, the cycle repeated: She agonized on Google, got its merchandise, then settled for a similar show. When Marvel released their TV finales, I found myself doing the same.

OVERVIEW

USER PROBLEM

Coping with Post-Series Depression

When pop culture fans end their favorite film series, they ache for more of its fictional world and struggle to find comparable films. To cope, they research the film's books, merchandise, music, and trivia.

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

The “I guess we’ll have to rent it” Platform

Prime Video’s film collection is limited for subscribers. The experience doesn’t resemble a typical streaming service. Instead, it's designed more like an e-commerce site, with vast streaming content for individual purchases.

DESIGN SOLUTION

Offer More than Films + Link to Amazon

While competitors end their films with more cinematic products, Prime Video can flow to film-related books, music, podcasts, and merchandise.

REVEALED BY USER CONVERSATIONS

Archetype Matrix: Fans and Casual Viewers

My goal's to understand why viewers may rotate between entertainment platforms & purchase merchandise. I sought interviewees more likely to exhaust each platform (e.g. comic fans), & others more dedicated to one platform (e.g. TV bingers). They revealed...

Users don’t always search for merchandise

Some prefer sticking to one entertainment platform. The ones who do purchase merchandise prefer shopping from local, small businesses.

Users search for their next series by social connections

All participants considered...

The film creators’ other work
Word-of-Mouth recommendations by the fandom community

Real Pain Point: Tracking references to other stories

The struggle comes...

Before film: Catching up on a film’s preceding stories in the right sequence
During film: Understanding how a film contributes to the series’ arc
After film: Avoiding spoilers during their trivia research

CHALLENGE: THE BUSINESS WOULDN’T ADAPT ITS GOAL

User + Business addressed Distinct Flows

Business Goal: To navigate from Prime Video to merchandise on Amazon.com, Kindle, and Amazon Music.
User Need: To catch up on a film’s related stories in a sequence.

Defining a Balanced Flow for Both Needs

I used Test Driven Development to define a user task that’s...

Balanced, to meet both the business’ + users’ competing needs
Minimal, to bring focus to all the varying design factors
Iterable, to grow as-needed

Usability Test Goal: Navigate from a select movie to its related book

User task to navigate from a movie to a comic book

HUMANIZING THE POLAR OPPOSITES OF THE USER SPECTRUM

Dedicated Pop Culture Fans vs Occasional Viewers

Represent Dedicated Pop Culture Fans

Jeff is skilled in exhausting his resources to find various products. He reveals users’ current methods to research entertainment, & how I can design for their remaining pain points.

Represent Occasional Viewers

‍Rio is too busy to invest in entertainment research. She reveals users’ challenges to begin entertainment research, & how I can design to assist this starting point.

POP CULTURE FANS IN THEIR LIFESTYLE CONTEXT

They Value Tracking Trivia + Bonding with Fans

A social feature can suggest trivia and flow to related products. Otherwise, Jeff’s innovative needs fall outside the current technical bandwidth. They may be saved for a future iteration.

TOO MANY FEATURE IDEAS, FOCUS ON TOP TWO

Product Navigation to Increase Purchases

The top features to implement are...

Recommendation Lists, to help users with product discovery
Entertainment Queue, to help users with tracking references

These help users to increase purchases and benefit the business.

SKETCHING ACCORDING TO THE USER DATA

New Features Placed per User Values

The Recommendation Lists are placed throughout Prime Video. Since users value references to other films and word-of-mouth recs, it's placed in Prime Video's x-ray and forum. Meanwhile, the Entertainment Queue will have its own page. This is based on users' need for a central, dedicated space to track a story's sequence.

WIREFRAMING ACCORDING TO FURTHER DATA

Distinct Flows for Product Navigation

Since research showed that users are either...

Open to consuming all merchandise
Only interested in consuming more stories

I updated the navigation feature based on these two flows

mid-fidelity wireframes of related stories tab

Mid-fidelity wireframe of film details page with bonus content tab

Mid-fidelity wireframe of streaming page with annotations of film references

Mid-fidelity wireframe of streaming page with X-Ray overlay of film references

mid-fidelity wireframe of end credits with entertainment queue overlay

Mid-fidelity wireframe of entertainment queue page

ADDING THE UI ELEMENTS

Product Learnability Influenced Clarifying Labels

On the Social Recommendation Lists, it was still challenging to identify the types of products listed. For browsing clarity, I added icons to represent each product category.

mid-fidelity wireframes of more stories tab

high-fidelity wireframes of bonus content tab

High-fidelity wireframe of streaming page with annotations of film references

High-fidelity wireframe of streaming page with X-Ray overlay of film references

high-fidelity wireframes of end credits' overlay of entertainment queue

high-fidelity wireframes of entertainment queue

FEEDBACK FROM POP CULTURE FANS AND CASUAL VIEWERS

Positive Impact on Post-Film Discovery

"I like discovering podcasts and wouldn’t have thought these [with a relation to the movie] existed." - Anime/Manga Fan

"These new tabs present everything I would research after a film, so they’re very convenient." - Comic Expert

"The Bonus Content's new visibility is the most important to me. I enjoy diving deeper into how a story was made." - TV Series Enthusiast

Requests for More Trivia

"I couldn’t identify Lady Octopus among the comic books, and need clearer labels." - TV Series Enthusiast

"I want to see all the references at once, instead of clicking through scene-by-scene." - Sci-Fi Geek

"The books are oddly placed with Film/TV. I see it as a completely different medium." - Casual Viewer

LESSONS FOR FUTURE PROJECTS

Simplify the Process

When user and business needs are distances away from each other, this leads to competing priorities. To find a focus in the ambiguity, I'll define the usability test early. This will let me consider each party's most critical factors, and identify flows that balance each.

Adjust the Project Focus

If a stakeholder wants to keep a business goal, regardless of validation from user research, I'll consider it another requirement in the design brief.