3 — Case Study: Add a feature on a native app.
On this third project of the bootcamp, we had to choose an application on mobile and add a feature to it. I’m sure you notice in the title, the “native app”: what does it mean?
“Native apps are developed specifically for a particular mobile device and are installed directly onto the device itself. Users download the app via app stores such as Apple AppStore, Google Play store, etc. Native apps are built for specific mobile operating system such as Apple iOS or Android OS.”
Just simply as that 😉
I chose Netflix because I was using it for a long time, especially during my trip on the train. Because of this huge utilization, I already had some ideas to improve it… but as we already know, “We are not our users”, so it’s time to practice once again Design thinking!
BEFORE STARTED: What is Netflix?
Even if i’m sure you’re familiar with this app, let me remind you quickly.
Netflix is a SVOD (Subscription Video On Demand): for an affordable price per month, you can have access to a huge categories of videos: TV Shows, movies, animes, documentaries etc.
But Netflix isn’t the only one on the market, that’s why I conduct a brand analysis: his mains competitors are Prime Video, Disney +, OCS…
Even if they all have advantages, Netflix remains leader on the market.
His strength? The diversity of content, their own creation, the fluidity of their app and a service without interruption or bug (or almost, not all competitors can say the same thing…🙄)
1 — EMPATHIZE
Guerilla Testings
We are totally free and solo for this one week project: our task is to use and choose between the previous UX’s tools we’ve learned previously.
To understand more the user point of view, I decided to conduct a “guerilla testing” with some users.
“An evaluation technique that allows for the collection of user feedback in a practical, time and cost effective manner.”
Affinity Diagram
I grouped their feedbacks in an affinity diagram to see the different kind of pain point & needs: the most relevant one is “the lack of categories and delete files from the list”.
BINGO.
Obviously, the consequence of this problem is clearly the waste of time. Internet is full of meme about it…
To understand it more deeply, let me present you my persona:
User Persona
“Thomas a.k.a the guy who can’t be spoiled”
Thomas is a 32 y.o engineer, very curious and forthright, he needs to:
• always discover new things and watch a lot of things to be the more up-to-date possible.
• see the latest serie in vogue to not be spoiled.
• finds easily and quickly what he wants.
BUT (because there is always a but…)
He has some frustrations:
• he’s lost on his list because he saved many things
• he loose too many times searching what he wants
• he can’t delete things on his list which is a real mess.
Let’s see what Thomas’ day looks like now:
Thomas finished a serie during his trip to work. After his coffee break, his colleagues exchange with him about new releases. Thomas is super excited to discover it, and add them immediately to his list to not forget anything.
After his working day, he arrives at home. Ready to begin something, he has memory lapses and he’s very frustrated to not find what he wants easily.
So what is our problem here?
2 — DEFINE
Problem & Hypothesis statement
Thomas, the guy who can’t be spoil, needs a way to access easily and found quickly what he had in his huge list because he must watch a lot of things and be the more up to date possible.
We believe that creating playlist and categories for Alexandre will help him to be more efficiency to choose what to watch. We will know we are right when the content of the “already watched” tab list will increase in the coming weeks.
How Might We Statement
• How Might We help user to chose their program with efficiency?
• How Might We avoid making user see again the same suggestion or episode?
• How Might We help avoid user to lose too much time searching on their long list of various content?
User flow
For answer to these question, I created an happy path of the userflow:
A user flow is a diagram that shows the path your user will take through your app or website to achieve a certain goal.
This happy path represent each step Thomas will make to achieve his goal, without any problems.
He chose his profil, clicks on his list and categories on it. He can chose between the “Unseen” and “Already watched” slider. He picks one series, a little pop-up about it appears, he clicks on play and he’s ready to binge watched everything 😉
To help you have a better view, it’s time to ideate and to do some prototype!
3 — IDEATE
Wireframes
After making some sketches on paper, I jump directly to mid-fi to make them test by some user. I could have done this with my low-fi but since we’re in remove session I found it much easier to share directly the link prototype rather than show each screen to test and have feedbacks.
The red circles represent the adjustment I have to make according to my different feedbacks.
- I designed the list with a system of dropdown to sort them by categories: Series/ Animes/ Movies/ Documentary/ Cartoons.
Beside each category, the number represent the amount of content inside (both “unseen” and “already watched”)
Even if I haven’t develop this feature, I thought about create a new playlist for user, to be more empathetic. - Under each list you can have the slider: “Unseen” and “Already watched” to help the user to sort them (There was a lot of “déjà-vu” on the insight from my affinity diagram but many users didn’t want to delete it, even if their list was huge). That’s my solution for people who needs to keep everything in list.
But I also add the possibility to remove a file from this list for users who didn’t like a particular thing, and know they’ll never finish it, or watch it again.
I changed other things but I let you discover it on the Hi-fi prototype 😉 I knooow you’re excited (I hope you are at least ahah 😂) but before the cherry on the cake, I must show you two things:
Style guide
You can find on it elements used to create the hi-fi prototype:
- the color range (Brand, accent, neutral colors)
- the typography
- the iconography
- the different kinds of buttons and components
Atomic design system
Atomic design is atoms, molecules, organisms, templates, and pages concurrently working together to create effective interface design systems.
“We’re not designing pages anymore. We’re designing systems of components” — Stephen Hay
PROTOTYPE
Now, it’s time to show you my hi-fi prototype in the following video!
NEXT STEPS
To go even further on this app, we could also think about new features like:
- Share your list with friends using netflix and have opinions or recommendations from them
- Having a real rate system by others user (choose between all of the users, or only friends) by stars, hearts, emoji… instead of the % which concern only your algorithm (choices & taste)
- Changing the algorithm to avoid to go around in circles with the recommendations
- Proposition according to the user’s mood
- A real random suggestion
- Customize his own algorithm with suggestion adapted according to people (like a personality test)…. and even more!
CONCLUSION
This was our first and only one solo project on the bootcamp, so it was very challenging to see what we’re capable of alone! From the research to the ultimate design, it’s really up to you to manage your time and wisely choose the tool to use in only one week!
It’s a great exercice to know yourself more, you can only count on yourself 😉
But I wasn’t totally alone thanks to my amazing partners to support me (Mylene Simoes & Alexandre Ruban). We were grouped in teams but not working on the same project: the point was to motivate each others, give advices… real teamwork on 3 different projects.
Learning from each other is essential!!! So thank you again guys! ❤