From Decision Fatigue To Discovery

A design approach to solve the problem of decision fatigue among Netflix users. Ideating potential solutions to make it easier and quicker for users to find shows & films they enjoy.

Figma file

Jump to solutions

Problem

To determine if other Netflix users shared similar experiences, I needed answers to a few questions. The goal was to better understand how they selected and consumed content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, primarily Netflix, and what pain points they faced throughout their viewing experience.

67 students participated in the survey and I interviewed 8 of them.

Despite its vast library, half of Netflix subscribers struggle to decide what to watch, with users spending 18 minutes on average browsing. Most users admitted to abandoning their search if unable to make a selection.

How Might We…

HMW

Simplify the decision-making process and reduce browsing time?

HMW

Leverage user data and preferences to present personalised options

HMW

Help discover content that matches the viewer's current mood

Ideation

Crazy 8s

To kick off ideation, I used the Crazy 8s design thinking exercise. This rapid exercise allowed me to quickly flush out a bunch of rough concepts onto a paper within an 8 minute timeframe.

Dot Voting

After brain dumping a bunch of different ideas, I briefed the team on the concepts. We then used the Dot Voting process to identify the most promising or resonant ideas to pursue further.

Impact vs Effort

Working with assumptions, I plotted the shortlisted ideas onto the Impact vs Effort matrix to prioritise those with high user impact and relatively low development effort.

Potential Solutions

Pick Something

Decision making by elimination is a strategy where you gradually remove options that don't meet your criteria, ultimately leading you to the best choice remaining.

Watch Something

People have a far easier time deciding what to watch on a TV, because of the limit of choices. With this solution, we bring back the lean-back viewing experience of traditional cable TV to your Netflix.

Play Something 2.0

“Play Something” button was a tool that had been developed and tested for years at Netflix as a means to relieve people of the burden of choice. A year after that rollout, Netflix retired the feature due to low usage.

By knowing whether viewers are looking for a TV show or a film, and by giving users basic control of selecting a genre, it might take some load off the algorithm and help users find their next binge faster.

Conclusion

The long process of researching, ideation, repeatedly iterating on designs, and prototyping has led to a project I'm proud of, but still, I believe there's a lot of room for improvement.

Final Takeaways

The iOs interface for Netflix clone was well received, users said that all the redesigns fit in well with the Netflix's existing design language.

Out of the 3 options, users believed Watch Something to have the most impact with helping users with decision fatigue.

Users agreed that having flexibility and control within the new Play Something feature would help users more receptive to suggestions.

What I learnt

Cloning the Netflix interface was a fun challenge that required meticulous attention to detail in design & prototyping.

This project helped me broaden my design thinking skills and learn different design thinking exercises for problem-solving.

Testing with clickable prototypes was crucial for gathering valuable user feedback.

Somethings I want to improve on

I'd like to work more on my research method. I felt that the sample for my initial interview research was biased given that they were my friends.

I had to work with a lot of assumptions during the ideation phase. It would have been great to have received some business insights from designers/PMs at Netflix.

Moving forward…

This project served as an excellent initial step toward identifying potential solutions to the problem. However, if this were a real-world project, I would dedicate more time iterating and refining each proposed solution through a rigorous process of testing and collecting feedback from users and various stakeholders.