HULU SHUFFLE PLAY
Easing the burden of choice through feature design.
2020
USER RESEARCH
FEATURE DESIGN
UX DESIGN
PROTOTYPING
FEATURE DESIGN
UX DESIGN
PROTOTYPING
INTRODUCTION
PROJECT BRIEF
It’s a familiar scene – the endless scrolling through a seemingly infinite amount of content, unable to find that exact something you want in the moment. In imagining possibilities for a more comfortable world, wouldn’t it be nice to have that feeling of being overwhelmed alleviated? In designing a feature for an already existing product, in this case Hulu, I sought to find a way for people to spend less time choosing and more time enjoying the content they love.
THE CHALLENGE
When adding a new feature into an already existing, already familiar product, it is crucial to be unobtrusive, yet useful. The feature to be designed needs to justify its existence through the value it adds to the experience. In order to set out on this design challenge, I needed to establish the greater questions to be answered, namely “What role does the streaming service play in daily life?” “How can feature help a service better serve that role?” and perhaps most importantly “How can I most seamlessly integrate a new feature to an existing and familiar system?”
EMPATHIZE
RESEARCH BEGINNINGS
In order to better design a feature, I needed to know exactly who would be using it. Doing a demographic analysis of those who use video streaming services proved exactly how ubiquitous such platforms are in people’s daily lives. Especially given the COVID-19 pandemic, where viewership had increased exponentially, a short answer to the question of who is “almost everyone.”
CONVERSATIONS
I conducted another set of open-ended interviews in order to get a better look at the way people interact with their video streaming services. I wanted to learn how people watch, and how they decide on it. In these conversations, I learned about the way people choose something to put on, but also the role streaming plays in their daily lives. For some, putting on a familiar show is a way to fall asleep at night, being lulled to sleep by their favorite characters – for others, the discovery of something new or being enthralled by a great story keep them watching.
DEVELOPING A "WHO"
In my conversations, I was able to identify two distinct types of viewership – active viewing and passive viewing. An active viewer watches something as an activity, their attention is focused on what is playing – they may actively seek out new things to watch or follow serial programming. The passive viewer does not focus their attention solely on what is playing, they use a streaming service for background noise, and often revisit familiar content for comfort and familiarity. In order to design a feature that will be useful to everyone, I created two personas to design for, with differing needs, motivations, and viewing habits.
DEFINE
INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
In order to build a new feature into the system, I needed to understand more clearly the design of that system. Analyzing the way Hulu arranges its information and recreating the site map gave a much clearer view of where and how the shuffle play feature could be integrated.
KEY TASKS
Once I understood the “where” and “how,” I was able to design a few different scenarios catered to the two distinct viewer archetypes. The scenarios are familiar to those who have scrolled endlessly through a streaming service unable to decide on something to watch. The idea was to identify the areas in which the viewer will experience “the burden of choice,” and then allow them to alleviate that burden.
BUILD
WIREFRAMES
This particular wireframe build was unique in that the groundwork had already been laid for me. Rather than creating my own structure, I took this as an opportunity to analyze and recreate an already existing, and already successful, system and find a way to add into it. Based on my research, people tend to use a wide variety of different devices to stream, so in keeping testing in mind, I chose to design for mobile. People tend to “cast” from their phones more frequently than they watch on a desktop, so I wanted to ensure the process felt familiar.
BRAND IDENTITY
Developing the brand identity for this particular project was, again, less about creation, but more about doing a deep dive into the existing brand identity. Through a combination of my own analysis and a study of the Hulu brand guidelines, I was able to recreate the style successfully.
TEST
INCREASING FIDELITY
Seeing the wireframes come to life felt different this time around, though no less satisfying. Adding the visual components to the wireframes created not something new, but something familiar. The true test of this project wasn’t so much to just create a feature, but to integrate it in a way that is convincing – the feature must look like it was meant to be there.
ASSESSING USABILITY
Conducting a “Think out loud” test using the prototype I had built in InVision, I asked several people who are familiar with the Hulu mobile app to try out the new shuffle play feature. I observed the way they interacted with the prototype, taking note of the ease of use of the feature, as well as the believability of my recreation of the app. The feature itself was well-received, with most participants noting, unprompted, that they would use it in their daily viewing. There were some clarity of language issues, however, that were fixed in priority revisions.
CONCLUSION
PARTING THOUGHTS
Understanding the way people watch was crucial to the design of a successful feature. Food Network’s Alton Brown has often maligned the unitasker- a tool that exists to serve a singular purpose. Keeping Chef Brown in mind, I made a concerted effort to design a feature that can be used towards multiple ends, by different people with different needs. This project was also a great practice in studying an existing design system, and learning to recreate it from scratch. As designers, we use our craft to solve problems – even a problem as, in the grand scheme, minute as being overwhelmed by what to watch.
