OVERVIEW

This project is a new feature case study called Netflix Watch Party, designed to bring people together during life in quarantine. The initial concept was created as a part of IBM's Enterprise Design Thinking workshop and was my team's capstone project for IBM Global Sales School. We were awarded 1st place in our post-workshop pitch.

After graduating from IBM Global Sales School, I decided to revisit this case study as a personal project with a strong focus on the user.

This project is not associated with IBM or Netflix. This project is also not affiliated with Teleparty (previously termed Netflix Watch Party, but unaffiliated with Netflix).

TYPE

Web design case study

ROLE

Product Designer

TOOLS

Sketch
Figma
Miro

TIMEFRAME

2 months

Background

With the spread of COVID-19, life in 2020 quickly became digitalized. Friends and family turned into words on a screen and the outside world became a film playing on my window. Inspired by our first month in COVID-19 quarantine, my team and I aspired to provide a solution that would connect users in a digital world—Netflix Watch Party VR. However, our process lacked user research and did not take into consideration the accessibility of VR for the average user.
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‍I wanted to challenge myself by re-doing this project on my own with an end-to-end focus on the user. Another personal goal for this new feature exercise was to try to improve the user experience while staying true to the established actions and designs of an existing product.

The Problem

Users want to connect with others over mutual forms of entertainment, but have a hard time creating organic interactions and finding ways to make the watching experience more social.

Hypothesis Statement

If users use the Netflix Watch Party feature, then they will be able to create a more social watching experience with family and friends because they can join virtual watch parties for their favorite shows and movies.

Solution Sneak Peek

I designed Netflix Watch Party—a desktop feature on Netflix's website that allows users to plan and join watch parties with both video and chat capabilities.View the clickable prototype here.

Understanding Business Needs & User Needs

Market Research

With our living habits so drastically changed by the pandemic, I turned to market research to get a more tangible (and quantitative) understanding of just how much our lives had changed as compared to pre-COVID. I also read Netflix's 2020 proxy statement to familiarize myself with the company roadmap and business goals.

User Research

I conducted 11 interviews with users within the younger range of Netflix's target demographic in order to understand their relationships with Netflix and how their social lives had changed since the pandemic. Based on my research, I found that users who were living alone or previously used to living with friends (i.e. college housing) would feel higher levels of loneliness and turn to Netflix as a source of relief.

Based on the interview answers, I created an affinity map and a response frequency-based heat map that helped me surface common pain points. My findings supported my hypothesis and followed the research insights: Young adults were struggling with the lack of face-to-face interactions in quarantine and were turning to Netflix to find relief and start conversations with friends.

This is what users had to say:

"Shows and movies are a huge part of my conversations with friends."

"[In quarantine,] virtual interactions just don't feel organic."

"Many of my friends live in different cities, so to be honest, I don't have much of a social life anymore."

Affinity Map

Insights

Users leverage mutual forms of entertainment as a way to connect with family and friends.
Users struggle to organically connect with long distance friends and family in a virtual environment.

Problem Statement

Users want to connect with others over mutual forms of entertainment, but have a hard time creating organic interactions and finding ways to make the watching experience more social.

Personas of a Typical Netflix User

I created user personas and empathy maps to humanize the data and build a narrative around various aspects of the typical Netflix user's life. This also helped me visualize how Netflix fit into a user's personal and social life, and would serve as a guide when it came to defining my design goals.

Of course, if I were designing the real product, I would refer to Netflix's target audience and personas at this point.

Empathy Map

How Might We... ?

Life in quarantine left users craving social interaction. Despite being home all day, many users still faced difficulties in scheduling time to connect with friends due to work, school, and time zone differences. Users also felt that the "text and watch" formats of other watch party services felt inorganic and lonely. However, living apart from loved ones meant sharing fewer common experiences, leaving many users to spice up their conversations with shared interests in TV and movies.
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Keeping this in mind, I created 3 HMW questions to guide me:

HMW foster organic interactions in a virtual environment?
HMW make it easier for users to share their TV shows and movies with others?
HMW create a more social watching experience?

Solution Ideation

I brainstormed solution ideas and used a 2x2 grid to measure the feasibility of the idea to the impact on the user. I measured for feasibility by referring to Netflix's current business goals (via their 2020 proxy) and past ventures, such as the previously implemented Facebook integration, which was not widely accepted as many users preferred not to share their watch history to social media. I also measured impact on the user by referring back to research insights and the problem statement—a highly impactful solution had to foster organic connections virtually and/or help users build a more social watching experience.

SWOT Analysis

To figure out which of the solutions to pursue, I conducted a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis using the top 3 possible features. Based on my analysis, I decided to focus on creating a virtual watch party with video and chat functions.

Competitive Analysis

Quarantine introduced a variety of watch party services to the market. Many of my interviewed users were also subscribed to other streaming platforms that offered watch party services. I made observations from competitors to find inspiration and gaps in other products. I found that none of the competitors offered a watch party planning calendar and video option, both of which I had identified as user pain points in my research. Keeping user needs and findings from competitive analysis in mind, I decided on the key features to pursue in my design.

Key Features

Watch party calendar. Many users reported having trouble finding a time to have group calls with long distance friends due to busy schedules and time zone differences. Adding watch parties to a calendar will help users allocate and set apart time to socialize and share watching experiences together.
Watch queue. Users expressed that they enjoyed sharing their favorite TV shows and movies with their social circle. A watch queue feature would create a customizable watch party experience, allowing users to edit and change the lineup for their watch parties.
Watch party recommendations and trends. All users in the interviews had stated that one of their favorite Netflix features was the trending and recommended lists. I decided to add watch party-specific recommended and trending entertainment lists to engage users as they added to their watch queue.
Video and chat options. Competitive analysis revealed that most watch party services on the market had chat capabilities. Despite this, users admitted that these virtual interactions did not feel organic. Adding a video feature would enable users to speak to one another as they would in an in-person watch party.
Web browser addition only. While this is not necessarily a feature, I decided to only pursue Netflix Watch Party on the desktop website for now. A watch party product with both video and chat capabilities would be difficult to implement for TV and mobile due to screen size, keyboard, and camera considerations.

User Flow and Wireframe Sketches

After defining my design goals and key features, I sketched out possible user flows and layouts on paper before committing to high fidelity wireframes. The lo-fi wireframes allowed me to focus on the user journey and tasks rather than specific design details. One of my biggest focuses was on seamlessly integrating a new feature into an existing, well-loved product.

Usability Testing & Scrapped Ideas

Before I committed to my final designs, I conducted usability testing with a clickable prototype. I decided to conduct usability testing with a high-fidelity prototype because Netflix is a well-known platform, and I wanted users to be able to feel as if they were actually navigating through the feature on Netflix. This was nerve-wracking and rewarding at the same time. Users were excited at the prospect of being able to plan watch parties and build watch queues with their friends and family.
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One of the features that I had originally included was a separate "Party" page that would allow users to keep track of their upcoming and past watch parties. However, testing revealed that many users did not gravitate towards this page since the Home page already had a "My Parties" feature.

"I don't really use the other pages. I usually just stay on the Home page because it has everything I need."

Design

Plan a Watch Party

Edit Watch Party & Add to Watch Queue

Accepting a Watch Party Invite

Starting a Watch Party

Next Steps

1. From this point on, beta trials could be carried out via releases in select countries. Of course, further user testing would ensue. Iteration is key!

2. Two important KPIs to follow would include customer watch time and new subscriber conversion rates. As current users begin to bring Netflix Watch Party into their social circles, new users are incentivized to join their friends. Although this project was originally inspired by quarantine blues, Netflix Watch Party's ability to bring long-distance family and friends together will continue to spark joy in the lives of their subscribers.
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3. As this is currently browser-based, it would be interesting to explore how Netflix Watch Party could work on Netflix's mobile and TV app. Virtual Reality with friends could potentially bring interesting cinema experiences as well!

Learnings & Reflections

Entering this project, I was both nervous and excited—nervous because I was diving into this project on my own and excited because I knew this was a chance to challenge myself. I was especially looking forward to combining my problem-solving skillset and analytical mindset from my science background with the storytelling skills I gained from creative writing and consultative sales.

In the future, I would integrate user testing throughout the entire design process rather than just on high-fidelity wireframes. I realized that it was much more time-consuming to spend the time building out hi-fi wireframes without any prior testing.

While I tried to take hypothetical restrictions into account via research on Netflix’s past feature trials and their 2020 proxy statement, I understand that in the work environment, design strategy would be different depending on company and business goals. I anticipate working closely with both users and other stakeholders to ensure the most optimal end product. Overall, this solo project was a great learning experience when it comes to navigating challenges and overstepping the barriers of self-doubt.

Netflix Watch Party