Used a party watch App
Age range
Do you Binge Watch?
Favourite streaming service
It's nice to leave an opinion, even if it's unpopular
DANA
Just like I emotionally eat, I emotionally watch
SERENA
Watching with a friend is more about their reaction
ADRIEN
A survey for more customized recommendations
KARINA
EMPATHIZE
Research
Hypothesis
In a post-pandemic world, where meeting in person is still challenging, Binge Buddy offers a way to stay connected and have fun with friends, all at once. If you can't go out to the movies, bring the movie theater experience home and enjoy it together with friends!
Methodology
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A total of eight people were interviewed to understand what motivates users to try a virtual movie-watching experience.
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To add a quantitative element to the research, we used SurveyMonkey for broader data collection. Additionally, guerilla testing provided further quantitative insights, helping us identify the ideal user for our system based on the findings.
Objective
The research primarily focused on enhancing the TV-watching experience for the everyday user. The solution and design were ultimately shaped by insights gathered from interviews with the ideal target audience.
Key areas of exploration included:
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Identifying the platforms or technologies people currently use to watch movies or TV series and how they choose shows.
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Understanding the current benefits users experience and what improvements would make their viewing experience more enjoyable.
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Investigating how users select which shows to watch and the impact of review systems on their choices.
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Determining how external factors, such as reviews and virtual "watch parties," influence users' decisions.
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Understanding what incentives encourage users to participate in a review system and engage with the community.
THE STORY
Binge Buddy is the ultimate app for planning, choosing, and watching movies or TV shows with friends. It enables real-time chat, comments, and reactions, reducing social isolation and fostering meaningful connections. Even beyond the pandemic, Binge Buddy makes watching together easy, no matter the distance.
Problems
Ensuring that everyone in a group is watching the movie or TV show at exactly the same time can be technically challenging. Variations in internet speed, device capabilities, and location can cause lags or delays, disrupting the viewing experience.
Challenges
Develop a robust synchronization mechanism that compensates for these variations and ensures minimal buffering or lag. This might involve creating algorithms to sync playback across different devices and handle interruptions smoothly.
Tools Used
Industry
Entertainment
Empathize
User research
Define
User Persona
Empathy Map
Competitive Analysis
Ideate
Story Mapping
User Journey Mapping
User Flow
Prototype
Low Fidelity
Wireframes
High Fidelity
Test
Prototype
Ideate
Define
Empathize
User Insight
Neil loves binge-watching movies and TV shows but feels isolated and needs a way to connect with friends and family. He find it challenging to choose what to watch due to unreliable review systems.
Problem Statement
Viewers spend excessive time searching for content because they can't easily collaborate or share experiences due to distance, scheduling conflicts, and ineffective review systems.
How might We
How might we recreate a sense of community during the viewing experience, help users quickly find content based on preferences, and provide a reliable review system?
After creating personas and identifying user needs, we focused on pain points and solutions. We summarized user perspectives to develop insights, problem statements, and "How Might We" (HMW) questions, guiding feature development to solve user problems.
Pain Points
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Social isolation due to busy schedules.
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Difficulty coordinating viewing times with friends.
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Frustration with deciding what to watch due to poor review systems.
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Overwhelmed by too many options and lack of time to browse.
DEFINE
Affinity Map
Weekend Binge Tradition
Neil and his friends loved binge-watching TV and discussing their favorite series. Every weekend, they would gather to watch something new, from day to night.
Isolation Sets In
As work responsibilities grew and COVID hit, Neil felt isolated and bored, watching TV alone and struggling to find shows he enjoyed.
A Friend’s Solution
Help was a call away. Neil's friend Maya found Binge Buddies, an app perfect for bringing TV-loving friends together.
Discovering Binge Buddies
Neil checked out the app and was amazed that he and his friends could watch TV together virtually, chat, comment, and suggest what to watch next.
The First Watch Party
Neil logged into his streaming service through the Binge Buddies app, found a movie, and invited his friends to a watch party—they couldn't wait to join.
A New Routine
Neil and his friends watched the show as they simultaneously commented and reacted as a group. They are already planning their next binge-watch party. Binge buddy is now part of a weekly routine
Story Board
IDEATE
Splash screen & onboarding
The splash screen prominently displays the logo, creating a cinematic feel. A concise onboarding screen then guides users through the app's features and benefits.
From Sketch to Prototype: Designing a Seamless Streaming App
The user's journey was mapped through a task flow, identifying key steps: login, profile setup, content selection, viewing, and social interaction. Screens were sketched and then transformed into digital wireframes, guiding the design process. Additional pages, like a club creation feature and a detailed user profile, were added to ensure a seamless experience.
Login & Sign Up
From the onboarding screen, users can directly create an account. Existing users can access the login screen. Both login and signup options include social media integration for convenience.
UI Kit & Visual Design
Creating a new brand from the ground up was exciting and rewarding. Designing the user interface focused on elements that aligned with the brand's identity. To achieve a cinematic feel, a black background was the natural choice. We experimented with different icon and button colors, ultimately selecting shades of blue and purple that complemented the black and evoked a festive atmosphere. These colors became the foundation of our logo and brand personality.
Feature Prioritization
By prioritizing features based on user feedback and needs, the most valuable elements for the MVP were identified. This not only sets the app apart but also lays the groundwork for future development, ensuring it remains competitive in the market.
PROTOTYPE
High Fidelity Designs
It was finally time to incorporate the ideas and designs brainstormed and created so far into an actual prototype. From the very beginning, the goal for the end product was very simple - making movie watching a simple but fun social experience. The objectives that spoke louder than the other were, removing the time-consuming parts such as endlessly surfing for the next good TV show or movie to watch and when you've decided on the right one, being able to share that experience with your friends as one would do if they were all in the same place and all from the comforts of ones own home.
Watching Solo
Watching solo follows a similar process to joining a club. First-time users need to log in to their streaming service accounts in both cases.
User Profile
The profile page includes sections for About, Details, and My Space, storing information like preferred genres, watchlists, clubs, and favorites. Users can choose to make their profiles public to inspire friends or receive club join requests.
Creating a club
Club creation allows for sending invitations via email or text to potential members, creating a watchlist, viewing club members, and scheduling meeting days.
Watching with friends
Binge Buddies is a streaming platform aggregator that lets you watch movies and TV shows from Netflix, Disney, Crave, and Amazon Prime. Watch solo, with friends, or join a club to share reactions. Leave reviews to track your history and see what others think.
Selecting Genre
The app's genre selection feature allows users to add their favorites to their profiles. This enables personalized recommendations and helps friends and club members find similar content.
Usability tests
The high-fidelity desktop prototype of the Binge Buddy App was tested in Figma to assess usability, observe task completion, identify difficulties, and gather feedback.
Remote tests were conducted via Zoom, scoring tasks as 1 (complete), 0.5 (partially complete), or 0 (incomplete). Five participants evaluated:
Onboarding screen effectiveness in conveying the app's features.
User registration through different options (email, social media).
Completion of the process to join a watch party.
Users found the app intuitive, easy to navigate, and appreciated the seamless movie-watching experience. Feedback was used to prioritize future feature development.
"To Join a party, I would want to see what my friends are watching"
- Michelle (Social Worker)
"I had to manually navigate backwards to restart task"
- Erin (Graphic Designer)
"I like to choose from what my friends are watching or Watched"
Dana (Software Developer)
There should be a list of friends that are online and room options
Hector (Software Developer)
Lesson Learned - Team Work
Working on this group project was a valuable experience that challenged my flexibility and ability to collaborate effectively. By considering diverse perspectives and staying aligned with our team's vision, we were able to create an app that addressed user needs while maintaining brand integrity and business goals.
I'm grateful to my talented teammates, Aizhan Kenzhaliyeva, Camilla Morais, and Justin Clarke, for their contributions, support, and dedication to bringing our app and ideas to fruition.
TEST
User Persona, User Journey Map
Neil, our user persona, is a busy streaming enthusiast who values relaxation and sharing. Through empathy mapping, we identified his need for personalized recommendations, social features, and a seamless user experience. By understanding Neil's preferences and challenges, we can design a streaming service that better caters to his needs and the needs of other users like him. Guided by the User Persona, Insight, Problem Statement, and HMW statement, the focus was now on making the app more human-centric. The User Journey Map provided clarity on user emotions at each stage, allowing us to make necessary improvements.
© 2024 by Divya Chakravarthy. Created on Wix Studio.