Surfer

Super Aggregator that provides highly accurate, curated and personalized video content by understanding consumer preferences.

Prototype Link

- UX
  - Discovery Workshops
  - Secondary research
  - Competitive Analysis
  - Customer Interviews
- UI
  - Crazy 8’s
  - Inspiration Gathering
  - User Stories
  - User Flows
  - Low Fidelity Wireframes
  - Mid Fidelity Wireframes
  - High Fidelity Wireframes
This was a freelance part time project which took 8 Weeks to complete.
March 2020 - July 2020
IOS and Web

Project Goal

The purpose is to create a prototype to accompany a deck to secure investment to fund the development of a native mobile application, website, and OTT application that will help users select the content providers they subscribe to and then store and rate movies and tv shows they have watched, are currently watching, and want to watch in the futuresee enabling further recommendations on what to watch and/or services to subscribe too in addition to recommendations from social media networks.

The ultimate goal is to build a system that seamlessly acquires viewer’s services information, past viewing selections, current shows and social media connections into one system and as a result is able to provide the best recommendations (RS).

Current State Analysis

The adoption of streaming video subscriptions continues to grow fuelled by consumers’ strong desire for original content and the flexibility to consume media wherever and whenever they want.
Insight: US consumers clearly love watching video
The growth of streaming video has, in part, led consumers to reassess the value of their pay TV subscriptions.
There is a widening value gap between what they expect and what pay TV providers actually deliver.
Insight: 16–22 percent of GenZ,millennial, and Gen X households have never subscribed to a pay TV service (and are probably unlikely to do so
The survey revealed that younger generations are not the only ones driving these trends.
In particular, the mobile consumption behaviors of Generation X (ages 35–51) now closely mirror those of Generation Z (ages 14-20) and millennials (ages 21-34).
We are calling this combined group (Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X) the “MilleXZials.”
Insight: MilleXZials are driving the streaming phenomenon.
In 2017, 70 percent of Gen Z households had a streaming subscription, closely followed by millennial (68 percent) and Gen X (64 percent) households
With a sizable portion of consumption happening online, all consumers are increasingly protective of their personal data.
This creates an opportunity for providers to give customers more control over their personal data.
Insight: In 2017, 73 percent of all US consumers indicated that they were concerned about sharing their personal data online and the potential for identity theft.
However, in 2017, we saw a 10-point drop in willingness to share personal data in exchange for personalized advertising (from 37 percent to 27 percent).
- Mobile video is fueling the fast-paced growth of streaming across all age groups—particularly the MilleXZials, who comprise Gen Z, millennials, and Gen X.
- Video streaming, in turn, is driving the significant decline in pay TV subscriptions and the growth of alternative platforms that feature high-quality, original content optimized for smaller screens.
- MilleXZials are motivating content providers to reassess their business models to take advantage of market opportunities in the mobile video arena.

Source: Deloitte

Consumer Challenges

- They may find multiple subscription services to be costly and confusing, and choose to scale back.
- Few things frustrate consumers more than when shows disappear from libraries on streaming services.
- This is happening more frequently as more studios and TV networks are pulling content from the major streaming services to launch their own direct-to-consumer offerings.
- While consumers may sign up for a streaming service for its original content, having a broad library of shows and movies matters, too.
- As this library is thinned, the service loses some of its value, and consumers are either forced to add other services or to live without some of their favorites.
- Many opt for multiple services instead of “going without “
- But nearly one-half (47 percent) are frustrated by the growing number of subscriptions and services they need to piece together to watch what they want.
- 48%t say it’s harder to find the content they want to watch when it is spread across multiple services.
- And even a major benefit of having multiple subscriptions—lots of great shows and movies—can be frustrating because consumers have difficulty discovering them.
- 43% of consumers report that they give up on the search for content, if they can’t find it in a few minutes.
- Despite having so many options, many consumers still feel that “a good show is hard to find.”
- As consumers subscribe to more services, they must dole out financial and personal information.
- And they are tracked as they view ads
- The more “pieces” they use to customize their experience, the more vulnerable they may be to security breaches and loss of privacy.
- Consumers fear identity theft, financial loss, and the use of sensitive data without their authorization because many have experienced it
- 23% of US households were victimized by cybercrime in 2018.
- As a result, consumers want to control their data the way they’re controlling their entertainment experience.
- 49% of consumers believe they are responsible for protecting their data and 88% believe they should own it.
- Very few respondents—just 7 percent—believe that the government is responsible for protecting their data.

Consumers Value Library Content More Than Originals

Disney+ has the highest levels of awareness (88%) and intent to subscribe (56%) and a healthy mix of library (Disney, Marvel, Pixar, *Star Wars* and National Geographic) and original content.

When asked how important library content is when choosing a streaming service, 90% said it’s “important” or “very important” and 68% responded similarly regarding original content.

What is clear is Apple TV+’s lack of library content might put it at a disadvantage.

Consumer viewer preference is also critical in understanding their motivations and needs for personalized content.

It doesn’t appear that Disney’s potential success poses a threat to existing services, as 70% of respondents indicate they’re not “likely” or “very likely” to drop a current service if they subscribe to Disney+.

Source: Forbes

Disney+ and Apple TV+ have 10 of the Top 25 anticipated new shows. INFOGRAPHIC COURTESY OF TV TIME.

What does the future hold?

- “On-demand-services will disrupt the TV and video industry,”
- New market players such as Netflix or Amazon will soon replace traditional broadcasters.
- “Consumers’ demand for TV and video consumption is fundamentally changing.”
- Established players are increasingly confronted with this kind of alarming news about their positioning within the future TV and video landscape.

Problem Space

Perhaps more than any other factor, streaming is enabling the new level of autonomy that consumers now enjoy when choosing how, when(is irrelavant and imaterial), and where (has replaced that question) they view digital video content.

US consumers clearly love watching video but Discovery difficulties, Disappearing Libraries, Data Concerns and too many ads are the cause of frustration in the current VOD experience from a consumers perspective.

The inability to provide a personalized experience, Awareness and experience of different platforms are core to the current frustrations faced by consumers.

Problem Space refined

In Korea, there is a buzzword called “Netflix Syndrome.” This refers to users who spend more time choosing content than actually watching it.

These people tend to have a lot of content stored on their “My List” feature, but when they start to go through their list, they lose their motivation.

Design Challenge

HMW make the VOD experience for Americans fun and engaging by enabling quick discovery and give them more control and freedom in their data and choices.

‘SUPER AGGREGATORS’: THE BATTLE FOR SUPREMACY

Ultimate Goal: Single source of truth for the consumer, Surfer and its Partners!

3 Stages of Aggregation

A platform must offer search capabilities that work across multiple services.
Personalised recommendations based on a consumer’s viewing habits, regardless of content provider.
The final piece of the streamlined consumer experience is centralised billing, so that a consumer can access all services without managing separate subscriptions creating a virtual MVPD (multichannel video programming distributor) experience; the platform provides centralised account billing and customer service.

**Impact of VOD aggregation**

To Platform or not to platform - the rise of **aggregators** in the world of ‘**too much choice**’
Significant rise in choice when it comes to TV viewing, resulting in more choice but also poor user experience for the viewer
Nearly **20%** of under-35s have used over 7 services online in the past 12 months
Viewers feel **overwhelmed** by the number of services available: even among under-35s, 40% of viewers agree that the **amount of choice is confusing**, and this increases to nearly 50% among over-55s
At the last count there were over 1,000 OTT services globally. Even allowing for taste and language, consumers have no chance of negotiating this world

What did the data say?

Media Consumption by Age

Target Demographic for Surfer

What did I learn from my research?

- Finding what to watch is the biggest pain point for most of the users and people have started to move towards recommendations from friends and family.
- This is a growing cause of concern as more and more people tend to watch content but it is also discouraging them.
- There is no real solution for this right now as people are forced to look for what to watch and the content though is fresh but its not aligned to their needs and interests.
- Takes them a lot of time to find and usually they end up giving up as the search process is not aligned to their needs and content is categorized on what they watched last time rather than based on their interests.
- Users love sharing content which they feel might interest others and they are using friends and family to either share or receive recommendations into what to watch.
- The biggest influence right now on what users are watching is through recommendations from friends and family. Friends and families know what they like to watch and also ensure that it is going to be worth their time.
- This phenomena is a classic example of UX where when they could not find a solution through these streaming services people started to recommend each other on what to watch.
- A an area of opportunity for surfer to explore how to take this forward.
- People love to have the freedom to choose while they are watching but also need to be able to converge on their choices i.e. provide a mechanism that their choice is based on their interests and rather than choosing for a whole range of content.
- There is already discovery fatigue and the reason for that is people are given a lot of content to choose from and firstly the content is not tailored to their needs and secondly they have to scroll to find content which might interest them.
- This is an area of focus for Surfers UX where we have to limit the number of choices we present to the users.
- Content is king. From what we have learned that the streaming war is all about content and whoever provides new and fresh content will win new subscriptions.
- But the challenge here is that not just content wins as there are challenges in discovering new content plus content that is related to their interests and desires.
- The length of the content and how much can they know before a new show is going to arrive and what to expect.
- Also ads and commercials are another reason for frustration when users are trying to watch.
- I would say communication is one of the key themes as it the can help with discovery, recommendations and choice.
- Right now users are communicated through email, text messages or word of mouth for what content is available and what might they be interested in.
- For surfer to be successful we need to create an effective communication mechanism between one the platforms and the users and two between friends and family.
- Also allowing them the ability to watch movies and shows remotely which has been echoed a lot through the interviews will help the cause as it helps with discovery and choice.
- It seems that people from different demographics have different watching habits i.e some are watching 3 hours daily while others just over the weekends and some twice a week.
- If we can optimize discovery and communication, people might be spending more time or the same amount of time but it's more related to their needs or interests.

Interview Insights

Firstly, one of the major interference is not finding relevant content fast enough. Meaning that they are spending a lot of time on scrolling through irrelevant content that they won’t engage with.

Secondly, and most interesting discovery was that they don’t consume the same content every time they log in. It differs between parameters such as, time, day of week, location, device, etc

People are signing up for these services regardless of the price but more because of their favorite shows which might be available on one service and now have moved to another one. Regardless of the service provider they are concerned about their favorite shows and how they can keep watching that.
New content is exciting but it takes a lot of effort to find the right ones i.e. friends and families are a major influence on them about what watch and they may like that and complete the show but they will always come back to their favorite shows.
There definitely is a decision fatigue caused by the sheer amount of content that is available. People are struggling with what to watch and while spending a lot of time looking for what to watch they end up watching Friends most likely.

Possible Solutions

People would like to get notified about new content when it is available.

They love sharing and if we could provide them with the ability to share with friends and family within the new experience.
Content is King
More control and freedom may be a cause of decision fatigue.
Also telling them that watching a show is worth their time .
Show content based on user watch behavior but that's also difficult as people are sharing their subscriptions with friends an families and it can get polluted by what other people are watching.
Showing recommendations & reviews from other people will help in their decision making process.
Parallel watching is a feature that will enable more collaboration among friends and families and will let them know what others are watching which might be related to them - there are apps need to explore what they do.
Friends could watch together.
They avoid signing up for subscriptions that have commercials.

The Paradox of choice

Though we humans have a very advanced brain, we are still susceptive to the likes of “choice paradox “ when too many options are given to choose from.

Jam Study

Study demonstrated in the Columbia University known as “jam study”.

In this study supermarket shoppers were given the option of choosing from a table offering six samples of jam or one displaying 24 varieties.

While more people stopped at the table with 24 choices, only 3 per cent went on to purchase a jar, compared to a third of all shoppers who stopped at the table with just six varieties.

When we are given too many options, it becomes tough for our brain to choose from it, also might end up choosing nothing at all.

Second Problem

Having too many options also lead us to our second problem which is Analysis paralysis

Analysis paralysis refers to a situation in which an individual or group is unable to move forward with a decision as a result of over analyzing data or overthinking a problem.

On Netflix when you have 12+ options on your mobile screen that also without any straightforward parameter to compare each other, it takes a lot of active analysis and time to make a decision which then leads to analysis paralysis, resulting into 2 effects :

Diminished satisfaction, even if you have made your choice.
Suppressed decision making.

Really! Are these problems that important?

90 sec or Bust. “Consumer research suggests that a typical Netflix member loses interest after perhaps 60 to 90 seconds of choosing, having reviewed 10 to 20 titles (perhaps 3 in detail) on one or two screens,” they write.

“The user either finds something of interest or the risk of the user abandoning our service increases substantially.”
To tackle 90 sec or Bust, Netflix built Billion dollars of algorithm engine to provide interesting content to its users in minimum time
But that does not seem to be working!
According to our research users trust their friends recommendations 3x more than going with what Netflix suggests.

Hick’s Law

The time it takes to make a decision increases with the number and complexity of choices.

We need to Simplify choices for the user by breaking down complex tasks into smaller steps.

Avoid overwhelming users by highlighting recommended options.
Use progressive onboarding to minimize cognitive load for new users.

How will Surfer be successful?

Making Decisions easier on Surfer

Delivering a good user experience requires that first you find out the functionalities that will answer their needs; second, you need to guide them to the specific functions they need most.

If users end up stuck in the decision-making process of “what next?”, they may become confused, frustrated, or leave your website.
Hick’s Law is a simple idea that says that the more choices you present your users with, the longer it will take them to reach a decision.
It’s common sense, but often neglected in the rush to cram too much functionality into a site or application.
As a designer, i will use Hick’s Law to examine how many functions we should offer at any part of our website/app and how this will affect our users’ overall approach to decision making-