Enabling the user to have more control of their personal watch list
As a personal design project I decided to look at things around me and try to identify something that could use a feature improvement. Since I had just finished watching a movie on Netflix and wanted to remove that movie from my watch list, but couldn’t do so, so easily, I thought this might be something worth looking into.
THE NEED
I looked around online, in various forums and general google searches, and found out that this is actually something that people are questioning and wanting. That there was an easier way to update or add/remove from your watch list (My List) Since this was clearly something that people wanted I looked at trying to identify all the areas that it might be possible to do and where it is currently being done. I asked about the wants that people might want from this feature, and how or where it might be possible to do it. So I posed a series of questions to try to answer.
ANALYSIS AND FLOW
Once I had my questions and thoughts written down, I wanted to look at all the possible user flows and paths to answer those questions.
This allowed me to look at a few options for the first iteration of my feature design and try to understand where and when it might be displayed.
The feature that I settled on was to implement an add or remove function at the end of the movie when the end credits are displayed within a smaller window, since this will be most likely when someone might want to remove something from their watch list, after they have finished watching it.
DESIGN
I now needed to try to understand what the option i chose would look like and how it might work, but also where and when it might be placed. I created a simple wire frame with a user flow to show that the movie or show will be in the list to start, then if the user clicks to remove that it would then be removed from the watch list. The movie in particular here is displayed with the use of the dark grey square in the first image.
PROTOTYPE
Using Figma and a number of screen shots of Netflix, I put together an option for the finished feature.
At the end of the movie or show when closing credits are running the movie will minimize to show the user what is coming up next in the play list. The user is also asked if they like or dislike what they have just finished watching to allow Netflix to select “you might like this” content for that user in the future. I added an additional line to the minimized window simply asking the user if they would like to remove what they have finished watching from their watch list.
They can simply do nothing or say Yes. In this case “Yes” is presented in red, the same red that Netflix use for their logo to make it stand out as an actionable item.
I also thought of implementing a Hide function, since the user might be watching a series and may only want to hide it from their watch list until a new season is released, which would simply tidy the watch list up.
IMPLEMENTATION
Once rendered against the full image of the “next” movie that will play, the option for the user to remove the just watched movie from their watch list appears to work.
This solved the problem that the use might and does find in that the watch list on Netflix is only about 300 entries big, and can very easily fill up. The biggest issues around this are that for one, a user, like myself, will rarely remove anything from their watch list and while Netflix does remove movies from the watch list, they will only do so after 5 days when the movie is at 100% watched which rarely happens since either the user will stop end it when the credits start or Netflix will go to the next movie at about 95-98% of total watch.
The other issue is a well is that in the coming soon section of Netflix, the user has the option to be “reminded” about up coming movies and shows. The problem is that when the user clicks to be reminded about the show when it becomes available, that also adds the show or movie to their watch list. This its self is not an issue however, it seems that at the moment there is no error check in place and can easily go above the 300 maximum capacity of the watch list since the adding of these “coming soon” ones are added automatically.