Interactive Design, Term Project Proposal: Design and usability critique of the Netflix movie streaming application across multiple devices
Proposal Introduction:
About a month ago, my wife and I decided that we were going to join the cord-cutting movement – severing our contentious and expensive relationship with Comcast cable TV service. Being a consumer electronics geek, I was excited that beyond saving a few hundred dollars a month, this was an opportunity to do some research into the handful of video streaming devices and services that have come to market over the past few years.
The first and most obvious of those services to look into was Netflix, the company that is reinventing the home entertainment landscape. First by offering movie rentals by mail, and more recently streaming on-demand, Netflix has created a new intersection of entertainment and technology. As I looked into all of the different delivery methods offered by Netflix, I noticed that they offer an open API (application programming interface) to the developer community. Why would such a successful and well-resourced company hand over their customer experience to John Q Developer? In their words, “We want to delight our subscribers. We are always looking for new ways to improve the service but with a small team we can’t do it all. We made these API methods available to the developer community to…find new ways for our subscribers to enjoy movies whether or not they’re looking at our site [and] encourage innovation, especially around movie choosing and watching.” (http://developer.netflix.com/) While the part about only having a small team may or may not be true, the assertion that open source platforms can create the best and most innovative products and experiences is commendable.
With Netflix’ open-source statement in mind, I wanted to see how varied the Netflix experience was from one device to the next. I currently own six different devices that are capable of accessing the Netflix application; a 55” web-connected TV, an Apple TV unit, a Roku box, a 14” laptop, an iPad, and an iPhone. Does each device’s Netflix experience “delight” the user, as they hope to do with all of their applications? How varied are the applications from one device to the next? What design and usability issues exist with each? How does each devices design and experience add or subtract to the Netflix experience? What combination of hardware and software creates the best Netflix experience? I hope to use this term project as an opportunity to explore all of these questions through the design and usability concepts we’ve discussed in class.
Outline for Term Paper:
Introduction
Critique of Netflix experience per device
- Analysis: I intend to analyze the Netflix user experience for each device based on criteria learned from the Moggridge and Maeda readings, focusing on:
- Netflix application design and user experience
- Hardware experience (how does the device’s design succeed or fail in terms of experiencing Netflix content)
- Site Map for each device
- Recommendations for improvement
- Visuals: I will provide screenshot visuals of each experience (as much as possible), and illustrate strengths and weaknesses graphically
- Assessment: I will score each device experience by a TBD system, allowing for better device-to-device comparisons and conclusions
- Devices to be tested:
- Panasonic VieraCast Netflix widget application
- Apple TV Netflix application
- Roku XDS Netflix application
- Apple TV Netflix application
- Netflix.com through Dell 14” laptop
- Apple iPad Netflix application
- Apple iPhone Netflix application
Conclusions
Based on the above analysis and critiques, I plan on coming to a conclusion on what the best Netflix experience is, and grounding that conclusion in class concepts and readings.
