Rethinking Netflix

Continuing my thoughts on rebuilding Netflix, this time a bit more complete and thought out...

The goal with this design is to focus on context. The current Netflix design lacks clear boundaries between actions and fails to guide users down a certain path (e.g. continuing to watch a series or browsing categories).

These features are present, but they're either muffled by their proximity to other points of interaction, or made difficult by strange interaction patterns (e.g. the need to hover over an arrow to scroll a category).

The first solution I've introduced is parsing out the "Recently Watched" section into its own module. Based on my own usage, a common interaction I performed was continuing a television series or looking for something related to something I just watched. This module is designed to be context-aware, changing its content based on the user's current context.

For example, if I had to leave during an episode and paused playback, when I login next, the screen will show "Recently Paused" (picture in this example), telling me what I was watching, how long was left, and giving me the option to continue watching.

If I'd completed a viewing, I would see "Recently Watched," seeing the most recent film/tv show, and if applicable what's next in the series and a set of recommendations related to that item.

Regarding the categories panel, I wanted to fix the annoying interaction of having to hover over a category and "wait" for items to scroll horizontally. This new design suggests scrolling vertically, making for a more natural/smoother interaction.

As the user scrolls, the title of each section (e.g. "Critically-acclaimed Comedies from the 1980s") would "pin" itself to the top of the pane, being bumped of by the next category and so on. Something I found awhile back that I've included here (a Chrome plugin, lost the link) that is the ability to see Rotten Tomatoes scores with each item.

As a bonus, I've also added in an option to "Drop This Category," if the suggestion is a bit too...flamboyant (which we can all agree Netflix is well-known for).

Up next is an actual implementation of this in HTML/CSS to test out the hypothesis and bring the design to life.

Stay tuned!