Transforming how people watch and connect by merging streaming and social into one powerful, all-in-one experience.
Streamline, a Cleveland based app startup has big ideas: what if a streaming aggregation app can be social? As an ardent streaming enthusiast with loads of movie and show streaming options I understand the need for an app that helps you stay current on the newest shows. I brought all of my Product Design, UX and research skills to the table to help design this idea into reality.
Streamline as a product was a great idea and offered incredible utility for users. But, no one had ever attempted to marry streaming aggregation and discovery with social media. It would require research, analysis and thoughtful design to become the next Letterboxd rival.
"A strong emphasis on product design with a heavy undercurrent of user research tactics was in order. The first step was learning what users needed out of Streamline.We started with Streamline's base featureset of Home, Discovery, Community and Schedule and refined the designs from there.
In order for Streamline to succeed we needed to understand user sentiment and desires.
First, I conducted some user research sessions and wrote a report with my findings.
Second, I built a prototype and concept tested a few ideas we were confident about building.
Third, the team workshopped and mapped out the experiences of Streamline 2.0.
The user research gave us a really nice bellwether which confirmed we were heading in the right direction. The prototype allowed actual users to experience Streamline 2.0 and confirmed and denied some of our hypotheses. Finally, the workshop allowed us all to align on the upcoming design iterations and get some good face time in as a team.
In research, it was found that users wanted control over what was posted on their feed. The reason for this is due to the automatic nature of posting when you like, add content or share. Users simply wanted more control of what ended up on their feed. The takeaway was that we needed better controls and the ability to give the user more control over their sharing.
In research, it was found that the social aspects of the app were less desirable to users than the utilitarian functionality. Specifically, users wanted better ways to be recommended and find content rather than share about the content they were watching. The approach then became how to intutiviely fold in social aspects while still being utility driven.
In research, we found some of the flagship features were quite misunderstood and not embraced by the community. Specifcially, 'Playlists' were seen to have minimal value as well as the 'Content' landing page where users could manage their content. The takeaway then was to pull away from those features or pivot from the original idea to support user needs.
In research, it was found that 'My Streamline' was an admirable replacement for the 'Content' landing page in that it let users quickly find and manage their content right from the Homepage. This was helping because the team had been trying to understand how people wanted to use content in Streamline and the way they liked to manage it. The takeawya here was to lean into My Streamline and add more functionality.
The way I approached design was to refine and optimize the base features. This was done by honing the interaction design in low-fidelity prototypes while also working in high-fidelity to come up with a new look and feel. The app was divided into Home, Discovery, Community and Schedule as a starting point. Below are early concepts, prototypes and iterations of Streamline 2.0.
Streamline 2.0 was the combination of teamwork, research, analysis and iteration. It aimed to bring a cohesiveness and intuitiveness to Streamline that was missing from the initial release. Each core section was refined and optimized to ensure it was intutive, usable and modern. Home had numerous new components based on user research suggestions from users. Discovery was designed with social aspects and can't-miss content. Community was the landing page for social posts and sharing. Schedule was the go-to feature to manage all of your streaming needs. The design solutions below explain some of the primary benefits of Streamline 2.0.
My Streamline is a feature that allows users to quickly and easily access and categorize their saved content. It scored highly in user research and concept validation. Users felt it had a lot of utility and could replace random lists of shows-to-watch. We display it on the Home screen and it acts as a drawer for the user to quickly access their favorite shows and movies on the fly.
We rethought the idea of Content Pages and the functionality within them. The new design emphasized 'Where to Watch' and had a more defined layout. We also built out functionality to allow better privacy and encourage content management. The redesign paved the way for new functionality such as episode tracking, actor information and trailers which were desired by users.
The Discovery page needed an overhaul and for Streamline 2.0 the idea was to ensure it fused together both great curation and social aspects. This was done by creating new components to ensure stickiness within the app. We also wanted to highlight what Friends Are Watching so putting the avatar as an overlay was helpful to trigger a sense of community. These were paired with additional messaging that shows the number of people watching a show or movie.
The schedule was redesigned to be more simple and thoughtful. We added in some filtering functionality and notifications. The holistic design philosophy is when users add content to their list they can add it to their schedule as well to never miss their favorite shows, movies or games. The notifications work in conjunction with the Schedule so users never miss a beat.
Streamline is ambitious and uses a host of data and functionality to be a workhorse for streaming enthusiasts. In a day and age when there are a million sources of content apps like Streamline can really help people to organize their streaming schedule into meaningful cohesion. I was proud to help the team get to Streamline 2.0 which has set the stage for more advanced features and refinement.
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