Amazon Prime Video Redesign— a UX case study
(Originally published here in January 2020)
The Challenge
With the rise of streaming services changing how people watch TV, creating a great product that subscribers can use is pivotal. Amazon Prime joined the video streaming game in 2006 ranks second in the most used streaming services. With an astonishing 96.5 million viewers, Prime Video has nearly 53% penetration rate in the market.
Prime Video provides access to streaming content (including Prime Originals), renting content, buying content and purchasing add-on subscriptions. As a Prime Video subscriber, I decided to study, research and redesign the product to develop my UI/ UX skills.
“41% of 18–29-year-olds in the US subscribe to/ have access to Prime Video.”
— Statista
The goal of this project is to create a seamless redesign based on the needs of current users, while also working through the design process.
I also want to challenge myself by designing in accordance with my design principles: Understanding, Usability, Accessibility, Empathy, Consistency and Beauty.
My roles during this project were: UI/ UX Designer, Product Designer and User Researcher. The tools used during this project were: Figma, Framer
Disclaimer: This is a passion project. I am not affiliated with Amazon Prime Video, I simply took on this challenge because I’m passionate about designing.
The design process I used.
Discover
To begin the discover phase, I started with conducting user research by surveying and interviewing existing streaming service users. This part of the process is pivotal in understanding who I am designing for and will help me creating user-centred designs.
Survey
I decided to start with a survey to quickly find out the characteristics, motivation and demographics of streaming users. I sent out a survey containing 15 questions. The survey results helped to provide qualitative data that will help me validate the hypothesis that I form.
Some of the insights gained from the survey were:
- 81.8% of users use mobile and laptop/computers as their preferred method of streaming (with Tv/games devices at 72.7%).
- Netflix and BBC iPlayer are the most popular streaming services used by users. Netflix is used by 90.1% of users.
- 90.9% of users stream content by themselves, 27.3% stream with a partner, 18.2% stream with friends or family.
- Only 18.2% of users use the X-Ray feature, 9.1% read reviews left by other users, 0% write reviews & 63.6% use subtitles.
*Survey results, sketches & wireframes can all be found here*
Interview
After the survey, I decided to conduct a set of interviews to further understand the user and their experience of Prime Video and streaming in general. For the interviews, I spoke to users of the ages 18–24. I set out with the goal to find out motivations, likes and frustrations the users face when using Prime Video and other streaming services.
To help me analyse the data from the Interviews and Surveys, I created an Affinity Map to help me draw out Pain Points.
Key Insights
When I asked users to describe their Amazon Prime Video experience, the 3 most common adjectives used were:
“Convenient, Good and Entertaining. ”
Other insights gathered from the interviews include:
Insight 1
Most users stated their dislike for the current Prime Video interface. Users expressed the layout to be confusing and hard to figure out ( approx. 55% of users surveyed found the layout to be slightly easy or not easy).
Insight 2
Users struggle to find tailored content. The mentioned how the navigation is confusing. 72.7% of users spent more than 3 minutes finding something to watch. freedom of choice etc
Insight 3
Users really enjoy the wide variety of content and features such as X-Ray and Reviews, however, there is a disparity between liking and use of the features.
Insight 4
Users struggle to distinguish non-prime content from prime content. They wish to have a clearer way to separate content that is for rent/purchase and free prime content.
Define
Persona and Empathy Map
Following the completion of my user research, I was able to create a person and empathy map for an example user. I was able to use the information to gather a pretty good understanding of the user's goals, motivations and frustrations.
Customer Experience Map
After I created the persona, I then created a Customer journey map to further help me understand the journey users face when utilising the app. The Customer journey helped me to further break down tasks, identify pain points and work out opportunities available.
Develop & Deliver
Sketches and Wireframes
Now that the Define stage had been completed, I started on sketching ideas and designs. Following the multiple sketches, I started creating wireframes for the home page, search page and player.
The Final Product: Home Page
On the Home Page, I started by changing the information cards from a landscape view to portrait. I decided to change this in order to allow users to view more content on a single page. Through my research, I found that the average user spends 3 mins searching and scrolling for something to watch. Viewing more options on a single page may reduce endless scrolling. To make the new cards interactive, there is a description overlay to give further information about the highlighted show.
To further combat the issue of finding content, I created an interactive scroll feature at the top of the page. Users are able to scroll and select a genre.
Users find it hard to distinguish prime content. To solve this issue, I moved the prime video bar to the bottom of an information square. By making it wider and longer, I aimed to make it easier for all users to see and recognise.
Search Page
The Search Page features changes to the way users can filter results. The original page required scrolling down for a while before getting to the last search filter. After researching how to design effective search filters, I decided to change all the filter categories into boxes with drop-down options. This aids the user in filtering out the multiple search results; so they can find what they want faster.
The search bar was also changed to allow users to select actors related to their search. This actor in results in the search bar, help the user find what they are looking for.
Finally, I changed the results page into box results to allow more results to be seen on a single screen.
Video Player Page
For this page, my aim was to align the needs of the Amazon company with user needs. I tried to reduce the steps a user needs to take to add comments or purchase a show/ season. To do this I added a quick rating feature and buttons to the player after a user has completed a show/film.
The rating feature also helps bridge the disparity I discovered during the research phase.
Conclusion
This was a very challenging design but I really wanted to focus on improving the experience of the users I researched. By designing small but useful features, I believe that the user would have a more engaging and enjoyable experience. I’m grateful that I was able to creatively push myself and develop my user-centred design thinking skills. Amazon Prime Video is a great streaming site with a vast library. In the future, I am excited to see how Amazon can implement AI to tailor the users Prime Video experience.
Thank you for reading!
