Initial Brainstorming:
Analysing Screenshots of Prime Video:
Following my initial research and brainstorming, I felt I still didn’t know how Prime Video worked as well as I wanted, so I analysed some screenshots of the UX which I liked and thought was successful, while also highlighting what could be changed/removed.
Brainstorming Ideas:
A key element with all my ideas, is that they mostly include some kind of game. So, I have decided to research the simple mechanics of board games and found a few key elements that I could incorporate into Prime Video.
Rough Sketches of Layout Ideas:
I found this an effective way of working through my ideas and thinking, seeing what would work and what wouldn’t. I began with the issue of separating the free content from the rent/buy with the intention of focusing in on the navigation, but I found myself drawn to exploring the watchlist, stacks and a shuffle option.
Initial Digital Sketches:
I created some quick digital images of my ideas to try and visualise what my ideas would look like digitally and if they would work on a screen.
More In Depth Digital Sketches:
I created digital versions of my rough sketches as I wanted to see what they would look like with some of the components, like images for the tiles and some icons. I also looked at how the user would interact with the screen, with how pieces like the tiles would change shape and place if clicked on.
A key problem I found was trying to differentiate between prime content and rent/buy content. The idea behind this sketch is to give the user the choice at the very beginning to pick what content they want to watch. This window would appear after the profile choices but before all the content is shown. Whatever is picked, is the only content that would be shown.
Another area I could improve was the navigation within the home page. Instead of having endless scrolling, I created stacks of content with all the relevant content in each. I changed the playing window to a tile which increases to the whole size of the screen, instead of having to move back and forth between windows.
The watchlist is a key area in Prime Video which needs to be easily accessed, so I created a scrolling area along the top of the screen so the user can always see it and access it easily. Also, the quick add button in the top corner, means the user can quickly add to their list by dragging the tile to it. This saves the awkward back and forth trying to find the small button where you would add it.
A feature I feel would be successful in Prime Video would be an option to shuffle the content if the user was unsure on what to watch. I took inspiration from board games with a dice and a card deck shuffle which I felt would add a fun, interactive aspect to the streaming service.
After carrying out the idea generation process, I have come to my final idea of introducing a shuffle option which would appear as a dice, and the user would answer some multiple choice questions and would be given 6 options. While I feel most of the ideas I came up with would solve some of the issues with Prime Video, I feel the dice shuffle would prevent endless scrolling which is something I found a lot of people had a problem with during my research. Also, if I combined my ideas, too much would be happening and end up confusing the user even more. This will allow for random selection, but still allows the user to make the final decision.