As part of my contextual research, I decided to look into the Prime Video user base and what people thought about the app as it is and if they would use a shuffle option. I did this through a combination of online research, reading reviews and carrying out a survey.

There is over 400 subscription video on demand services worldwide. Excluding services that solely operate in China, Prime Video sits second in the world’s most popular streaming services, below Netflix. The Prime Video user base consists of more than 200 million people across 19 countries. US subscriber numbers have almost doubled from 2017 and account for 74% of all subscriptions. The UK has 10.1 million subscribers as of 2020.

 

REVIEW 1:

“critically acclaimed TV, and lots of movies that are…less so”

Pros:

Lists more than 200 Original Series which is more than Hulu but less than Netflix. Available a full season at a time.

Stand out area is the selection of kids shows available.

Includes an extensive catalog of B-movies.

This user praised the “cool” feature of the IMDb X-ray, where you can view information on the cast, music and trivia while watching the content. Liked how it was generally ad-free with just short promos for original content instead of regular advertisements.

Cons:

No option to keep up with current shows like Hulu, without subscribing to a channel.

Sells TV shows/movies separately from its subscription content. These are mixed in with stuff you can stream ‘free’. This makes it confusing and seems like another incentive to try and get you to buy something.

Have introduced ways to separate the two, but appear differently across devices.

 

REVIEW 2:

Pros:

Cheaper than rivals.

Impressive catalogue of content.

Able to download content to view offline.

Gain access to delivery, music and photo storage perks in price.

Invested heavily on in-house productions to cater to a wide variety of tastes.

Cons:

Interface includes titles you need to buy/rent.

No way to turn off seeing rent/buy content and leads to confusion.

 

After reading these two reviews, they are mainly positive about the amount of content that Prime Video offers at a reasonable price. However, the main issue is how the content is mixed together and this leads to confusion. In my app improvement, I could add an option in the preferences which would allow the user to turn on/off seeing the rent/buy options, which would reduce the amount of confusion.

During my research, I came across Amazon reviews of Prime Video. While the overall rating is good, the reviews left below tell a different story. With the majority of them being negative or average. This suggests to me that the issues of Prime Video outweigh the positives. This links back to the principles of a good UI, that it needs to be easy for the user to navigate and not overwhelm them. After reading these reviews, the issue of mixed content and navigation are the main problems that I could try to improve.

 

As a way of gathering information about the user base, I created a quick survey which asked the questions I wanted the answers to which would help me plan my ideas. The overall response was what I expected, that the majority of people use it, but still find it complicated and difficult to use.

After seeing the response to this question, I decided that designing my dice function for a Smart TV would be the best option as it is the device most people used.

I feel that sticking to having random, movies and TV shows as my options on the dice would be the most successful after seeing these results.

The fact that all these answers have a majority in ‘yes’, show that a key area that needs improvement is the navigation. So I feel the best way I could do this with the dice function is by reorganising the side navigation column.

Similar to the other questions, the overall response was to improve navigation and separating the content which I could achieve with the side column and preferences.

One of the issues brought up was about the content that will be shown, but by including the ‘quiz’ before the final suggestions, I feel that the suggestions are within the users interests.

 

I found this research very helpful in highlighting the issues that the user base has with Prime Video but also what they like and find successful. I can use the feedback and information I obtained to improve my own idea and use it to try and solve some of the issues.