Infinity is a video streaming mobile app offering unique features in its premium plan while still providing a solid free experience.
Two years ago, Infinity launched a media app on both iOS and Android. The company’s business strategy was to first build a user base by offering a free product and then evolve the feature set so they could monetize on a premium (paid) product.
At this point, the product has been well received and has a healthy user base of free users.
They now need to design an experience that will allow users to subscribe and pay a monthly fee.
My Role:
Product Designer
Responsibilities:
Conducting User Research, Interviews, Wireframing in both Low and High-Fidelity, Prototyping and Usability Testing.
Timeline:
July - August
Tools Used:
Sketch, InVision, Adobe Illustrator, Miro
Constraints:
Timeline of 90-hours, Remote Interviews and UsabilityTesting
Design Objective
To create both opportunities and compelling reasons for new and returning users to subscribe to the premium product within the app.
To begin my research I went to some industry leaders in the media app space that offered similar free and paid plans.
Industry Leaders Analysis
By examining these three Industry Leaders I was able to narrow down some critical information on what I liked, did not like, and actionable take-aways.
Key Insights
- All three apps had clean and modern UI
- Pandora and Spotify did a good job of timing when they offer Premium to when it is most relevant to the user, while YouTube offered it at seemingly random and inconvenient times
- YouTube pushed Premium services when I was not looking for it, but made it difficult to find when I searched for it myself
- The importance of clear CTAs (Call to Actions)
- Allow user to maintain control over in-app experience
Interviews
In order to better understand how users of media-apps felt about current video apps, I sent out a screener survey. This ensured my participants would be both familiar with and users of video-streaming apps.
Five users were selected from those that responded and remotely interviewed over the course of one week. Users were asked about their experiences and preferences regarding media streaming apps such as Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Key Insights
A universal want was a free-trial with the ideal length being 30 days.
Netflix was the favorite due to its wide variety and versatility of content. As one user put it, “there's something for everyone.”
Most users heavily relied on the apps recommendations and what was currently popular to dictate what they would watch
Hulu was appreciated for its aesthetics but as one user stated, “Yeah it looks pretty, but it’s not practical.”
Some users would be recommended titles that they felt were not relevant to them
None of the users interviewed enjoyed receiving ads, and many voiced they would pay to get rid of them
Common Pain Points
When ads are promoted on every sign-in, it comes off as “over-eager, aggressive, in bad-taste”
Apps that have clunky UI
Lack of relevant content: suggestions, shows
When paid plans don’t convey the benefits well enough
I took the data obtained from the interviews and utilized three methods to discover patterns and user traits.
Design Methods:
Affinity Mapping
Persona creation
Written Summary
Affinity Map
The use of Affinity Mapping enabled me to begin identifying the different types of users in the video-streaming app space.
Using this information I began brainstorming for my Persona creation.
Brainstorm
From the brainstorm I was able to identify four traits:
Discerning, Money Saving, Techy, and Family.
These four were further broken down and consolidated into the final three Persona Types: Techy, Family, and Budgeter.
Using the data gained from my research I identified the three most critical user flows of the app for the MVP (Minimum Value Product):
1. Exploring Social Tab
2. Onboarding and Purchase of Premium
3. Finding something to watch
By creating low-fidelity wireframes I was able to sketch out a more tangible and testable experience for users.
Low-Fidelity Wireframes
For the low-fidelity wireframes I focused on features that would help satisfy the pain points users described in the research interviews.
My goals were ease of use, a compelling feature set, relevance of content, and an overall premium feel.
The main features I created were:
- A 30-day Free Trial
- Two available plans for subscription: Yearly (saves money) and Monthly
- Social features unique to video-streaming apps
- Adjustable recommendations
As stated earlier, all users interviewed enjoyed the option of free trials with the ideal length being 30 days.
When choosing different options for subscribing, users were asked about whether they preferred monthly, every six months, or yearly plans.
All five users interviewed said they would not be interested in a six month option. They stated that there was enough flexibility in offering a Monthly and Yearly plan - but wanted to save money if committing yearly or else, "What's the point?" as one user put it.
Premium Offering with Plan Selection
Offering social features in a video streaming app is something I had thought about early in the ideation phase, as most users in the target demographic (18-40) enjoy some level of digital social interaction.
Social + Playlists Screens
The idea for adjustable recommendation from a user voicing how irrelevant some of their recommendations had become and how frustrating it was.
In today's current offering of streaming apps, there is very little one can do to have more control over what is recommended to them and how often.
With this feature users would gain more control over their recommendations and create a more personalized experience.
Usability Testing
Five usability tests were conducted remotely over the course of one week. The goal was to find any usability issues in the three user flows within the app.
I provided users with a digital, interactable prototype made in InVision and three scenarios to work through.
Questions that I wanted answered were:
Does the UX of the app make sense and is it easy to use?
Are there compelling reasons to upgrade to Premium in the app?
Does the user understand what those reasons are?
Are the features included in Premium justified being paid-only?
Is this an app the user would want to use?
Would they enjoy using it?
What are the aspects and features of the app that work and what are those that do not?
Findings
Overall Infinity was seen as a standard, premium video-streaming app with unique features. Users particularly liked being able to sort / fine tune their recommendations and having social features available. It was mentioned that the social aspects would be what would incentivize some to upgrade from free to premium.
Comparisons were drawn to Netflix, which based on the interviews conducted always ranked #1 on users favorite streaming app. That comparison along with the genuine interest and excitement shown around the social and recommendation features gave me an optimistic outlook going forward with the project.
However, as expected there were opportunities for growth in the form of some common pain points.
Pain Points
A lack of clarity on what the ‘Recommended to You’ on the Social tab was
Ambiguity of the plus and minus icons on the adjust recommendations By Genre screen
The ‘Friends’ section of the Social tab
‘By Genre’ button on the Home screen
High-Fidelity Wireframes + Prototype
While designing the High-Fidelity screens I was able to hone in on the feedback received from the Low-Fidelity usability tests. Iterations were made to increase user confidence, create better clarity, and bring more purpose and enjoyment to each feature in the app.
Prototyping + Usability Testing
Five users were recruited and tested remotely over three days.
During these tests I closely observed users behavior while navigating the app prototype.
Prototype
Those tested all enjoyed the app's UI and said it felt premium and "very standard" for what they would expect to see in a video-streaming app featuring a Premium plan.
Results
80% of users enjoyed the Social features enough to share that they would purchase a Premium membership for that alone.
Users especially enjoyed the ability to share and receive movie recommendations from friends directly in-app via the 'Friends Picks for You' feature.
60% of users found the ability to adjust your recommendations very helpful and novel. They had not seen a feature like that before in this type of app and enjoyed the concept of it.
In the shown iteration I chose to replace the + and - icons from the low-fidelity wireframe and replace them with a singular icon. This 'filter' type icon would open a card presenting the user with two choices for customizing their recommendations.
While my solution for adjusting one's recommendation alleviated the problems in the low-fidelity design, it also created some new ones. However these new pain points required much less time and effort to resolve.
With each new iteration the true problems became more clear and less resource intensive. This proved I was heading in the right direction for both the project goals and the user's satisfaction.
Final Iterations
For the final round of iterations I chose to focus on the few remaining areas with the most friction:
1. Adjust Recommendations
2. 'For You' section and logic
Adjusting Recommendations
The area with the most friction by far was the feature to "fine-tune" your recommendations. Infinity offers users this unique ability via a filter-like icon next to each Genre.
Before iteration - Tapping Adjust Recommendation
Most users however did not understand the function right away and would confuse the icon for a traditional Filter icon, expecting traditional filter options when tapped. When one of the options were selected, users wanted to see a confirmation dialogue explaining what had happened.
Iteration
The first step to fixing this problem was to deal with one existing on the same screen.
The top of the screen reads, 'For You' but feels separate and unrelated to the 'By Genre' section. In order for a user to reach this screen they had to tap "View All" from the home screen in the 'For You' section. So why was this Genre section even on this screen?
To remedy this I clearly separated these two sections by giving the 'Adjust Recommendations' feature its own tab and identity on the bottom navigation bar. Adjust Recommendations was rebranded with a new icon and title, becoming Personalize by Genre.
For You was also given its own section in the app - the previous 'By Genre' screen.
The old icon was replaced and repurposed for a traditional filter on the new 'For You' screen.
By separating these two screens the resulting two sections clearly had a singular purpose and no longer fought for the users attention and comprehension.
Overall, Infinity was consistently seen as a standard, premium video-streaming app with some unique features. Users had not seen the ability to personalize their recommendations before and felt it could be beneficial to their in-app experience.
One of the main goals for this project was to create compelling reasons for the user to upgrade to premium and this was largely accomplished. From unique social features, to more personalized recommendations, Infinity provides users with relevant and engaging content.
Next Steps
If more time could be allocated to the Infinity project, I would like to conduct another round of usability testing. While my iterations made to the final product were a direct result of user feedback, I would want to know if any of the changes produced new areas of friction for the user.
For me, a compelling statistic for the Infinity app is the conversion percentage from free to paid users. After usability tests and user feedback, the percentage sits at about 60-80%. I would greatly enjoy continuing to strive for greater conversion, user engagement and satisfaction, and success for the project as a whole.
