Entertainment UX: the good, the bad and the ugly

It’s part two of our monthly UX series where we uncover what exactly makes, or breaks, a great UX. Keeping current trends in mind, each month we’re looking back and exploring the good, the bad and the ugly in the market right now. And we’re pooling our expertise from across the UK, US and South Africa to do so. We kicked things off with health and wellness in part one, and with award season now well and truly underway, the entertainment market felt like the natural space to explore next.

But, before we jump in, let’s first recap: what does the good, the bad and the ugly really mean?

• The good: I’d tell my friends all about it and really advocate for it
• The bad: It’s just OK, but has the potential to be so much better
• The ugly: It works, but the experience is poor and it’s a turn-off to continue engaging or revisit

Of course, we need to bring some objectivity to our assessments, so what criteria are we judging these by?

• Ease of use
• Data insights/ analysis
• Community/ social engagement

The good – Spotify

Ignoring the political maelstrom it somehow finds itself in and forgiving the obvious choice, Spotify has done so much right from a UX perspective. Its 31 percent market share, which dwarfs its next nearest competitor, Apple Music (it’s double the size) proves it’s doing something right.

• Ease of use: Opening the app on any device brings you back right where you left off. Your previous listen is paused and waiting, and recent albums and playlists are front and centre. Meaning? A smooth return to audio harmony without an exhaustive search; you can exit your car, enter your home, switch systems, and the only interruption will be the time it takes for Bluetooth to adjust. What a way to keep the party going!
• Data insights / analysis: Spotify’s algorithm has found a way to process the variety of music you’ve been listening to, to not only suggest new albums or artists you may be interested in, but to curate multiple personalised playlists on a daily basis. Each of these ‘daily mixes’ has a different feel, so you can both experience the comfort of what you know and discover new songs with one click. In addition to the daily algorithmic personalisation, each year Spotify provides every user its own ‘year in review’, which not only recaps your listening habits, but gamifies them in a visually beautiful way. Building this capability probably cost Spotify a decent amount, but the free advertising it gets each year when users post their stats directly to Instagram must be worth it.
• Community / social engagement: While not the focal point of the platform, the ability to follow friends, celebrities, and everything in between is a great way to share and discover music from people you care about. In the UK at least, Spotify’s partnerships with ticketing platforms mean that users are alerted to gigs based on listening habits – a great example of how it uses its data to strengthen and grow communities and create stickiness for artists. Additionally, the ability to start a ‘remote group session’ allows you to listen in-sync with friends at the same time. As a lesser known feature, it’s novel and something you can imagine Gen-Z will jump on.

The bad – Netflix

Holding Netflix up as an example of ‘the bad’ may not be intuitive, as the streaming giant gets so much so right. With a few tweaks, however, it could rank with the Spotify’s of the world and truly predict what you’re looking for before you even know yourself. And, as Netflix is no longer meeting its subscriber projections (it had 8.3M new subscribers compared to the predicted 8.5M in Q4 2021) and has forecast a more modest outlook for Q1 2022, these improvements are clearly needed. The strong competition from players like Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+ etc means that it has never been easier for consumers to switch.

• Ease of use: At first glance, Netflix is extremely easy to use. Try to search for a film or TV show, however, and you may not get what you’re looking for. If Netflix doesn’t host a title on its platform, it still leads you to believe it’s available… It’s only upon closer inspection that you see ‘related titles’ in the search results, leading to letdown for the user. Additionally, the home screen layout is slightly different each time you log in, forcing the user to hunt for what they last watched, causing frustration. 
• Data insights / analysis: While not particularly ‘data’ heavy, the timer Netflix has set for itself seems to contradict the binging model the service normalised during its rise in popularity. The service allows you to watch three episodes or 90 minutes, whichever is greater, before asking whether you’re still watching. So, which is it, Netflix? Are we watching this season in one go or not? 
• Community / social engagement: In this category Netflix really lets itself down. In today’s market, everything from music services, like Spotify, to reading services, like Audible, is programmed to inspire choices by allowing a user to see what friends, family and influencers are enjoying. But Netflix instead continues to push content loosely related to a user’s prior viewing, while relying heavily on Genpop trends to inform its recommendations. Meaning? Netflix’s own films are also often #1 trending, highlighting an agenda entirely at odds with the notion of a personalised experience…

How to Improve:

• Be consistent – Make the Netflix homepage a ‘safe space’ for users, meaning keep it the same each time they log in. Have the keep watching space easily accessible, and put more effort into an intelligent algorithm. This is a feature central to the hours-long viewing model previously discussed. So, make it seamless.
• Enable customization – Some people want a sleep timer, some people don’t. Let users turn off the reminders if they want an uninterrupted Sunday session. And make more of the “my list” feature, it is so buried in the app it drives down engagement.
• Make it social – Develop or work with a startup to enable custom crowdsourced recommendations, so users can discover things genuinely suited to their tastes more easily. Look to platforms like Letterboxd for inspiration. 

The ugly – F1 Fantasy app

Most likely due to the impeccable timing of F1 and Netflix dropping a docuseries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, international interest in Formula One has surged. As such, a fantasy sports app had to be developed to coincide with the excitement. Unfortunately, however, the investment F1 puts into its real-life events has not translated into its own-brand fantasy platform. Given the significant investment in to F1, it is surprising that the digitisation element has lagged so far behind in what is an extraordinarily technically advanced sport.

• Ease of use: Quite simply, ease of use is limited. The user interface is extremely clunky and unintuitive. Finding the team you’re trying to join is nearly impossible, requiring a 10-digit, non-customisable alphanumeric code. Most importantly, team changes do not automatically save; the website (there is in fact no dedicated app) defaults to assuming that a team editing session was just for fun, not to actually win, often leaving players disappointed on race day.
• Data insights / analysis: Part of the game involves tracking the prices of different drivers and constructors, which change over time. However, despite the fact that strategically making trades is of critical importance to your fantasy success, there is not a clear indication regarding what drives the price changes, leaving fantasy participants to frantically refresh in hopes they don’t miss out. Not only that, but it often takes a couple of days to see final scoring from the race.
• Community / social engagement: By nature, fantasy sports are a social activity. That said, while many other fantasy sport platforms have found ways to ease engagement among rivals, F1 continues to lag behind. Tracking competitor lineups is not intuitive, and there is no automatic ‘recap’ sent by the platform to force-rank you against your friends and drive engagement in future race weeks.

How to improve:

• Credible platform – Despite being powered by Playon, there is a clear need to look elsewhere for inspiration. F1 should leverage or take insight from platforms that are already doing fantasy sports well, (ESPN, Yahoo, the Premier League etc.). Making ease-of-use a priority will limit user frustration and capitalise on the spike in interest in the sport, increasing adoption.
• Data transparency – In a game where every dollar matters, make it easy for players to understand what drives ups and downs, how drivers and teams are valued, and how dynamic pricing is calculated week to week.
• Make it social – The very nature of fantasy sports means that users are playing against one another, often in leagues of friends or colleagues. Drive engagement (and competition) by calculating relative performance and allowing users to smack-talk one another with ease.

By definition, entertainment is supposed to be fun. So, if the resounding  experience is one of frustration, consumers will simply find somewhere else to go or try something entirely new – the barrier to switching is minimal. Entertainment brands, even the big players, are losing out if this seemingly obvious purpose isn’t front of mind when it comes to UX and UI. A big part of the experience is also the social aspect, and this thread (or lack of) is something that seems consistent across the good, bad and ugly.  Building products and services that enable a community, particularly in a digital, post-lockdown world, is so important for engagement and UX must reflect this. 

Up next in this series we will take a look at the wealth management market. But for now, connect with our team if you want to supercharge your user’s experience.