Reflection point: Patterns and Flows — Disney+
I chose to review Disney+, the streaming platform released by Disney in November 2019. I wanted to review it for two reasons. One, I watch it all the time, and two, it’s relatively late to the streaming game, so I feel as though they’ve picked up on and fixed a lot of the intricate pain points that other streaming platforms have had by the time they launched.
Patterns: Navigation
The Disney+ landing page uses a familiar pattern to Netflix, Hulu, Prime, etc. in that it’s very visual. Most people either know what they want to watch already, or they browse and pick a show/movie by its title and thumbnail image. They say to never judge a book by its cover, but that’s precisely how we work on a general level when looking for something to watch. Of course, we then oftentimes read the synopsis, but at that point, we’ve still clicked on it — so something about either its title or thumbnail image attracted us to it in the first place.
A different pattern that Disney+ uses from other streaming sites that I personally love is that it gives thumbnails for the different production companies that it owns, and you can narrow down what you see just by clicking on them. If you click on Marvel, for instance, it only shows Marvel movies, and removes from your view all other Disney movies, Star Wars movies, etc.
Patterns: Search
Disney follows typical streaming site search patterns where if you begin to type something into the search bar, it automatically updates the search results in real time. This can save a user lots of time by not having to type in a long title to something. In addition, a user can search by title, character, or genre, helping the user to quickly narrow their search to a specific show/movie, or just something in a genre that they feel like watching at that time.
Task Flow
I mapped out a simple user task flow, selecting a movie to watch. In this case, I used a real-world example that I’m doing right now. My girlfriend and I are currently working our way through the Marvel movies in chronological order. The next one on our list is Ant-Man, so I knew immediately which movie I was looking for. Other times, browsing the site may be necessary to find a movie you’re interested in, or typing its title into the search bar.
