Letterboxd Watch Party
The Final Prototype
Overview
Client
Student Project with Designlab
My Role
UX/UI Designer and UX Researcher
Duration
80 hours
Introduction
Letterboxd is a social app and website for film buffs that helps users track films they watch, films they want to watch, create specific lists of film titles, leave reviews, read film news, and learn where to watch films on streaming platforms. The scope of this platform is solely focused on film and for those who are passionate about it.
The Challenge
The purpose of this project was to add a feature to an existing app. Inspired by the social aspect of live streaming services and virtual watch parties that became popular in smaller social circles during the COVID-19 pandemic, this project focuses on adding a “Watch Party” feature to the application. In this feature, a user is able to join a watch party created by another user that integrates through various streaming platforms. In these watch parties, there is a chat feature where users can discuss the film.
High Level Goals and Objectives
Design the interface for browsing for a watch party on a mobile application
Maintain Letterboxd branding
Research
In order to get a better idea of user needs, I did some research to learn about the following:
Understand what users are looking for when browsing to decide upon a movie on a streaming platform
Understand what users would want in a “Watch Party”
Understand what users find to be pain points when browsing for a movie
Discover how often users watch movies from streaming platforms
User Interviews
I met with 4 different participants to conduct 1-on-1 interviews to learn about the browsing habits of users when browsing for a recipe to learn the following:
Goals
Needs
Dislikes
Likes
Competitive Analysis
My goal for my Competitive Analysis was to learn more about platforms that facilitate a platform for being social alongside watching movies. I wanted to analyze some browser plug-ins that had offerings of different varieties and abilities and added them to Chrome since they were a plug in and analyzed them. The plug-ins I analyzed were created with the intention for watching movies and socializing with others.
Persona
I narrowed down my research into a singular persona to fit a core audience based for this feature upon what I gathered in my research. The target audience is based off of younger adults who are looking to find a way to socialize with others with a common interest: movies.
Features Roadmap
Upon completing my research, I created a roadmap of features in the following categories:
Must-Have: High priority features that need to come in this prototype
Nice to have: Features that would be helpful to have, but not deemed necessary by users
Surprising and delightful: Features that would be nice to have, but can come in the next prototype
Can come later: Features that are a long term goal and can come later
View larger image: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ps7Idbn9-NC5h100j6X-5NZg7YcYXJjY/view?usp=sharing User Flow
I created a user flow that begins from the login page where a user has the option to browse for a film, join an existing watch party, and review a film after completing a watch party.
View larger image: https://www.figma.com/file/3k1cTafSr8aSzcE8KYC8Ih/Untitled Design
Low Fidelity Wireframes
I created some low fidelity wireframes in order to get a visual of what I wanted the layout to be. While creating these, I kept in mind that I wanted a streamlined experience that was in line with Letterboxd’s standard UX. With this, I wanted to create an experience for the user that still allowed for a considerable amount of collaboration amongst users and options to customize experience as well as search functionality.
High Fidelity Wireframes
For the design, I created all of the pages for the user flow for the application. Below are some samples of some key pages of the prototypes that were utilized in the usability testing.
Usability Testing
Overview
I created a prototype from some high fidelity wireframes where I had four participants complete five tasks in one round of a moderated usability test. These usability tests took place in person as I sat alongside the user and took notes based upon their experience with the prototype.
Tasks
Find where someone would search for an action film watch party
Open the watch party for Fried Green Tomatoes
View the watch party in full screen/focus mode
Finish the watch party and leave a review
User Experience
After the usability test, I asked each of the users the following questions to factor into my outcome:
How did you feel about navigating the Watch Party feature? What kind of rating would you give it if 1 was very hard and 5 was very easy? (Scale of 1-5)
How did you find making the film full screen? What kind of rating would you give it if 1 was very hard and 5 was very easy? (Scale of 1-5)
Were you able to find the option to leave a review? What were your thoughts? (Scale of 1-5)
Have you ever used a watch party or livestream service before?
Would this be a service that you would use?
Do you think there was anything missing?
Outcomes
100% of users were able to successfully find where to access filters under the watch party tabs
100% of users were able to locate the film Fried Green Tomatoes under the watch party tab
100% of users were able to utilize the full screen option, 1 user even exited out of it to go back to the original without prompting
100% of users were able to complete the watch party and find where to leave a review
All users had a positive response to the prototype
The Final Prototype
Conclusion
As a regular user of Letterboxd, I truly enjoyed the work that went into this project. I was pleased that my usability testing was a success. Going forward in this project, I would love to create a feature where users can create and host Watch Parties through Letterboxd through their account profile and send invites to other users. I feel as though in light of COVID-19, this could be an amazing way to foster and build community amongst film buffs across the globe.