CBS ALL ACCESS
Onboarding & Personalization
The Problem
Lack of use is a significant reason for detractor ratings from subscribers — as seen with the ex-subscriber survey, it’s also one of the biggest reasons for cancellations. How might we encourage more frequent use of the app via product features? Possible areas to address: schedule page, notifications, breaking news/sports alerts, recommendations, etc.
Competitor Analysis
The first order of business what to look around and get a sense of how other companies were tackling the problem. I looked at both Netflix and Hulu as they are both popular streaming services. Each competitor handled on-boarding and personalization a little differently: after sign up, Netflix asked the user to select three tv shows/movies that they liked and built personalization around that while Hulu* did so via genre selection.
*Since initially doing this analysis, Hulu is rolling out a redesign that combines both genre and tv show/movie preference selection.
Sketches
Before going straight to wireframes, I sketched some concepts first. It's a good way to get ideas out quickly. I focused on the app experience since that will be the easiest pathway to guide the user through an on-boarding process but many of my ideas can be carried over to other platforms.
User Flow & Wires
Once I settled on a direction, I put down a user flow to make certain that there weren't any holes in my concept and then I took it to Sketch! I prefer to build my files with components and nested symbols; that way, it is easy to throw together multiple screens and pivot on different ideas.
My thinking behind the initial on-boarding experience was to make the app more relevant and engaging to the user. If a user downloads the app and doesn't go through the on-boarding process, we know very little about them and the app is just whatever we throw out there. By having them select the genres and shows that are of interest to them, we can personalize the app to their preferences.
Since the app is personalized, they will be surfaced with more content that is enticing to their interests -- because of this, they might be more inclined to sign up for our streaming service because they are more aware of the value offering. Additionally, because we know their genre/show preferences and have their name and email via the on-boarding process, we can send them targeted marketing. For example, if they indicated that they like sci-fi, we can send them an email when the new season of Star Trek Discovery is about to air.
Discovery Model
Another way that we can encourage engagement is via discovery. By utilizing users’ genre and show selections as well as viewing behavior, we will be better able to power recommendations.
In the example illustrated below, three user groups have all selected the same genres during personalization: drama, comedy and reality. There are some shows that all three groups share (Bull, Elementary, Young Sheldon and Survivor). There are other shows that are shared between some of the groups but not all and there are some shows that are unique to single groups.
Because of their shared genre and show interests, surfacing other shows within those interest groups might lead to further discovery. So, in this case, User Group A’s ‘Drama’ carousel would lead with Star Trek Discovery because it’s a show that is watched by both User Group B and C and User Group A watches a lot of the same shows as those groups. So it is reasonable to assume that it is a show that would capture those users' interest. User Group A’s drama carousel would then follow with Scorpion and Hawaii Five-O for that same reason.
As we get more data and viewing habits of our users and can rely on that as well, that can mold how we position those carousels. If a User Group stops watching a particular show, it will eventually not feature as prominently in the carousels of User Groups that share their genre interests.
Initial UI
When I was at CBS, there were UI designers who work hand in hand with UX to bring products to life. However, I wanted to take a first pass at the UI to better inform my colleague what I had in mind from an experience stand point.
