Watchapedia

Home Feed Redesign

Watchapedia

Home Tab
Redesign

Watchapedia is a content metadata(like encyclopedia) and review service, aiming to collect users' rating data and reviews. By redesigning the home feed, I made it easier for users to discover content relevant to their contexts, boosting content exploration, and user engagement.

Role & Responsibilities

As the sole designer for this project, I led the entire design process, including:
▪︎ Conducting competitor research, event log analysis, and user interviews.
▪︎ Defining user requirements.
▪︎ Establishing design directions for UX/UI design.
▪︎ Collaborating with managerial stakeholders and engineers.
▪︎ Conducting design QA.

Collaboration

1 Product Manager
2 Client Engineers
2 Server Engineers
1 ML Engineer
1 QA Manager
1 Content Metadata Manager

Project Outcome

▪︎ Tripled content page visits through the home feed by adapting recommendations to focus on newly released and buzz-worthy content.

▪︎ Raised "Add to Watchlist" frequency per user by 10% by increasing content page visits.

Timeline & Platform

▪︎ May-Jul 2020 (2 months)
▪︎ Mobile (iOS, Android)

Process

Background

Stagnation in User Engagement Metrics

We observed a slowdown in the growth of key actions, like "Add to Watchlist" and "Rate", which were vital metrics for our service.

research

Unveiling User Behaviors by Data and Interviews to Identify the Problem

To pinpoint the issue, I dived deep into user behaviors: What are their patterns? What are we overlooking? To find the answers, I analyzed event logs and search queries for insights and validated these through user interviews.

Users predominantly use Watchapedia to browse and read content metadata and reviews before deciding what content to consume - especially the latest ones.

UX Problems

Frictions in the Browsing Experience

01. Difficulty in Viewing Content by Category

In the Home feed, recommendation cards displayed three categories - movies, TV shows, and books- in the same feed. Yet, users usually favored only one or two categories. So, users didn't see great value in the Home feed because they only got two or three recommendations in the favored category.

02. Recommendations Failing to Meet the User Needs

Even though users were looking for content available to watch at theaters or their subscribing streaming services at the time, most of the content recommendations were based on the user's ratings regardless of their availability.

03. Difficulty in Finding Trending Content

Trend-related information, crucial for deciding what to watch or read, was hidden inside the category pages and not intuitively discoverable, prompting users to search each piece of content individually.

Goal setting

Envisioning a More Engaging Browsing Interface

My hypothesis was that solving the identified pain points would streamline the flow, broaden the funnel for key actions, and positively impact user engagement.

Refine and optimize the browsing experience, thereby increasing the overall number of user actions.

Strategy & Ideation

Provide Fine-tuned Recommendations

Based on the pattern that most users are looking for something to watch soon, I focused on recommendations aimed at helping them discover accessible content. To achieve this goal, I emphasized available platforms and trending content. Additionally, I diversified the presentation of this information by incorporating other people's reviews or trailers to captivate users' attention.

Following several discussions with the product manager and the engineering team, I honed in on the most impactful content recommendation sections and simplified the structure. This refinement process considered time constraints, feasibility, and our primary objective.

Solution

Focusing on Content Consumption Context and Intuitive Browsing

01. Tailored Category Experience

I divided the Home tab by categories to give users direct access to a single category. Also, considering that most users primarily use one or two categories, I allowed users to personalize the order of the categories, thus catering to varied browsing preferences through personalized category navigation.

02. Contextual Content Discovery

Reflecting different consumption environments - streaming, theater, and more - I repositioned the product as a hub for recommendations across diverse channels and built an intuitive navigation experience across the platforms.

03. Expanded Content Recommendations

Since users felt the recommendations were scanty and usually searched for content with a specific consumption context, I saw an opportunity to provide rich, helpful recommendations in a personalized context. So, I expanded the diversity and depth of recommended content within each theme, allowing for more in-depth exploration within categories.

04. Visibility on Streaming Availability

Given that more and more people are using OTT services and that they are driving the content industry, I introduced badges to indicate streaming availability, simplifying the process for users to identify accessible content instantly.

Result

More Content Exploration and an Increase in Key Action

The redesign significantly increased content page visits and related metrics, marking a successful funnel expansion. Total and per-user "Add to Watchlist" actions increased, fulfilling our goal to boost user engagement.

×3.3

Content Page Visits
Initiated from the Homepage

+13%

Per-User
Content Page Visits

+10%

Per-User
"Add to Watchlist" event

Other Works