OVERVIEW

Connecting people through shows and movies

During the summer, my friends and I participated in the Netflix x Adobe Creative Jam. After 2 exciting and coffee-fueled days of designing, we earned Honorable Mention and placed in the top 13 out of 600+ teams.

CHALLENGE

Design a third-party desktop website or desktop app (not Netflix-branded) where the community can celebrate shared stories together through communal and authentic experiences

How might we help friends and family utilize this platform and share their experience with content such as series television shows and movies they love?

HOW DID We COME UP WITH THIS IDEA?

In order to get a better understanding of the problem space, we interviewed Netflix users, explored existing platforms like Netflix Party, and reflected on our own experiences.

After understanding people’s current behavior, we realized that:

1.

People discover new shows and movies through their friends and family

3.

People are used to binge-watching content

Streaming platforms like Netflix give people the freedom to watch as many episodes of their favorite shows whenever they want.

We were interested in exploring how to create a space for people to reflect on the content they consume.

IDEATION

We kept the following goals in mind to guide ideation:

1. Encourage reflection

2. Highlight mutual interests

3. Promote discovery

We started sketching ideas, which ranged from making film packages for friends to writing journal entries for shows and movies.

We then iterated on the concept of creating journal entries for shows. After drawing inspiration from Spotify Wrapped, we eventually landed on the idea of using a timeline to visually represent people’s watch history.

PUSHING PIXELS

We began working on the home screen together in Adobe XD. We initially experimented with a vertical timeline, but eventually decided that a horizontal timeline felt more impactful.

Visual Design

We split up tasks to make the most of our time. I made the sign-up screens and developed the visual identity while Yunoh focused on the friend screens and prototyping.

I picked bright, bold colors to complement dark mode and communicate excitement to people that visited the site.

Reflection

Participating in this Creative Jam was a great learning experience for me. Despite the stressful time crunch, I had a lot of fun working on this project with my amazing team <33

I also learned that:

1.

Designing with others is better than designing alone!

This event was the first time I worked with other designers on a project, and it taught me how great it is to have different perspectives. The best ideas we had were born out of disagreements and discussions that pushed us to think in new ways.

2.

It’s important to be intentional

Since we only had 2 days for this challenge, we made some tradeoffs between creativity and intentionality. If we had more time, I would have loved to explore:

Likes and comments - being able to interact with your friend’s entries would be a great way to connect with people more through Timelines.

Privacy features - some people may not want others to see their entire viewing history, so there should be a way to accommodate their needs.

More ways to visualize viewing history - a lot of people like to rewatch shows and movies. There should be a way to represent additional watch behavior on the timeline.