Cinemood

An app that helps users effortlessly discover the perfect film that matches their desired mood and genre.

Roles

  • User Experience Designer (UX)

  • User Interface Designer (UI)

Deliverables

  • Competitive analysis

  • User Interviews

  • Affinity Map

  • POVs and HMWs

  • Personas

  • Product Roadmap

  • Task Flow

  • Low-Fidelity Wireframes

  • High-Fidelity Wireframes

  • UI Kit

  • Usability Test and Findings

Tools

  • Figma

  • Otter

  • Google Meet

  • Maze

Background

With so many movies and streaming platforms available, it can be difficult for people to decide on the perfect film to match their moods and preferences. This process can be time-consuming and overwhelming.

The goal of this project was to simplify the process for users to explore and discover the perfect film that aligns with their desired genre, themes, and emotions, ensuring a hassle-free experience.

Research Plan

  • Conduct user interviews to understand the user's decision-making process.

  • Perform a competitive analysis to understand the user's selection motivations, challenges, and habits.

  • Create an affinity map to determine ways to integrate the recommendation system with popular streaming platforms.

Competitive Analysis

I conducted a thorough competitive analysis to gain insight into the market and assess the competition. The analysis specifically targeted apps and platforms that provide reviews and/or ratings for movies currently being streamed, available to purchase, upcoming, or currently being shown in theaters. After careful consideration, I selected four platforms. I chose Rotten Tomatoes due to its well-known reputation, while the remaining platforms I assessed were primarily focused on personalization and user reviews.

Pros:

  • Ability to explore new films through ratings, reviews, and lists.

  • Users can track watched movies, aiding in mood-based selections.

  • User engagement can aid in filtering relevant content.

Cons:

  • Smaller user base

  • Incomplete moderation may result in irrelevant content and restricted access.

Pros:

  • Offers both critic and audience scores, aiding in quick mood-based selections.

  • Offers diverse reviews across genres for informed decisions.

  • Allows users to filter irrelevant content for quicker decisions.

Cons:

  • Oversimplifies critiques, potentially complicating mood-specific searches.

  • Lack of critic diversity may limit varied genre perspectives.

Pros:

  • Helps users gauge movie mood and tone based on others' feedback.

  • Assists in identifying popular movies within preferred genres.

  • Increases chances of finding relevant movies despite search challenges.

Cons:

  • Incomplete data may hinder accurate filtering by mood.

  • Limited content moderation inaccurate genre classifications may result in mismatches.

  • The app is difficult to understand.

Pros:

  • Users can find mood-based recommendations through community discussions.

  • Aims to reduce irrelevant content through tailored suggestions.

  • Offers tailored suggestions based on viewing history.

Cons:

  • Users may struggle to filter out irrelevant content, especially if options are not intuitive.

  • Learning New users might find it challenging to utilize Trakt

User Interviews

I conducted interviews with seven individuals who frequently watch movies. My objective was to understand the factors that influence their decision-making when selecting a movie to watch, the amount of time they spend in this process, and the challenges and frustrations they face while searching for a movie to watch.

Key Quotes

  • “Consideration of others' moods and preferences is important in decision-making.”

  • “Netflix's personalized recommendations tend to restrict me to a specific genre, hindering my ability to browse different movie types.”

  • “Instant access to save time and locate the movie on a specific platform.”

  • “When I am alone, she selects movies based on my mood and preferred genre.”

Affinity Mapping

How might we help users discover movies that match their mood, reducing the need for extensive browsing?

User Persona

Based on the compiled research and the themes from the affinity map, I successfully created a persona that represents the targeted users for the app.

Task Flow

The three distinct task flows are designed to demonstrate user interactions within the app. Crafted with a focus on diverse user preferences, each task flow contributes to streamlining the overall user experience. Task flow one facilitates movie discovery based on mood, task flow two emphasizes intuitive genre-based navigation, and task flow three swiftly empowers users to find movies through a dynamic search bar interface.

Product Roadmap

The product roadmap presents a development plan to enhance users' movie-watching experience. It is divided into four priority levels: P1: Must-Have, P2: Nice to Have, P3: Surprising and Delightful, and P4: Can Come Later.

The product roadmap prioritizes essential user needs by initially focusing on providing up-to-date information and facilitating easy movie searching. Features such as where-to-watch information and genre options enhance convenience, followed by trusted ratings for credibility and filtering options for refined search results. The roadmap then progresses to personalized recommendations and mood suggestions, emphasizing user engagement. The inclusion of a voting system for moods adds an interactive and community-oriented aspect, creating a comprehensive and enriching content discovery experience.

Theme #1: Users struggle to find content matching their moods, leading to prolonged decision-making processes.

Theme #2: Users encounter difficulties navigating genres due to unclear categorization, affecting their ability to discover movies.

Theme #3: Irrelevant content contributes to prolonged search timesand often limited streaming platform access.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

I created sketches for all the landing screens and secondary screens, including different layout options. The chosen movie will have the same layout whether selected through the mood or genre option.

  1. The landing page of the website would showcase a selection of featured and popular movies, along with a search function for users to find specific titles.

  2. The mood section would consist of a variety of emojis, which users can select to indicate their current mood and preferences.

  3. Additionally, the genre screen will provide a basic selection of genres that are familiar to users, as well as the option to explore other genres they may not be familiar with.

Branding

The Cinemood brand prioritizes simplicity to ensure users aren't overwhelmed. Using purple as the primary color, along with neutral shades, fosters a calm and creative atmosphere, maintaining the uncluttered interface. The playful yet distinctive icons further reinforce the brand's identity.

High-Fidelity Wireframes

I digitized the low-fidelity wireframes to high-fidelity designs, focusing on themes like mood-based movie selection and genre preferences. For instance, I created a mood screen with distinct emojis for intuitive browsing and included genre filters for easier decision-making. Additionally, each movie entry features synopses, ratings, and streaming availability, reducing search time for users.

Usability Testing

Overview:

The design was tested with six participants who were given the following tasks:

Tasks:

  • Discover a movie that matches your mood.

  • Explore the genre section to search and browse for movies by selecting a specific genre.

  • Use the search bar to find a movie.

Key Results

  • Overall users found the app to be straightforward, convenient, and informative.

  • Users found the mood feature easy to locate and easy to use.

  • In the second task, some users stopped once they reached the comedy genre option screen and didn’t explore further.

    • Users found it a little difficult to browse and search through the genre section to find a movie based on selecting the genre.

  • 5/6 of users found the app very easy to find a specific movie using the search bar.

  • 4/6 of users were interested to see additional ways of filtering their search.

Key Quotes

  • "I think it is very straightforward and informative. It makes sense to have movies suggested based on genre and mood. "

  • "This product seems kind of like a shortcut to finding a movie to watch. If you are in a specific mood it tells you which movies match the vibe you're going for. When I am on Netflix, it is often hard to pick a movie. That being said, it would be great if the categories were more personalized, such as on top of genre selection there were other selections like "classics" or "movies from books", etc"

  • "Personalization! Once it starts to get to know me, I would like to see my top moods/recommendations."

Iterations

I made a few enhancements based on the feedback from the usability test to improve the user experience: introducing a scroll icon to prompt users to explore additional options within each genre, expanding the cards to further encourage scrolling for more movies, and enabling the search bar to search for both moods and movies.

Final Prototype

Takeaways

The extensive discovery research played a pivotal role in bringing this product to life. Selecting the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) posed initial challenges due to various options, but I prioritized the one that effectively addressed the main problem.

The app's user-friendly and intuitive design enables users to effortlessly discover a movie to watch via mood or genre selection, eliminating the need to browse through multiple sites and platforms, thereby maximizing their enjoyment of the movie-watching experience.

Future Steps to Consider:

  • Consider enhancing the app by adding sub-genres to provide more specific genre filtering options for users when selecting movies.

  • Implement a voting system to capture user moods associated with movies, allowing for mood combinations to improve movie recommendations.

  • Explore additional filtering options such as runtime to help users refine their choices further.

  • As users interact with the app, utilize personalized recommendations based on their preferences for a more tailored movie selection experience.