In-Player Playlist Belt

Role:
User Experience Designer

1. Project Goals
• User Goals:
• Allow users to browse and select additional content without leaving the player, maintaining a continuous viewing experience.
• Provide a clear, easy-to-navigate playlist preview for related or recommended content.
• Business Goals:
• Increase content consumption by encouraging exploration of additional videos.
• Enhance user retention by making related content seamlessly accessible to reduce drop-offs.
2. Research and Define
• User Research: Conducted surveys and usability tests to understand expectations for in-player playlist browsing and content discovery.
• Competitive Analysis: Reviewed playlist features on major streaming platforms, focusing on layout, accessibility, and the appeal of suggested content.
• Insights: Users desired easy access to more content without disrupting their current viewing, with an intuitive navigation for playlist selections.
3. Ideate and Prioritise Solutions
• Concept Development: Explored layout options for the playlist, like horizontal scrolling with thumbnail previews and metadata.
• Prioritisation: Focused on an unobtrusive design that allows for content preview without detracting from the main video.
4. Prototyping
• Prototype Creation: Built high-fidelity prototypes with a playlist belt inside the video player, using Figma’s video features to simulate a realistic experience.
5. User Testing and Feedback
• Testing Sessions: Conducted usability tests, gathering feedback on ease of navigation, content discoverability, and placement order of the playlist within the player.
• Key Findings: Users appreciated easy accessibility and smooth transitions. Some users suggested clear indicators for the currently playing and upcoming videos.
6. Refinement and Iteration
• Refinements: Adjusted layout to horizontal for CTV and vertical for web and app, optimised thumbnail sizes, and enhanced hover effects to highlight selections.
• Usability Enhancements: Improved navigation controls and added badges to mark the current and upcoming videos.
7. Implementation
• Development Collaboration: Collaborated with developers to ensure smooth transitions and responsive loading, addressing CTV requirements with lazy loading and playlist order management.
• Launch Strategy: Deployed the feature incrementally with metrics tracking for user interaction rates and engagement to plan for future improvements based on user data.