Netflix
Case Study
ROLE
Product Designer
UX Researcher
TIMELINE
Feb - May 2024
SKILLS
User Research
Visual Design
UX Design
Prototyping
UI Kit
TOOLS
Figma/Figjam
Notion
MAIN SOLUTION
Recommend to your friend a film they would like.
MAIN SOLUTION
View films that were recommended to you.
CONTEXT
What's the Problem?
Everyone has experienced endlessly scrolling on Netflix, having entered the app not knowing what to watch. You click on a thumbnail, you read the summary, you watch the preview… But in the end, nothing seems appealing and you end the tedious cycle by closing the app.
From this phenomenon, I wanted to research and find a better way for people to decide on what to watch.
USER RESEARCH
What Do the Users Say?
To validate my hypothesis, I conducted a total of 6 user interviews — those of four being frequent Netflix users and two having never used Netflix before. The interview involved questions such as their personal experiences with the platform, any obstacles they face using the app.
The key takeaways from the interviews were that:
🥲
Users found the process of looking through film choices tedious and on-platform film recommendations not resonant enough — resorting to content they are already familiar with.
🔥
Users usually depend on external factors when choosing what to watch, such as popularity, starring famous actors, and/or recommendations from close ones.
🤔
For non-netflix users, the popularity of a certain show alone did not persuade them enough to subscribe, though they were curious.
⭐️
Users wanted a more personalized list of recommendations that they could click into with no hesitation or doubt.
BRAINSTORMING
During the brainstorming process, I gathered three friends to ideate new potential solutions, keeping in mind this question:
"How might we shorten the time it takes to choose and watch a satisfying film?"
Using FigJam's sticky notes, we started the process with a brain dump of 100+ creative to silly ideas.
From there, we categorized the ideas and narrowed them into three best solution spaces.
SOLUTION SPACES
After brainstorming, I decided on three potential solution spaces — social interaction, game elements, and better review systems — for the new feature. From here, I organized the pros and cons of each solution space to weigh the tradeoffs.
In the end, I decided on the space of social interaction as it aligned best with the goal of finding films that users can ensure they will enjoy.
Social Interaction
+
Your friends know you best — better personalized recommendations made by friends.
–
During user interviews, users appreciated Netflix's aspect of enjoying films in private.
Game Elements
+
Way to make choosing films an entertaining process, rather than a tiring one.
–
Does not align with Netflix's product tone and not something users expressed interest in.
Better Review
Systems
+
Provides more information a user can use to decide if they will enjoy the film.
–
Adds to the overwhelming searching experience, as it dumps more information to users.
FEATURE IDEATING
Having decided my solution space, I moved onto deciding a feature idea. Again, I had three ideas and weighed the pros and cons of each.
Discoverable profiles and movie playlists
Inspired by music platforms, I imagined giving Netflix users the option to turn their profiles public and share their own tasteful playlists. This would enable users to look for a public profile/playlist that recommends movies similar to their liking.
However, I assumed that this type of feature could misdirect user behavior from actually watching films to curating playlists, or going from playlist to playlist, even increase the time users take to look for a film. Users also were not too fond of public profiles as they enjoyed Netflix's private-ness.
Scrollable Short-form content of Movie Clips/Previews
Users mentioned how, when searching for a film, they wanted to be able to have a taste of the experience before committing their time to it. This feature could help users sense how a film is like through showcasing clips of each film and having a button to the full version when intrigued.
But using other social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram as reference, users could rather keep scrolling than actually decide to watch a certain film in full.
Recommending Films to Added Friends
During user interviews, many participants' routes to watching a film were through personal recommendations from close ones. Using the behavior of people in close relationships wanting to suggest and enjoying suggestions from the other person, I imagined a feature where users can add each other and recommend specific films to specific friends.
This would enable users to find better personalized content, from people who know you best. Also, it could intrigue more users to actually watch the recommendations as from personal relationships and specific to them, helping users feel more special. Using specific IDs, user profiles would also be private instead of public.
FEATURE VISUALIZING
How Will the Features Look?
With my feature in mind, I went into sketching iterations low-fidelity screens to ideate how it would actually look like. Initially, I included Direct Messaging features but removed it later on as I wanted keep the platform private and focused to watching films. A snippet of my sketches are shown below (Left image).
Using the low fi sketches as reference, I created an information hierarchy diagram to exemplify which direction a user would have to go to land on certain features (Right image).
DESIGN EXPLORATIONS
What is the Most Effective Design?
Moving onto Mid-Fidelity sketches, I explored different ways to represent each feature layout.
Sending Recommendations
Use Share Button to Recommend
✅ Less buttons, simple display
❌ Suggesting films not expected in share
❌ Users might face difficulty in finding out about the feature and where to find it
💖 Separate Recommendation Button
✅ Easy to notice and more intuitive to use
✅ Better distinguish the ability to sharing films internally and externally
❌ Slight more clutter, however a small difference
Initially, I imagined the recommending feature to be integrated into "Share." However, I realized that would hide the feature itself as well as cause confusion to the users. So, I decided creating a separate button for better clarity and went with the iteration on the right.
Viewing Suggestions - Feed
💖 Cards with Profiles
✅ Aligns with rest of the app
✅ Placed near the top — can be easily and quickly found
❌ Hard to differentiate with other rows
Larger Cards with Profiles
✅ Shows two films at a time, less overwhelming
✅ Differentiates the feature
❌ Doesn't align with overall UI
Playlist Form
✅ Unique layout, can be eyecatching
❌ Disjointed from the rest of the app
❌ hard to differentiate with other rows
For the most efficient movements and for the convenience of users, I placed the entry point of the feature under "Continue Watching…". If a user enters the app to finish watching they can get to it the fastest, but if the user's wants is to watch something new, its most personalized recommendations will be right under.
For the UI, when choosing the cards' style I decided on the slender version, so that it would be more consistent.
Viewing Suggestions - Profile
List of Thumbnails
❌ Visually unbalanced when seeing all ten thumbnails at once
❌ Can add onto the overwhelming experience
List Form in Rows
✅ Listing layout familiar to users
❌ Discomfort in having to scroll + content after it can get overlooked
💖
✅ Sectioning and layout similar to the home screen — familiar to users
✅ Organized and clean at first glance
For lists and recommendations per profile, the last iteration was chosen as it provides familiarity from the home screen and also a sense of organization. It shows two different sections, a user's top ten showcasing their favorite films as well as their suggestions to you, and an option to move onto another page if the user wants an extended version.
KEEPING IN MIND
While crafting high-fidelity screens, I focused on two things:
Do the elements of the feature blend in well with the original design elements of Netflix?
Is the design of each new feature intuitive, recognizable, concise, and easy to follow with little to no explanation?
HIGH FIDELITY FLOWS
Finally, here are my final prototypes for the recommendation feature. Thank you for reading.
MAIN SOLUTION
Recommend to your friend a film they would like.
MAIN SOLUTION
View films that were recommended to you.
Let's talk about our deepest dreamiest ideas ❦
LK552@cornell.edu
Made with <3 by Leah Kim © 2025