A UX Challenge in Designing for a Niche Customer Group
Overview
As a UX apprentice on the FireTV team, I was tasked with designing a hypothetical and innovative product to complement the FireTV ecosystem. I chose to focus on the mobile experience of Cartoonly—an all-in-one streaming platform for cartoon content. My motivation for developing Cartoonly stemmed from recognizing a gap in the market for a platform that caters specifically to cartoon enthusiasts. With the rise of on-demand content, I saw an opportunity to create a space that not only delivers quick and exclusive cartoon access but also leverages personalization and social features to enhance both individual and collective viewing experiences. Cartoonly is designed to optimize how users engage with their favorite cartoons by providing tailored recommendations and fostering a community around shared content.
My Role
On this solo project, I took on the roles of UX Researcher, UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Usability Tester, Visual Designer, and Product Designer.
Tools: Usertesting.com, Optimal Cardsorting, Pen, Paper, Figma, Figma Jam, Zoom, Chime
Context: 7.5 Month Deep Dive, Amazon + School of Visual Concepts
UX Techniques Used: Market Research, Competitive/Comparative Analysis, User Interviews, Affinity Mapping, Card Sorting, Poll Study, User Personas, Site Map, User Flows, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing
Deliverables
Research: User Interviews, Market Research, Competitive Analysis, Poll Study
Define: Digital Personas, How Might We’s, Opportunity Statement
Ideation: User Flows, Sitemap, Sketches, Mid-Fidelity and Hi-Fidelity Wireframes, Card Sorting
Testing: Prototype, Usability Testing
Presentation: Next Steps, Slide Deck
Challenge
Customers currently jump from provider to provider to discover where and what cartoons are available to watch. This causes subscription and search fatigue. Customers need a way to easily search, find, watch, and share cartoons within one centralized platform.
Research
I started the design process by engaging in 4 forms of research:
1. User Interviews
I interviewed 5 adult cartoon watchers focused on exploring customers’ thoughts behind: 1) subscribing to multiple online streaming sites to watch cartoons, 2) uncovering how customers currently manage multiple providers, and 3) collecting information on how their current painpoints could be eased.
Methodology
Themes:
Emotional Experience and Needs
Motivations
Satisfaction and Frustrations
Stimuli: Access your favorite online cartoon provider
Prompt: How do you go about selecting x cartoon to watch
Key Insights
100%
Navigation Exhaustion
“I'm not getting the most of my service, there's so many providers I have to navigate”
— Participant 4
60%
Representation
“I want to see queer representation but sadly there isn’t a lot”
— Participant 1
60%
Community
“A chat, comment, & live review feature; I like to see what people say about cartoons”
— Participant 3
80 %
Narrow Recommendations
“Maybe it could be a service where you could put in your preferences for better recs”
— Participant 4
60%
Search by Stylistic Elements
“The color style or color palette is something I consider when selecting”
— Participant 2
Recommendations
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Based on their feedback, I put together a list of recommendations that would shape the experience for Cartoonly customers targeting their needs.
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1. Personalized User Profile
Customers can create custom profiles leading to content that reflects what they like, saving time to watch cartoons and easing navigation exhaustion.
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2. Friends Who've Watched This
Customers can use an explore page curated by their social circle to select what to watch off of trusted recommendations leaving room for serendipitous exploration and wider personalization.
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3. Friend Watch Invite + Messaging
Customers can directly invite friends to watch content & through direct messaging discuss cartoons, creating a sense of connection and community.
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4. User Generated Tag Search
Customers can categorize content using stylistic elements: animation style, color, images, and search categories to decide what to watch.
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5. Wider Inclusive Content Catalog
Customers can browse (ie. LGBTQA+, BIPOC, disability, & international categories) that raise the bar for equity and representation within storytelling in cartoon sites.
2. Market Research
DIGITAL MEDIA TRENDS
Question:
How do consumers feel by the explosion of streaming services?
Interesting Finding:
47%, nearly half of U.S. consumers say they’re frustrated by the growing number of subscriptions and services required to watch what they want.
Source: 13th edition of Deloitte’s annual Digital Media Trends survey, 2021
3. Competitive Analysis
I identified 2 indirect competitors; A) Netflix and B) Funimation. The goal was to compare and identify common features. The most important takeaway was learning how mobile online streaming sites organize and layout cartoon content through a:
Simplified Global Navigation
Video Preview
Visual Hierarchy
4.Poll Study
I conducted a poll study with 15 customers via Usertesting. The poll focused on leveraging my team’s resources and learning about customers’ Find & Discover experience within Fire TV.
Question:
Recall an instance when it was frustrating to find a movie or show that matched a specific theme or type, how unbothered or unbothered were you?
Interesting Finding:
53% of customers felt very bothered. Based on these findings, I focused on the Find & Discover experience to ensure customers successfully find cartoons and increase engagement.
Customer Persona
Using data from the 4 forms of research I conducted, I constructed a persona to better envision Cartoonly's customer. The customer is an engaged cartoon watcher with experience navigating multiple online streaming sites. They primarily search for cartoon content by browsing with specified criteria in mind.
Define
Opportunity
HOW MIGHT WE…
After investigating Cartoonly's customer needs, I developed "How Might We...questions to address possible solutions, I organized them into 1 succinct opportunity that would be the focus of this project.
What can we derive from customers to enhance their find and discover experience when searching for cartoons to watch?
Card Sort
CUSTOMER GENERATED CARTOON TAGGING
I conducted a Card Sort with 22 participants to inform the site’s design and its information architecture.
Participants organized cartoon topics into categories that made sense to them and grouped them accordingly.
Interesting Finding:
63% of customers included customer generated tags as part of their search experience. This informed my design decisions in thinking of new ways to redefine the find and discover experience for customers.
Ideate
Site Map
To ensure that cartoon content is placed where customers expect to find it and make their experience more intuitive, with the results of the card sort, inspiration from competitor sites, and synthesizing the data from the interviews, I created a site map to define the overall structure of the website.
Customer Flow
CREATIVE SEARCH ENTHUSIAST
I created a flow to make the customer's experience more specific to their goal of searching with specified criteria in mind.
Wireframes
FIRST TIME CUSTOMER
Design
Wireframes
RETURNING CUSTOMER
Usability Testing
Study Plan
METHODOLOGY
With the Hi-fidelity prototype above, I conducted 5 unmoderated remote sessions with adult cartoon watchers with multiple online streaming subscriptions via Usertesting.com.
OBJECTIVE
Participants evaluated the mobile prototype while finding and discovering a cartoon with specified criteria.
QUESTIONS
What do you think of the mobile site so far?
Do you have recommendations for how the site works?
The mobile site’s capabilities meet my requirements, on a scale of 1-5
Results
EFFECTIVE AREAS
100%
Customers are happy to see a free trial option.
“The option for a free ad-supported account is nice”-Participant 2
60%
Customers are satisfied with the wide range of cartoons.
“It offers a lot of great variety”-Participant 4
100%
Customers are happy with the site’s navigation.
“Super easy to use and navigate”-Participant 1
60%
Customers are looking forward to Cartoonly’s launch.
"As soon as this is released, I will become a member for sure"-Participant 3
Results
GROWTH AREAS
100%
Customers expect search to be at the top of the homepage.
Need to re-imagine search engine placement
40%
Customers want to know about Cartoonly before subscribing.
Need to re-visit onboarding experience to include Cartoonly details before subscription
40%
Customers want a trending cartoon category section.
Need to incorporate New + Upcoming cartoon categories
40%
Customers want the product detail page before the play video.
Need to re-evaluate product detail page sequence within user flow
Next Steps
Moving forward I hope to:
Sketch design iterations based on recommendations from usability findings.
2. Conduct moderated customer testing with second iteration of mobile prototype.
3. Focus on customer need for social connection and evaluate customer cartoon content share user flow.
Reflection
The goal of this project was to create an efficient and customer friendly product that enhances the find and discover experience of cartoon enthusiasts. By asking high-level questions, being empathetic, and listening to customer feedback, I was able to create a solution that customers are looking forward to.
The following are important takeaways throughout my process:
Customer research provides an essential foundation for design strategy to help create an optimal product.
Keeping track of one’s decision making throughout the UX process is essential to let stakeholders know why certain decisions were made.
Annotating wireframes with goals allows for the document to be understood by different audiences.