Sean Kane’s Netflix User Research Story

Sean Kane http://seankane.wordpress.com/ told a great story in his talk at the Web App Summit. It is a great illustration of how keeping your companies/customers goals in mind and doing user research will translate into increased sales and satisfaction.

Netflix was evaluating a few different methods of allowing customers to view movie trailers.

Method 1- simple viewer that allowed customer to: a. play the trailer b. go to the next film c. put the film in the queue

Method 2- allowed customer to: a. chose the films of interest b. play the selected trailers c. go to the next film d. put the film in the queue

Method 3 – allowed customer to use a carousel (a very nice interaction design pattern) to: a. chose the films of interest b. play the selected trailers c. go to the next film d. put the film in the queue e. have more VCR like control of the screening such as fast forward and rewind

Netflix also (wisely) tested a few other great ideas and different combinations of these features.

Sean asked the audience to indicate by a show of hands which method they would choose. From the back where I was sitting, it looked like 95% chose Method 3, including myself.

Conclusion:

Method 3 was the preferred way to view trailers.  It was the one customers preferred to use.  They spent the most time screening the movies in this user interface. The customers did not, however, put the movies into their queues to rent (purchase).

Method 1 turned out to be the way customers put the movies into their queues for rental (made the purchase). It made it much easier for the customers to actually watch the trailers and realize that –“hey this movie looks cool”.

Part of what makes Netflix great is that it helps people find movies they love, that they would not find themselves.   Netflix is different from its competitirs because it understands customer goals.  Through user testing, Netflix found that the simple (not so usable and boring) interface was what helped their company and customers reach their goals.

A good user research study doesn’t just ask the user what they think is cool or what they want.  It doesn’t always recommend the most “usable” solution.   A good study keeps in mind the users goals.   This Netflix story is an excellent example of how a good user experience goes way beyond usability.