Skip to main content

Disney+ Relies on Users Already Understanding Streaming

 

Disney+ did not officially launch until November 2019. At that point, streaming giants such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and HBO were already streaming giants, and Disney throwing its hat into the streaming ring was only advantageous because the company’s movie and TV collection are extremely popular. This basically guaranteed the site would be successful no matter how the interface looked. While the decision to copy a lot of the design off of other sites, especially Netflix, might seem like a good decision, Disney+ also should consider that there could be new users that are not accustomed to streaming services that are dipping their toe into the pool with Disney+ for the first time. Whether the reasons be financial or due to lack of interest in what the aforementioned sites have to offer, this group of users should be considered too.

The design of Disney+ mirrors Netflix in many ways. The sites are closer to each other in terms of design than any other combination of streaming sites. They both have carousels organized by similar content. Disney’s carousel categories are a little more self-explanatory, like “Animals and Nature,” “Documentaries,” and “Reimagined Classics” (which refers to their recent live-action remakes). Netflix, however, has carousel categories like “Women Who Rule the Screen,” “Reluctant Adults,” and “Watch in One Weekend.” The creativity of Netflix’s carousel category titles makes one wonder why that’s not a characteristic Disney also “borrowed” from them for their design.

If a user hovers their mouse over a title on Netflix, it gives them options to play the content, add it to your list, thumbs up or down, or see more information. If a user does the same on Disney+, all it does is enlarge the title. A user has to actually click on the title to get more information or add it to their list, which makes it more difficult to add things when one has to click back and forth a lot more. Another action that is easier on Netflix than on Disney+ relates to TV shows specifically. If you click on a certain episode on Netflix, but then decide you want to watch a different one, there’s a button in the video player screen that allows a user to easily skip to the next one. There is also a pop-up menu that allows users to view all the episodes in the season, making it even easier to skip around. Disney+ has the same issue as before, where to see other episodes a user must exit the video player first.

Disney+’s launch led to more competition in the streaming war. However, by borrowing features from other streaming platforms, it makes its own design flaws even more apparent than if it had just started from scratch. While these issues may not be so hard for veteran viewers to get around, they might make it more difficult for newbie streamers to utilize Disney+.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think “Experience Architecture”

At the beginning of this class, we were assigned readings and videos about airports in order to conceptualize the main theme of the course, experience architecture. Experience architecture is the design of spaces (architecture) for users (experience), such as an airport. In de Botton's work, "A Week at the Airport," de Botton addresses a doubt about experience architecture that sheds light on the scope in which the concept applies. "Standing before costly objects of technological beauty, we may be tempted to reject the possibility of awe, for fear that we could grow stupid through admiration...[and] yet to refuse to be awed at all might in the end be merely another kind of foolishness. In a world full of a chaos and irregularity, the terminal seemed a worthy and intriguing refuge of elegance and logic." (de Botton, 2009, p. 3-4). Simply put, experience architecture is design that is meant for the experience of the user. De Botton communicates this through an exp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Experience Architecture The Future of Professional Writing?

As a team of Professional Writing students, our mission is to discover how the Professional Writing major is evolving and share how and why experience architecture is making its way to the forefront of the field . It is our hope that readers of this blog — whether they might be current students, past students, prospective students, or professors — learn the ins-and-outs of the major and begin to see how the worlds of writing and design intertwine.  Professional Writing is currently a fairly popular major among universities, but one of the most interesting things about the field is that it’s always evolving. So what is the Professional Writing major anyway? When it comes to a major like this one, there isn’t a set plan of study among universities. In fact, the course requirements and the definition itself differ from school to school. Because of its natural diversity and constant evolution, Professional Writing doesn’t exactly have a clear future. If design and usability are becomin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Proposed Plan for Socially Distanced User Study of Wix.com

Plan for User Study: www.Wix.com I. Introduction Although a usability test is unlikely in this socially-distanced and pandemic-filled world, if I were to do one, this post describes how I would see myself doing it as well as a basic overview of my plan of study, had this been an option. II. Identifying Users 1. The users of this site align most with the age group of 20-35. This demographic uses Wix primarily for educational purpose and small business website platforms. 2. Users in this case will work through website creation, as that is the main function of the site. III. Target Identification of Problems Below are the main heuristics and an associated question to further explore the content of the site as I plan a User Study. A. Engagement Are the screen and workplace too crowded, and are they layered to maximize engagement? Is the site   nested too deeply with helpful tools to be useful? B. Error Tolerance Does the Help Desk analysis show enough specific problem de...
Post a Comment
Read more