1. Project Overview:
- Team: Leewon Seo(me), Simran Kaur, Qasim Malik, Aayushi Bharadwaj
- Timeline: Sep – Dec 2024
- Methods: In-Person UX research, Wireframing, UI design, Usability Testing
- Tools: Figma, Illustrator
Executive Summary:
IMDb is the world’s most popular source for movie, TV, and celebrity information, serving millions of entertainment enthusiasts worldwide. However, it falls short in delivering a streamlined content discovery experience sought by mainstream entertainment and trend followers. Lack of a sense of community, poor personalization, inefficient navigation, and a cluttered and outdated interface result in a less than desirable user experience.
We engaged in an iterative process of user research and design to identify key pain points and opportunities for improvement. Through user interviews, card sorting, and tree testing, we gained a deep understanding of user behaviors, needs, and motivations, informing our approach to a user-centered redesign.
Our proposed redesign focuses on three core improvements: Enhanced Social and Community Features, Streamlining Navigation, and Personalization. This prototype aims to make IMDb not just a destination for information but a hub for entertainment engagement and community interaction.
Methodology: User-Centered Design Process
Following the User-Centered Design Process, we conducted user research methods such as interviews and surveys, as well as user testing techniques like card sorting and tree testing. Based on the key findings and insights, we iterated on the design to evaluate the effectiveness of our solutions and ensure they addressed user needs and pain points.
Research Question: How do people who enjoy mainstream entertainment decide what to watch next?
Our research began by exploring how people who enjoy mainstream entertainment decide what to watch next, including the platforms they use, their decision-making process, and their motivations. Through this research, we identified the key factors that drive user behavior and used these insights to inform our design recommendations.
2. User Research
- Overview: We conducted 8 semi-structured user interviews aimed at uncovering user needs and goals, motivations, behaviors, and pain points. Interview questions focused on general entertainment consumption habits, primary reasons for utilizing IMDb, engagement with specific aspects of the platform, perceived usefulness and frustrations during use, and potential areas of improvement.
- Participants and Recruitment: Convenience sampling will be used to recruit participants based on our specific user profile: mainstream entertainment (movies, TV shows, celebrities) followers. These individuals should use IMDb fairly regularly, or have enough exposure through past use to have developed familiarity with the site.
Key findings: What are the Users Needs? (Click to see details)
1. Word of mouth within social circles is a primary source for discovering trends.
Most participants emphasized the importance of personal recommendations from friends, family, or coworkers in staying updated on entertainment trends and new releases. These conversations often spark interest and motivation to explore new movies or TV shows, as they are seen as trustworthy and relatable sources of information.
“Movies and TV shows are something to talk about and connect with others over. Like when a coworker raves about a new show, and suddenly you’re thinking, ‘I have to watch it!’ They become points of connection—a way to ‘stay connected.'”
“I want to see same thing that my friends or family is watching, and I don’t want to be excluded from talks.”
2. Preference for unbiased reviews from ‘real’ friends.
Participants consistently expressed a preference for unbiased, user-generated reviews, particularly from people they know personally or trust as friends and followers. Many voiced frustration with sponsored content and professional critic reviews, highlighting a strong desire for insights from “real” users whose experiences feel relatable and authentic.
“I’ve never posted a review there because I don’t feel like there’s a real community on the platform. I don’t trust that the reviews and ratings are genuine.”
3. Generic recommendations often fall short.
Many users find that generic recommendations on streaming platforms fail to meet their needs. While these platforms often suggest previously watched content or globally trending titles, users also crave personalized suggestions that align with what their friends or social circles are watching. As one participant shared, they frequently re-watch familiar shows, leading to repetitive recommendations, and struggle to discover fresh content. This highlights a gap in streaming services’ ability to facilitate exploration and connection through tailored recommendations.
“And a lot of times I do a lot of re-watch kind of like reruns for myself on Netflix. So it recommends a lot of previously watched things for me or generic trendings from the world. But a lot of times I also want to watch new things like what my friends are watching and I feel like I’m not really able to explore a lot of new content on streaming services.”
Painpoints: What is IMDb Missing Here? (Click to see details)
1. Lack of Sense of Community
Users report a lack of community feeling on IMDb, with many engaging minimally or not at all with its social features. They find discussions on IMDb to be less engaging and prefer platforms like YouTube and Letterboxd, which offer real-time discussions with other entertainment consumers. This absence of community diminishes their motivation to post or interact, as they seek connections with others who share their interests.
Our user interviews also revealed that users keep up with entertainment trends as a means for social connection—it gives them something to connect and talk about with other people. Enhancing IMDb’s social features is key to meeting the needs of this user group.
“Movies and TV shows are something to talk about and connect with others over. Like when a coworker raves about a new show, and suddenly you’re thinking, ‘I have to watch it!’ They become points of connection—a way to ‘stay connected.'”
2. Poor Personalization
Users often struggle with discovering content that aligns with their individual tastes and preferences due to the limited personalization features on the platform. This results in a less engaging experience, as recommendations may feel generic or irrelevant.
For mainstream entertainment and trend followers who seek tailored suggestions and value collaborative discovery, the absence of personalized elements represents a significant gap.
“I rely on Netflix more than IMDb because IMDb isn’t personalized or tailored to my preferences—that’s why I choose Netflix.”
3. Overwhelming and Dated Interface
According to users, the layout and visual appearance of the interface felt cluttered and dated – very ‘website-y’ and not as modern as platforms such as Letterboxd. The homepage in particular, as well as the overall offering of features, felt overwhelming.
“A lot is going on in the layout—so many sections, it feels like Wikipedia. Everything’s just sort of there, and the interactivity is lacking.”
3. Design Strategies: Persona
The FOMO(Fear of Missing Out) Follower
We created “The FOMO Follower” persona to represent users who are heavily influenced by trends and social recommendations when choosing what to watch. Our research revealed that these users are driven by a fear of missing out on popular content and want to stay in the loop with what their friends and peers are watching. They often turn to word-of-mouth recommendations for their entertainment choices, valuing social connections over algorithm-driven suggestions. By understanding this behavior, we aimed to design a more relatable and engaging experience that aligns with their preferences and motivations.
4. Site Map: Simplifying and streamlining the site’s navigation
Card sorting with 8 participants
(1) What did we do?
- Conducted a total of 8 moderated card sorting workshop
- Each workshop lasted less than 30 minutes
- Provided with 50 cards from the menu and ask participants to group them based on their throughts.
(2) What was our purpose?
- Explore how users interpret the naming of various menu items.
- Gather insights to inform the development of site architecture for usability testing.
(3) What did we discover?
- Users thought the current menu is overwhelming with repetitive information
- Users preferred to consolidate the menu into approximately five sections
(4) What are our design decisions? (Click for details)
1. Merging “Friends Activity” and “Your Friends”
2. Streamlining “Awards & Events”
3. Combining “Movies” and “TV”
Tree Testing with 8 participants
Image: Tree Test Study results are showing that out of 6 participants, overall success rate is 70%, overall directness 68%, and average time taken 11minutes.
(1) What did we do?
- Conducted a total of 6 Tree Testing Study
- Each workshop lasted less than 20 minutes
(2) What was our purpose?
- Determine ease of finding information in the proposed information architecture.
- Identify areas where users struggle in order to refine new site map
(3) What did we discover?
- Overall success rate of 70%
(4) What are our design decisions? (Click for details)
1. Moving “Showtimes and tickets”
Renaming “Contributor Zone”
Proposed Sitemap: A more refined information architecture
- Enhanced social features: Users felt that IMDb lacked a sense of community, lagging behind other platforms like Letterboxd. We propose a social hub with features like an activity feed to facilitate connection with fellow users
- Streamlining submenu options: To avoid overwhelming users, we reduced the quantity of submenu categories by merging entries and proposing to change some as sections within pages.
- Rewording titles for clarity: We renamed some menu items to make their purpose more clear and align more closely with users’ mental model of the site structure.
5. Competitive Analysis: What can we learn from other movie-related websites?
5 Key Takeaways from other platforms:
- Personalization Options: Enable users to tailor their experience by offering customizable preferences, such as filters for personalized recommendations.
- Community Engagement: Foster a sense of community by incorporating social features that encourage interaction and boost user engagement.
- Concise Content Presentation: Implement progressive disclosure to present information gradually, making it easier for users to process without feeling overwhelmed.
- Meaningful Ratings: Highlight ratings from close friends or individuals with similar demographics, such as age, gender, or interests, to increase relevance and trust.
- Clear Navigation: Design intuitive and user-friendly menus to ensure a seamless and efficient browsing experience.
6. Exploring Design Solutions:
Fostering Community and Social Functionalities
Sketching design ideas
User testing low-fidelity prototypes
Low-fi prototype has been built in Figma, and can be accessed here. The goal of the tests was to evaluate user interactions with the prototypes and identify potential usability issues with your prototype
Prototype Details:
- Desktop/Mobile Prototype
Pages:
- Home page 1(Nav bar collapsed), Home page 2 (Nav Bar Opened)
- Community
- Friend profile (showing their activity)
- What to watch (showing movies filtered by the genre selected from friend profile)
- Individual movie details page
Tasks:
- Task #1. Find movies to watch: Desired path: Home -> What to watch ->Browse Movies -> Select a movie -> Movie Page -> Chose movie to watch
- Task #2. See what their friends are watching: Desired path: Home -> Community -> View “Your Friends”
Participants
- Total number of participants: 4 (1 for each)
Crafting a Final Design with Strong Visual Content and Personalized Recommendations
Reflections
I’ve really enjoyed being part of the IMDb UX/UI redesign, where I’ve had the chance to address user pain points and continuously improve the platform experience. Working with my team has been a great collaborative process, allowing us to push the design forward with each iteration. This project has challenged me to think creatively, integrate user feedback, and refine our ideas to meet stakeholder needs. I’ve especially enjoyed enhancing features like movie discovery and personalized recommendations. If given more time, I’d focus on further simplifying navigation for a smoother experience. I’m excited to keep evolving the design and making the platform even better.