Netflix’s new look is designed to keep you hooked
Netflix’s new look is designed to keep you hooked
As we head into the weekend, maybe you’ve got some time set aside to lounge on the couch and watch TV. Well if Netflix is part of that plan, it might look a little different.
The streaming giant announced this week it’s rolling out its redesigned TV app. The whole goal is to make it — surprise, surprise — more tempting to stay on the app for longer.
When Netflix did some research on its app and tracked where viewers’ eyes were focused, the old design had them bouncing all over the screen. Pat Flemming with Netflix called it “visual gymnastics.”
“It probably doesn’t surprise you that we hear from time to time from members that it can be difficult to choose what to watch or what to play across thousands of options,” said Flemming.
He works on the member product experience team at Netflix.
“Our goal, given that broad range of interests folks have and the broad, really broad, set of options, is to make Netflix simpler, more intuitive and easier to navigate,” he said.
He says they’ve moved the menu from the side to the top, and now it’s got fewer options. The title cards are bigger and the text is simpler to read.
That might not seem like a major overhaul, but it can have a surprising effect on churn, which just means the rate that people come and go. That’s according to Neal Zuckerman, who chairs the Global Institute for the Future of Television at the Boston Consulting Group.
“If it creates greater stickiness, if it stops someone from leaving for another service out of frustration, then it’s obviously a good thing,” said Zuckerman.
It’s the first major change Netflix has made in a decade.
“I think it’s very much overdue,” said Tim Hanlon, founder of a media industry consultancy called The Vertere Group. He says the new, simpler layout will make it easier to get personalized recommendations to viewers.
“Everybody can tell you a story about a YouTube rabbit hole, or two or seven, that they’ve gone through, and it’s, frankly, just short of amazing. And I think that’s kind of where Netflix and other services are trying to go,” said Hanlon.
Only a fraction of Netflix’s more than 260 million users are seeing the new layout already. The company says it’ll take feedback and maybe make some changes before releasing it to everyone else.
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