Overview
As an avid Anime watcher, the go to site is Crunchyroll. The direct millions of people per day to their site but with a growing number of competitors joining the market such as HULU and Netflix, Crunchyroll's poor UX and UI could force them to lose a match they were once leading.
The Problem
Crunchyroll's site has a a major issue with intuitive usage due to the overflow of visual information. The premium account onboarding flow is hidden and is driving away potential customers as it is apparent in the sites low premium percentage (120 million users with only 4 millions paying users). The over-usage of visual information and lack of a clear premium customer direction the site sacrifices finances and a deliberate identity with a high-end feel.
Rapid Analysis Overview
On their current site they lack hierarchy, everything seems to jumping out at the viewer at the same rate. They are trying tp push for shows while trying to sell merchandise all while forgetting to promote the sites premium membership. This is one of the reasons that though the have millions of foot traffic their actual subscribed monthly payers are extremely low.
On competitor streaming platform color is minimized to highlight the imagery inherently in the shows posters and trailers. These aspects could be carried over to Crunchyroll to minimize visual clutter and enhance. The sites, however, are only accessible after onboarding but Crucnhyroll allows usage without membership therefore a driving force as you are on the site will not be movie but leading with the onboarding process in a more effective manner.
Heuristic Evaluation
In order to shed more light on what competitors are exactly doing on a more nuanced level and on a budget I conducted a Heuristic Evaluation of competitor streaming platforms. I used the Norman & Nielsen rules of thumb for good interaction to guide me in evaluating these sites. I selected the following sites as they are either direct competitors of Crunchyroll or leading powerhouses in the streaming industry.
Funimation, Netflix, and VUDU
With these sites the following areas I wanted pay keen attention to were:
- Aesthetic & Design
- First Time User New Show Accessibility (speed at which a new user will get to playing an episode)
- Premium Member Accessibility
Ranking System For the Evaluation Process.
I utilized the following five-stage progression:
Positive — Results in a beneficial effect on the user’s ability to perform their given task
Cosmetic Issue — Minimal Issue that primarily affects appearance
Minor Issue — The user's navigation is hindered in someway but not totally halted
Major Issue — The user is confused and does not now have to navigate even though an "exit" may exist
Catastrophic Issue — The user is caught in a state of frustration or the design doesn't permit the user to navigate
Funimation
Funimation is an online streaming platform and store for anime and anime products. This company is a direct competitor of Crunchyroll filling all the of the same markets except the reality Drama industry.
Positive Findings:
Aesthetic & Design - The design is clean simple and minimizes any user confusion as CTAs and show placements are deliberate and concise.
Negative Findings:
Premium Member Accessibility - Premium membership accessibility is accessible on the site but it is not priority of the site as the locations are heavily focused in singular CTA buttons and the bottom of pages — Minor Issue
First Time User New Show Accessibility - Though exceeding in its flexibility and efficiency the process in which the user may select the show is hindered by the large scale shows allowing a very small number of titles to be seen at a time.— Cosmetic Issue
First Time User New Show Accessibility - When using the filtering system some of the options fail to give feedback on how the product is filtering.— Major Issue
Netflix
Netflix is a streaming tech giant that has been dominating the streaming industry for 10+ years. With the rise in popularity Anime has become a corner stone on the streaming giants platform going as far as producing their own original Anime series.
Positive Findings:
Aesthetic & Design - The design is clean simple and minimizes any user confusion as CTAs and show placements are deliberate and concise.
First Time User New Show Accessibility - The intuitive design of the site from the carousel and image driven design makes the platform easy to access for new users. The site plays snippets at every opportunity in a controllable manner so that the users may explore efficiently.
Negative Findings:
Premium Member Accessibility - To access Netflix a user must have an account. Though this is probably within Netflix's strategic marketing it does isolate and lock out users that don't want to be forced into a membership with the giant. — Catastrophic Issue
First Time User New Show Accessibility - The platform does excel in user control and freedom in this area but lacks in flexibility as it is easy for users to get trapped in a window of suggested shows due to the lack of transparency in show availabilities — Major Issue
Vudu
Vudu is a streaming platform that is not direct competitor with Crunchyroll but does attempt to achieve similar goals with its duality in free user access as well as registered account.
Positive Findings:
First Time User New Show Accessibility - Where the user can click for free movies, movies with no ads, etc are clear and identifiable so that access with new users may be intuitive by nature and quick to access.
Negative Findings:
Premium Member Accessibility - The platform does have clear signs for sign up but nothing to clearly show the sign up aspect of the site leaving some consumers confused on where they go to enroll — Major Issue
Aesthetic & Design - The design is mostly minimal but feels very dated. The banners in-between movie sets are easily confused with the movies themselves leading to potential movie misclicks.— Cosmetic Issue
First Time User New Show Accessibility - Accessing a new show is easy the exact placement of "free movie and tv" are jumbled together, the user has little information to differentiate between the two mediums — Major Issue
User Flow
I wanted the user flow to provide context to a short user journey from the landing page to watching a show. With every extra unnecessary click the exit rate of the platform is bound to increase and getting the consumer to their leisure as fast as possible will lead to a longer retention as they are more likely to binge if the next step is a short quick away.
Low Fidelity Screens
Next, I went into XD to start laying out low fidelity screens that could show the placement of a few elements. I wanted the information on the Premium account signup to constantly make its way to multiple screens until the user gets to the show so that they are more enticed to show up.
A few Screen Mockups
Walkthrough of the Userflow
