Background
The entertainment operating system is undergoing enhancements to its shopping and subscription management interfaces within the entertainment domain. This investigation is centered on comprehending user behaviors, triggers, motivations, and mental models associated with subscribing to streaming services and navigating through purchase processes.
Problem:
The identified challenge for this case study lies in optimizing the user experience within the evolving entertainment-focused shop and subscription management interfaces. The primary goal is to address potential pain points, enhance user engagement, and streamline the process of signing up for streaming services while navigating through purchase flows.
Process:
We conducted 7 sessions of moderated study sessions
Device: Desktop
Primary decision makers
22-65 years of age
3-4 participants in each of the 2 study groups
Group 1: A mix of cable and HSD only customers must use streaming services except for AppleTV & Hulu
Group 2: HSD only customers must use streaming services except for Hulu
Scenario: Participants were asked for their thoughts, feedback, and interactions with streaming service sign-up experiences. 25 minutes of natural process to look for the movie “Finch” exclusive to AppleTV+. And 35 minutes prototype walk-through and think-aloud testing on finding content on Hulu.
Key Insights Summary:
All decisions start with a need or want; As simple as it sounds, customers must recognize a need before considering a purchase.
During this decision-making phase people fall under these two basic mindsets; Not willing to pay & May be willing to pay
a reasonable price
When people enter the sign up process through various routes the amount of effort becomes the biggest experience issue.
Cost is a big barrier. Deals make the perception of cost less.
Regardless of their mindset, people follow a detailed process when signing-up,
When content is not available for free in their existing entertainment ecosystem, people enter a decision-making phase which is often complex and adds to mental fatigue.
People might shop around for deals before considering paid option.
Brand familiarity help people whittle down their “where to watch” options.
Free trial offerings were considered an industry norm and the sign-up process was expected to be standardized.
Decision-making depends on an individual’s perception of cost and effort.
“It [Finch] is on Apple TV plus exclusively. To be honest with you, if that happens and no one [I know] has a subscription, I will give up and watch something else. There is the option of trying to find an illegal stream of it. But I learned to understand that a lot of these producers, actors and developers need to actually be paid for their work….So personally, I’ve never had a movie or a TV show I felt so strongly about where I would seek out the service or something just for that service.”
“I haven’t because the truth is because they’ll automatically charge you and more. A lot of times I just forget that I’ve subscribed, I just don’t want to go through the hassle of, hey, where did this charge come from?”
“And you know like when I discovered Screambox I’m like yeah I love them about it. On letterboxed.com which is just like a movie website. Yeah, users to post reviews and things like that. There is a user who has like, sort of a little like, every Halloween, like they’ve been doing this for like nine years now, where they’re like, okay, here’s your like month of October like viewing challenge with all of these things and they’ve got like some interesting That makes you like, dig up really old movies or foreign movies…”
User Behavior at the time of signing-up
“So see if they even have like a free trial or something. This is actually like ringing some bells somewhere in the back of my mind. That, like, when I’ve made a purchase at Target, the Target sent me an email saying that I could get like a free trial of Apple TV.”
- Participant
“It (Netflix) was bundled with the AT&T service that we had. So we just kept it, the Netflix service because, my wife and kids, like their shows that are on Netflix, so we just kept that service.”
