Viu.com Redesign

Hero image for Viu.com Redesign Case Study
Overview
Redesign the website to optimize the flow to discover and watch shows and movies with ease.
Team
Abhijeet—Design,
Chetan—Product Owner,
Sagar, Sudhir, Tushar—Dev
Region
Initial launch: Malaysia
Followed by: Indonesia, Myanmar, Middle-East, South Africa
Duration
July 2018 - Feb 2019
(8 Months)

1. Project Overview

1.1 Problem
The previous layout of the website was confusing, not enjoyable. As an MVP, the previous design lacked many essential features. We also received a ton of critical feedback on how the player's size was small, and scrolling through the list of episodes was painful.
1.2 Goals
Based on the feedback from our customers, we wanted to focus on these three key areas:
  1. Make the interface easy to use
  2. Increase the size of the player
  3. Introduce Watchlist and Continue Watching

2. Design & Testing

2.1 Initial Explorations
Based on initial internal interviews and analytics from Hotjar, I created four variations of the layout.
2.2 Usability Testing
Before we committed to a solution, we wanted to do a round of user testing to understand what is working and what is not. We invited a few of our customers to participate in the study. I created Principle prototypes based on the final four designs.
2.3 Participants
We narrowed it down to a few people who represented our target audience from many applications that we received.
  • 17 Particpants
  • Age 18-54
  • 65% were women
2.4 Test Results
At the end of each test, we asked the participant to rate each of the prototypes out of 5. Here are the results:
Option 1 — 3.9/5
Option 2 — 3.2/5
Option 3 — 3.5/5
Option 4 — 4.2/5
2.5 Result Details
There were a few particular reasons for people liking one design over the other. Here are the details:
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More Details
Option 1
People liked the large-sized player, but they were still overwhelmed with the amount of information shown along with the player.
Option 2
Even though this design was simple, people did not understand how to use it. The lack of a navbar on top threw most people off.
Option 3
People really liked this layout. All the critical pieces of a TV show (description, episodes, extras, etc.) are neatly laid out. But they absolutely rejected the idea of it being a popup. A design similar to this was rolled out by Netflix recently.
Option 4
Because of the immersive layout and a larger image on top, this design became an instant hit. The lack of a player did not bother people at all. Once you click on the play button, you are taken to a large player.

3. Implementation

After internal discussion, we decided to move forward with design number 4. Based on the current CMS, we had to make a few changes to how the data will be displayed on the UI. This is the final design.

4. Final Results

We wanted to test the new designs with a small number of our active customers. The initial reviews were not so positive. The issues were mostly technical. Initially, people were neutral about the redesign.
After we solved most of the technical problems, we started seeing better results. Our Video View number's increased by 30% on average across markets.