Cinemeet

Cinemeet

June 22, 2020 - June 24, 2020, 2 Days UI/UX project (College X Netflix Creative Jam)

Film Sharing Platform | Web Design | Design Jam

Summary

The third-party desktop app, Cinemeet, aims to reconnect people distanced by COVID-19 by watching films and TV together. Through user research, we learned that users regard films/TVs as a way of deep communication and spending quality time together. Much as users want to watch a film/TV episode with their friends or family, they are concerned about choosing the right film that meet the tastes of everyone.

Cinemeet will meet the needs of target audience, people who like movies/episodes and would like to build connections by watching together, by recommending films regarded great for watching, and providing cinema rooms that could be open for making new friends or private, shared only by people users are familiar with. In addition, to encourage cross-cultural communication and increase user engagement, we designed special open rooms hosted by critics, immersive watching while chatting experience including voice interaction and emojis, films marked interested by users’ network.

My Role

As a UX researcher/designer in this project, I cooperate with my classmates and participated in all the process.


    Main Tasks
  • Investigated the target users' needs with interview.
  • Brainstormed the innovative ideas and formulated consistent user flows for Cinemeet
  • Designed part of low-fi and high-fi Cinemeet prototype

    • Method

      Ideation
  • Design Thinking
      • Preliminary research
  • Competitive Analysis
  • User Interview
      • Prototype
  • Adobe XD

    • Teammates

    Jiaxuan Wong

    Yiyan Huang

    Debbie Chen

    Deliverable Results

    Cinemeet UI Design

    Challenge

    Due to COVID19, people are forced to change their lifestyles and habits. For example, we are not allowed to watch movies with friends in the movie theater but can only watch videos online.

    Solution

    To tackle the challenge, we designed Cinemeet, the video-sharing platform, which can allow people watch films together online and have memorable times.

    Project Process

    ×
    Project Process

    Ideation

    Brainstorming online video sharing room

    To create an online sharing room, we discussed eight parts of it.

  • What the video genres would be(movie, series, entertainment TV show)?
  • Who would people watch with(parents, friends, the public)?
  • How to decide which video to watch together?
  • How to set time to watch together?
  • How to interact with people during the videos?
  • What will people do after they watch a video together?
  • How to create an atmosphere like in the movie theater?
  • How to store related information, like critics, feelings, etc.?
    • Mindmap of online video sharing room
    ×
    Mindmap of online video sharing room
    Brainstroming the details of each part
    ×
    Details of each part

    Preliminary Research

    Competitive Analysis

    During the brainstorming, we also took some competitors as reference. We picked 4 competitors to do the competitive analysis.

  • To check where the videos will come from and the copyright issue, we investigate their video resources and how to log in.
  • We also summarized the access control approaches here.
  • To explore what the interaction methods are now, we compare whether they have voice, message, where the message position is, and the storage methods.
    • ×
    Competitive Analysis
    Bilibili
    ×
    Bilibili
    Netflix Party
    ×
    Netflix Party
    rave
    ×
    rave
    Vlightv
    ×
    Vlightv

    Key Problems

    Interaction Method

    Interestingly, we found that different platforms use different interaction systems, such as voice or message. We also considered that would people want to open their webcam while watching the video?

    Message Position

    We also found that different platforms would put their message system into different positions. We were curious about that where is the best spot for audiences to receive.

    Information Storage

    In terms of information storage, we noticed that some platforms, like Bilibili, would store all messages with the video. We hope to figure out what information meant to users and how to store them is the best way.

    Preliminary Research

    End User Interview

    Interviewed with 5 end users, we got lots of interesting observations and opinions from them.

  • Some interviewees who tried to watch videos with friends online encountered many obstacles, such as hard to play the movie at the same time, the echo, and the Internet connection problems.
  • When people watched videos with their parents, they need to select carefully. It is awkward to watch an inappropriate movie with the familys.
  • People tend to find similar fellows to watch a movie together. If not, it may break the friendship.
  • Some users would regard every movie as a grown-up pace. They would gather all tickets as collections.
  • Surprisingly, people love bullet-screen comments. They think it can give funny comments, useful information and make you feel lots of people watch with you together.
    • General habits and problems
    ×
    General habits and problems
    Expectation of Interaction
    ×
    Expectation of Interaction
    Critique and Collection habits
    ×
    Critique and Collection habits

    Key Insights

    Share Emotions

    Interestingly, we found that people seek emotion sharing experience when they hope to watch videos with others. Besides, people eager to talk and laugh immediately during the movie rather than typing messages.

    Focus on Videos

    Although we watch videos with friends online, videos are still primary. Therefore, people don't want to move their sights frequently for the message. They hope it can appear on the video screen, but also have control to turn off.

    Favorite Collections

    We found that messages may not be essential to store but for the videos' quotes, images, pieces of music, and memorable movie scenes. They wish to save some people's thoughts or scores for this sharing experience as well.

    Prototype

    Paper Sketch


    1 / 7
    Home Page
    2 / 7
    Message System
    3 / 7
    Cinemeet page
    4 / 7
    Cinemeet userflow
    5 / 7
    Watching video page
    6 / 7
    Watching video page(full-screen)
    7 / 7
    Personal Information Page

    Lo-fi Prototype


    1 / 9
    Home Page
    2 / 9
    Message System
    3 / 9
    Movie Information Page
    4 / 9
    Create Cinemeet
    5 / 9
    Cinemeet Event Page
    6 / 9
    Control choices for the Cinemeet
    7 / 9
    Watching movie Page
    8 / 9
    Watching movie Page(full-screen)
    9 / 9
    Personal Information Page

    User flow


    ×
    Userflow of Cinameet

    Result

    Connection

    The first feature of Cinemeet is Connection.

    Some people mentioned that they would choose similar fellows to watch movies rather than different thoughts friends. This opinion gave us the idea that we can gather all the same people and connect. Besides, people can follow their favorite hosts to have some movie groups to watch and share their vision frequently.

    Sharing

    The second feature of Cinemeet is Sharing.

    Based on our user research, people hope to have an emotion sharing experience while watching videos. To achieve this goal, they want to talk rather than typing messages. However, we were worried that the voice system might cause problems like an echo.

    Therefore, we included not only the voice system but also the message system. To deal with the trouble with typing, we added the emoji system to ease the sharing process.

    Besides, when audiences open the full-screen mode to watch videos, our message will like bullet-screen appearing on the screen. It can help viewers focus on the video and don't need to move their sight.

    Collection

    As our users said, people would regard every viewed movie as a memorable collection and learning record. Therefore, we designed our Cinemeet as a memory.

    In the Cinemeet page, participants can vote, leave comments and feelings. The host can also pick some interesting quotes, pictures, or famous scenes for people to remember.

    Project Reflection

    Overview(150/983)

    It is an incredible design experience during the COVID19 quarantine time unbelievably that we finish a Creative Jam with almost 3,000 people!

    It is also a fantastic opportunity for us to learn, communicate, and to brainstorm with others. We watched 10 remarkable projects on the last day, and all the projects are awe-inspiring. Maybe I can focus more on the interaction and theme part to make the projects more fun.

    In terms of our teamwork, it is a chance for us to learn how to control the time within two days to figure out what is our core value and how to design it. It was extremely challenging but exciting that we did it in the end!

    Next step and future consideration:

    1. Collection System: For further consideration, we plan to complete the collection system. Users may screenshot or highlight their favorite quotes or scenes during watching directly. Besides, there should be a sharing function for users to share with friends.

    2. Friendship and Following System: For this version, we only have the following system. However, we also consider that we need both friends and followers system for private sharing room discussion. In addition, we will add the badge system to highlight who is the movie star or popular hosts.

    3. Movie Meetup: For the long-term movie discussion, having a movie meetup system is necessary. We can create a movie sharing ecosystem and have some theme meetups, like Jane Austen, Harry Potter. Iw will be an entertaining movie sharing platform!