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I wish Netflix would force HBO Go and Amazon Prime Video into an UX war. It drives me crazy how bad the player and the general experience are on these 2 service

I wish Netflix would force HBO Go and Amazon Prime Video into an UX war. It drives me crazy how bad the player and the general experience are on these 2 services. You can’t even pause with the space bar on HBO.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago
I could not disagree more. Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. I can't stand how Netflix displays related results when they don't actually have a particular result in stock. I cannot stand the auto-start feature where if you're browsing and idle too long on one item, it will start playing a trailer or synopsis. The sideways scroll under different heading is horrible (this is bad on all of the services). Amazon's search works so much better and feels less algorithmically personalized (something which I believe is a horrible anti-feature in all of these services). And because Amazon can support letting me buy or rent content that isn't stocked in the Prime Video service, the search results are _so_ much more useful to me. Often in Netflix, I just want to know _if_ they are carrying a certain title right now or not, and don't want to be presented with alternatives that are "similar in spirit" to whatever I was searching. I also find that the "continue watching" section on Netflix frequently does not appear as the first row, and there are all sorts of "trending" or "critically acclaimed" rows that I have to scroll through to get back up to the "continue watching row" at the top. While on Amazon, this section is always at the top, and automatically updates with shows that have released a new episode since the last time I signed in. Netflix already feels like an outdated brand to me, like it's the cheap way of doing a streaming platform. I get it that network-specific apps like NBCSN sports apps and HBO Go, etc., these probably will suck because it's a network that is probably utterly incompetent at investing in technology. But Netflix really disappoints me. I think in the long run, Netflix will not be remembered as fondly as it is now, though we all benefit from the huge bidding war on talent creating great shows.
- armandososa 8y ago
  Ok. Maybe GP should have said UI instead of UX, but still, the spacebar to pause is a bigger deal for me that everything you mention. It's like not having the light in your fridge go on when you open the door. It's not important for the actual purpose of the thing but it is something one has come to expect.
  - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
    I literally don't know anyone who watches Netflix on a device with a space bar. I mean, I get it. For you that is important. I couldn't care less, and would never watch any of these things on a laptop. I usually watch them via devices that are connected to a regular TV. Otherwise, very occasionally on a tablet or phone.
    - marssaxman 8y ago
      I've had a Netflix account since the shiny-disc era and I've never watched it on anything but a device with a space bar... a laptop is the device I connect to a regular TV.
      - mindcrime 8y ago
        I've never watched it on anything but a device with a space bar.. Same. I rarely if ever watch Netflix on anything other than my laptop.
    - mindcrime 8y ago
      I literally don't know anyone who watches Netflix on a device with a space bar. Hi, I'm mindcrime. Now you know somebody who watches Netflix on a device with a spacebar.
      - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
        Wasn't disputing that such people exist, which is why I said I understood it was important in my comment. The point was that someone replied originally by saying the need for space bar to pause a video trumped everything else, and my goal was to emphasize how there might be _utterly gigantic_ subpopulations of streaming service customers for whom such a feature would literally never be relevant. So that perhaps it's not a useful feature by which to judge the overall quality of different providers, even if you happen to be one of the rare people who really relies on it.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- cm2187 8y ago
  Also if you start a show and stop in the middle because it is terrible, netflix will suggest it back to you for months and add it to your interest. I wish there was a "this thing sucks" button.
  - idontpost 8y ago
    There is a convoluted way to do this via the browser interface, but no way on mobile / smart tv: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/22205 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/22205
- drstewart 8y ago
  Everyone knows that Amazon has hands down the absolute worst streaming video experience. Just because you have a very specific search use case does not change that fact. Talk about cheaply done streaming -- apparently sticking a retail UI meant for shopping for chairs and peanut butter on top of videos is premium to you?
  - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
    This comment reads like you’ve never actually used Prime Video. The UI is not at all similar to their retail shopping UI, not even in the browser and certainly not in apps on other devices. I would say I have a very generic use case of these services: - I want to rent / buy content when it’s not part of what’s already in the streaming service. - I don’t want algorithmically personalized results. I want “exact search” to always work. - I want the top panel area when I log in to always have the content I’ve been actively watching, so that the easiest thing to do is to resume. The video player, connectivity, lack of bugs, subtitles, non-Western content, ability to directly integrate premium add ons, etc., are all just superior to Netflix. Netflix literally has one advantage: some of its original shows are good enough that I still want to watch them despite the Netflix app environment being unpleasant to use. I wish I could do even that through Amazon.
- stronglikedan 8y ago
  > I also find that the "continue watching" section on Netflix frequently does not appear as the first row, and there are all sorts of "trending" or "critically acclaimed" rows that I have to scroll through to get back up to the "continue watching row" at the top. I know that scrolling up instead of down will get you to 'My List' very quickly, and I believe 'Continue Watching' is there too, but I cannot confirm while I'm at work. I almost never scroll down anymore (unless I do so subconsciously).
- TylerE 8y ago
  The real star of Amazon Prime video: Skip forward button. So easy to skip past logos, titles, or even just plain boring bits.
  - InclinedPlane 8y ago
    You can skip forward and back with Netflix too.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- aplc0r 8y ago
  For my uses, the actual Netflix player is by far better than Prime Video. I watch a lot of anime and foreign films. Prime Video seems to equate subtitles with closed-captions, and the font is harder to read. Netflix has the skip intro/credits buttons as a bonus. As far as the interfaces for selecting what to watch, in my opinion they are equally bad. I no longer use them to discover content. Instead I find something I want to watch elsewhere and search for it directly.
- clubm8 8y ago
  >Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. Prime is good while watching. For finding content Netflix is superior IMHO. The recommendation algorithm is better, plus the search is better. Amazon Prime treats seasons as distinct entities - so you need to manually add each available season of a show.
  - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
    It's funny how much variation of opinion there is about this. I find Netflix's search and discovery functionality to be borderline unusable. I get so frustrated when using the app, and many times have opened it with the intention of searching for something to watch, only to get so exhausted wading through crap that is not interesting that I just exit from the app and do something else. Their algorithms heavily favor their own original content, and they clearly have stopped giving a shit about movies in general, and focus almost entirely on whatever latest and greatest darling shows they produce. Very sincerely, the information retrieval experience of Amazon is the main thing that makes Amazon significantly superior, instead of just being a little better on small touches. I should also point out that I pretty much hate Amazon as a company, and frankly it pains me to admit all this, but very truly they are running circles around Netflix with their streaming service.
- ggregoire 8y ago
  Some killer features from Netflix: - skip the intros in 1 click - access any episode of the season you're watching from the player - see which episodes I already watched from the player - have a summary of the previous episodes from the player - english subtitles outside of the US on every Netflix shows - i also think the search algorithm is better
- aranelsurion 8y ago
  Surprised to see no one mentioned "My List" thing. I'm nearing a year as a Netflix user, yet I still have no idea how that list is sorted. It's not sorted by last added, last updated, recently watched, alphabetic or any other method that I can make any sense of. There is no button to change the sorting method. Of course, this list is also re-sorted very often, so I simply have to look around and find where they placed my favorite show today in a list of 50~ items, while trying to have a breakfast.
tokyodude 8y ago
I wish the opposite. I wish netflix would let me browse and read descriptions with out the distraction of their autoplay. It's like if I was trying to google things and goolge inserted running background videos behind all search results. It's horrid
superfrank 8y ago
IMO, Hulu is by far the worst of the major streaming services. From a design perspective it looks good, but the UX seems to be designed take you to the next episode of the last thing you watched and that's it. If you want to watch a different show, or an episode out of order, or even just want to browse, you're fighting an uphill battle against their "FULL SCREEN EVERYTHING!" design.
Isamu 8y ago
Amazon Prime on Apple TV tends to crash a lot. Maybe less often now than it did at first. Netflix has been pretty stable in my experience.
blang 8y ago
I wish Netflix had the equivalent of Prime's x-ray. I'm also very surprised that X-ray does not hi-lite items on the screen that you could click to buy on Amazon (I assume someone is working on this), not saying I want it, just surprised the feature doesn't exist.
namlem 8y ago
Netflix has pretty wonky UX as well. I'm always frustrated by it.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago

I could not disagree more. Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. I can't stand how Netflix displays related results when they don't actually have a particular result in stock. I cannot stand the auto-start feature where if you're browsing and idle too long on one item, it will start playing a trailer or synopsis. The sideways scroll under different heading is horrible (this is bad on all of the services). Amazon's search works so much better and feels less algorithmically personalized (something which I believe is a horrible anti-feature in all of these services). And because Amazon can support letting me buy or rent content that isn't stocked in the Prime Video service, the search results are _so_ much more useful to me. Often in Netflix, I just want to know _if_ they are carrying a certain title right now or not, and don't want to be presented with alternatives that are "similar in spirit" to whatever I was searching. I also find that the "continue watching" section on Netflix frequently does not appear as the first row, and there are all sorts of "trending" or "critically acclaimed" rows that I have to scroll through to get back up to the "continue watching row" at the top. While on Amazon, this section is always at the top, and automatically updates with shows that have released a new episode since the last time I signed in. Netflix already feels like an outdated brand to me, like it's the cheap way of doing a streaming platform. I get it that network-specific apps like NBCSN sports apps and HBO Go, etc., these probably will suck because it's a network that is probably utterly incompetent at investing in technology. But Netflix really disappoints me. I think in the long run, Netflix will not be remembered as fondly as it is now, though we all benefit from the huge bidding war on talent creating great shows.

armandososa 8y ago
Ok. Maybe GP should have said UI instead of UX, but still, the spacebar to pause is a bigger deal for me that everything you mention. It's like not having the light in your fridge go on when you open the door. It's not important for the actual purpose of the thing but it is something one has come to expect.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  I literally don't know anyone who watches Netflix on a device with a space bar. I mean, I get it. For you that is important. I couldn't care less, and would never watch any of these things on a laptop. I usually watch them via devices that are connected to a regular TV. Otherwise, very occasionally on a tablet or phone.
  - marssaxman 8y ago
    I've had a Netflix account since the shiny-disc era and I've never watched it on anything but a device with a space bar... a laptop is the device I connect to a regular TV.
    - mindcrime 8y ago
      I've never watched it on anything but a device with a space bar.. Same. I rarely if ever watch Netflix on anything other than my laptop.
  - mindcrime 8y ago
    I literally don't know anyone who watches Netflix on a device with a space bar. Hi, I'm mindcrime. Now you know somebody who watches Netflix on a device with a spacebar.
    - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
      Wasn't disputing that such people exist, which is why I said I understood it was important in my comment. The point was that someone replied originally by saying the need for space bar to pause a video trumped everything else, and my goal was to emphasize how there might be _utterly gigantic_ subpopulations of streaming service customers for whom such a feature would literally never be relevant. So that perhaps it's not a useful feature by which to judge the overall quality of different providers, even if you happen to be one of the rare people who really relies on it.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
cm2187 8y ago
Also if you start a show and stop in the middle because it is terrible, netflix will suggest it back to you for months and add it to your interest. I wish there was a "this thing sucks" button.
- idontpost 8y ago
  There is a convoluted way to do this via the browser interface, but no way on mobile / smart tv: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/22205 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/22205
drstewart 8y ago
Everyone knows that Amazon has hands down the absolute worst streaming video experience. Just because you have a very specific search use case does not change that fact. Talk about cheaply done streaming -- apparently sticking a retail UI meant for shopping for chairs and peanut butter on top of videos is premium to you?
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  This comment reads like you’ve never actually used Prime Video. The UI is not at all similar to their retail shopping UI, not even in the browser and certainly not in apps on other devices. I would say I have a very generic use case of these services: - I want to rent / buy content when it’s not part of what’s already in the streaming service. - I don’t want algorithmically personalized results. I want “exact search” to always work. - I want the top panel area when I log in to always have the content I’ve been actively watching, so that the easiest thing to do is to resume. The video player, connectivity, lack of bugs, subtitles, non-Western content, ability to directly integrate premium add ons, etc., are all just superior to Netflix. Netflix literally has one advantage: some of its original shows are good enough that I still want to watch them despite the Netflix app environment being unpleasant to use. I wish I could do even that through Amazon.
stronglikedan 8y ago
> I also find that the "continue watching" section on Netflix frequently does not appear as the first row, and there are all sorts of "trending" or "critically acclaimed" rows that I have to scroll through to get back up to the "continue watching row" at the top. I know that scrolling up instead of down will get you to 'My List' very quickly, and I believe 'Continue Watching' is there too, but I cannot confirm while I'm at work. I almost never scroll down anymore (unless I do so subconsciously).
TylerE 8y ago
The real star of Amazon Prime video: Skip forward button. So easy to skip past logos, titles, or even just plain boring bits.
- InclinedPlane 8y ago
  You can skip forward and back with Netflix too.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
aplc0r 8y ago
For my uses, the actual Netflix player is by far better than Prime Video. I watch a lot of anime and foreign films. Prime Video seems to equate subtitles with closed-captions, and the font is harder to read. Netflix has the skip intro/credits buttons as a bonus. As far as the interfaces for selecting what to watch, in my opinion they are equally bad. I no longer use them to discover content. Instead I find something I want to watch elsewhere and search for it directly.
clubm8 8y ago
>Prime Video is by far the best user experience for me, and Netflix is by far the worst. Prime is good while watching. For finding content Netflix is superior IMHO. The recommendation algorithm is better, plus the search is better. Amazon Prime treats seasons as distinct entities - so you need to manually add each available season of a show.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  It's funny how much variation of opinion there is about this. I find Netflix's search and discovery functionality to be borderline unusable. I get so frustrated when using the app, and many times have opened it with the intention of searching for something to watch, only to get so exhausted wading through crap that is not interesting that I just exit from the app and do something else. Their algorithms heavily favor their own original content, and they clearly have stopped giving a shit about movies in general, and focus almost entirely on whatever latest and greatest darling shows they produce. Very sincerely, the information retrieval experience of Amazon is the main thing that makes Amazon significantly superior, instead of just being a little better on small touches. I should also point out that I pretty much hate Amazon as a company, and frankly it pains me to admit all this, but very truly they are running circles around Netflix with their streaming service.
ggregoire 8y ago
Some killer features from Netflix: - skip the intros in 1 click - access any episode of the season you're watching from the player - see which episodes I already watched from the player - have a summary of the previous episodes from the player - english subtitles outside of the US on every Netflix shows - i also think the search algorithm is better
aranelsurion 8y ago
Surprised to see no one mentioned "My List" thing. I'm nearing a year as a Netflix user, yet I still have no idea how that list is sorted. It's not sorted by last added, last updated, recently watched, alphabetic or any other method that I can make any sense of. There is no button to change the sorting method. Of course, this list is also re-sorted very often, so I simply have to look around and find where they placed my favorite show today in a list of 50~ items, while trying to have a breakfast.

tokyodude 8y ago

I wish the opposite. I wish netflix would let me browse and read descriptions with out the distraction of their autoplay. It's like if I was trying to google things and goolge inserted running background videos behind all search results. It's horrid

superfrank 8y ago

IMO, Hulu is by far the worst of the major streaming services. From a design perspective it looks good, but the UX seems to be designed take you to the next episode of the last thing you watched and that's it. If you want to watch a different show, or an episode out of order, or even just want to browse, you're fighting an uphill battle against their "FULL SCREEN EVERYTHING!" design.

Isamu 8y ago

Amazon Prime on Apple TV tends to crash a lot. Maybe less often now than it did at first. Netflix has been pretty stable in my experience.

blang 8y ago

I wish Netflix had the equivalent of Prime's x-ray. I'm also very surprised that X-ray does not hi-lite items on the screen that you could click to buy on Amazon (I assume someone is working on this), not saying I want it, just surprised the feature doesn't exist.

namlem 8y ago

Netflix has pretty wonky UX as well. I'm always frustrated by it.