17 ms·

Netflix's UX design is keeping people up at night

197 points by wallflower 7y ago

WomanCanCode 7y ago
I love my Netflix subscription but absolutely hate their app. And to think that their software developers are among the highest paid in the industry! I fondly remember the old days, when they give is a long list of shows in a list from top to bottom. And you had an arrow to move your titles up and down. No fancy images and auto-play and atrocious design
Semaphor 7y ago
Does that really work on people? (Rhetorical questions, they wouldn't have been doing it this long otherwise) How? I feel like Netflix is trying its hardest to stop me from watching. Usually at the top is some show I have no interest in. That takes up most of the screen preventing me from seeing things I might be interested in. Then I see My List: 1 show with new episodes. Great. It just happens to be the show they wasted over 50% of their website telling me about. Onward: A bunch of shows that I finished watching and that are either canceled, finished or have no new episodes. Why would I want this information? Next line, "Continue Watching": 2 shows that I found so bad I stopped watching them (The Witcher and Criminal: Germany here) Next line, "European Mind Game TV Shows". Sounds good. One show I might eventually watch. 3 shows I already watched… on Netflix. 2 shows that I think I checked and disliked but can't say for sure because Netflix keeps changing their covers. I'd rather spend the time ranting about their dumb UI than being annoyed by re-checking the synopsis for a show I decided against. Trending Now: 5 shows I didn't like (where is that "Never annoy me with this cheap shit again"-button?), one that might be interesting. So, Netflix used up 2 pages on a Full HD Monitor and with careful checking I realized one show I like has new episodes, and one new show could be interesting. But I don't usually expend this much effort into finding something to watch. So instead I usually find a new show elsewhere and only use the search or a meta stream search to find out if something is on Netflix and don't bother otherwise. The only site I know with a worse UX than Netflix is Amazon Prime Video. Yet I keep reading that their design improves engagement, do people not care what they watch and instead just rewatch everything all the time? I really don't get it.
- empath75 7y ago
  I spend about five seconds looking at Netflix to see if any shows I watch have new episodes. It’s pretty good at getting them near the top. It’s not really a ui problem that the vast majority of shows on Netflix suck.
- 0xcafecafe 7y ago
  That's what I was thinking as well. There seems to be a "dislike" button missing in the UI. If I am not interested in a movie/show, I should be able to stop it from wasting my screen real estate. There can be separate section for dislike list which the user can edit if needed.
  - rasz 7y ago
    Twitch has "I am not interested in " button, but when you investigate deeper under under https://www.twitch.tv/settings/recommendations https://www.twitch.tv/settings/recommendations it turns out to be a ROLLING FILO list limited to ~100 entries :D YT "not interested" is similar but worse, forgets your dislikes after few days.
  - cavanasm 7y ago
    That exists. It's the thumbs down button. Granted, I'm unsure whether they use it to reprioritize the specific show/film, or the entire genre / broader category, or both.
    - 0xcafecafe 7y ago
      That button is for rating the movie/show after you watched it. I want to apriori eliminate items before even attempting to watch them.
      - cavanasm 7y ago
        Except they're using that rating to influence what you're recommended, even if you don't watch (which they're also tracking). They document more of this than I expected. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/9898 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/9898
mistersquid 7y ago
The author, Madeleine Morley, of this very well-written article seems to be working against her own best interest as far as sleep goes. Quoting: > I’ve always required television to get to sleep, and I’m not a good sleeper. > Why watch the same thing if there was all this newness to explore? My nighttime viewing hours grew later and later. > For those of us who used television as a sleep aid, we now seem to be facing a new phenomenon. > All these streamlined UX features mean that when I’m tucked in bed in the dark, I barely need to think about what to watch when I’m trying to get myself to sleep. I understand the idea of television as a sleep aid. I used to use music in the same way. But I don't think the Netflix UI is as great a contributor to Morley's issues with sleep as much as her sleep hygiene which uses "television as a sleep aid", an oxymoron at best.
- ckosidows 7y ago
  I used to do this as a kid. In my family everyone was watching a television at almost all times when we were home. Naturally it was there when we would go to bed. I recognized this was a terrible pattern. I began shutting off the tv when I was going to bed. Eventually I moved the television out of my bedroom. This is learned behavior and it can be unlearned. There's one simple solution to the problem posed in this article. Get the tv out of your room; it's not doing anything positive for you and I'm fairly certain you won't crave to have it back once it's gone.
  - abadar 7y ago
    I heard an anecdote that there's a Feng Shui ritual to exorcise the demon that harms sleep. They perform the ritual and then take the TV out of the room.
  - McWobbleston 7y ago
    As someone who used to regularly fall asleep to TV, it wasn't just a learned behavior. I have a very overactive mind without stimulus it tends to get to work, but with something like TV sitcoms I'm not particularly interested in my mind empties and lets me get into a sleep mode. Despite not having a TV in the bedroom for years I still have issues if I try to go lay in bed right away, so it may not be so simple for OP What I've learned helps me is watching TV / listening to music while laying on the couch, and moving into the bedroom with a dim light once I feel myself drifting. Still, I often fall asleep next to the TV, but its better than tossing and turning half the time until I have to take melatonin to force my body to fall asleep
jakemal 7y ago
I wonder if Netflix will eventually get rid of discrete episodes all together. Generally, the end of an episode is when people make a decision to stop or continue watching. If the goal is to maximize engagement, it seems like it would be beneficial for Netflix to get rid of those decisions-making points all together and make a season of television like a 9-12 hour movie.
- SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
  I think most people would avoid the decision to start watching something with a listed runtime of 9-12 hours. Netflix has already made sure that episodes transition automatically and seamlessly into each other, including reaching into the content itself to skip past long credits.
  - jakemal 7y ago
    I would imagine going into it, people would optimistically assume they are only going to watch for 30-60 minutes, but end up getting hooked and watching for hours.
- NSAID 7y ago
  This is an interesting thought. Over the holidays I've been watching my TV than I would during a normal week and I've noticed that my time in front of the screen is much different when there are commercials (forced 2 minute breaks) than when there are not commercials.
- crazygringo 7y ago
  That wouldn't work because people need satisfying points along the way. Even for TV shows with plots spread over a season, each episode has an arc of an intro that hooks you, development, and then a satisfying conclusion. And we can only hold so many plot details in our head at once, which is why movies and plays generally aren't longer than 2 hours and change. A 9-12 hr megamovie would be deeply unsatisfying to watch, without the carefully structured resolutions along the way. You need satisfying "stopping points" along the way where a few things get resolved but a few more things keep you watching the next night. It's the same way fiction books need chapters and symphonies need movements. Episodes are a basic creative organizational principle.
yalogin 7y ago
Can someone explain the reason behind the UX design? I have already paid for subscription and this is a yearly one too on auto re-enroll, why does Netflix have to do so much to make me watch? They only need to worry about providing great content. People already paid for it and they have algorithms that will guess what a user might like and bubble up those shows. Why does it have to do one click play and auto play without even clicking? It’s the most annoying feature ever and they seem to love it. There is no way to disable it. What are they getting out of it? It has gotten to a poi t where I expressly avoid Netflix unless I know there is a show I want to watch. All because of auto play. May be my hatred of it is extreme but I don’t get the point of it.
- triangleman 7y ago
  Same here. I don't get it: if Netflix UI causes me to go through all the episodes of a show faster, that's one less show available for me to watch on Netflix, making the service less valuable.
- crazygringo 7y ago
  Like with any subscription, if you don't use it much, you'll eventually realize it's not worth the cost and cancel it. If people subscribe to 3 TV streaming services and realize they're mostly watching only 2 of them, they'll cancel the 3rd. So for Netflix, it's extremely important that you watch a lot, because that's precisely what prevents you from cancelling.
  - isoprophlex 7y ago
    So every minute spent watching Netflix is one minute not spent on Disney et al? Makes perfect sense to me in a space with increasing competition.
  - mfer 7y ago
    As companies like Disney pull they content from Netflix and put it in their own services, Netflix will need other avenues to hook people in order to keep their subscriber counts up.
- 7y ago
qaezel 7y ago
It always confuses me how authoritarians and their ilk always end up admitting they do the thing they are complaining about. It’s like they are complaining to me for their lack of self control. In any case, Netflix does turn off if it thinks you are asleep. Or, you can configure your tv or Wi-Fi to turn off at a certain time, which is why my kids don’t watch tv at 3am.
DonHopkins 7y ago
How does Netflix make more money the more users watch, if users pay a flat monthly rate, and they don't show ads? They have to pay more bandwidth costs, the more people watch. Seems they should optimize for users who subscribe then never watch.
- UserIsUnused 7y ago
  That is a "keep users paying feature". If you watch netflix a lot, there is a slimmer chance of cancellation.
- conradfr 7y ago
  They're not a gym and can't exactly guilt people into renewing each January. If they have cache servers at most ISP maybe bandwidth is not really that expensive.
- dehrmann 7y ago
  > Seems they should optimize for users who subscribe then never watch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakage It's good while it lasts.
dathinab 7y ago
Is it just me who feels strange when noticing that its on a Adobe Domain? I mean objectively speaking it's all fine as it's on some form of "blog" for "interesting thinks about design". Which is what the article is about (design which keeps you watching). Still for some reason I can't pin down seeing it on a adobe domain irks me...?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Chris_Chambers 7y ago
  First of all, keep in mind that in a brilliant stroke of cost-cutting, Adobe fired all the smart people 4-5 years ago and has been run by total morons for quite awhile. Now consider that any long form content hosted on adobe.com for the past 10+ years has always been from an Adobe employee and posting something directly relevant to Adobe. Now consider me. I’ve had a full Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for 6 years. I should be the last person to NOT have a fucking clue what on earth “XD” is or whether it enables random non-employees to make blog posts on the adobe.com domain. I still can’t tell if this woman is an employee or not.
newscracker 7y ago
The biggest (and worst) achievement of the Netflix UX is keeping people scrolling through lists (since almost nobody likes the blaring auto-playing previews of what's selected) and adding things to their lists but not really spending time watching movies or shows. This way, Netflix prevents its customers from spending time on competitors' platforms while also saving tons of bandwidth and other resources. It's a devious and genius UX! Anyone from Netflix claiming that they truly want their customers to watch more on Netflix is delusional or lying or both! For example, Netflix customers have complained about the auto-playing previews for a long time and there's no solution from Netflix.
- TheFiend7 7y ago
  I'd argue it's a balance. While I agree it's logical for them to want to optimize a balance between watching and scrolling. They don't want you to scroll forever, otherwise you'll get bored and not watch anything, I can only tolerate searching for nothing for so long. Do that enough times and you have a subscription cancellation fast approaching.
  - newscracker 7y ago
    I don’t have the link handy, but I remember reading that many (or most) Netflix users spend a significant amount of time managing and going through their lists to decide what to watch. Anecdotal observations and a handful of personal conversations have revealed the same. I don’t think as many people are canceling for this devious UX to be a money problem for Netflix.
- pixelrevision 7y ago
  I hate that autoplay preview feature with a passion. So does everyone in my house. It’s gotten to the point for me where I’ll open any alternative ui (Roku app, Apple TV app, random web searches) to avoid having to use theirs.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago
Netflix's UI is designed to: 1) obfuscate its surprisingly shallow library 2) encourage user interaction (more telemetry data) 3) promote Netflix original content As a user, I don't want any of this. A small cottage industry of alternative Netflix UIs has popped up, because sometimes you just want some good old fashioned filters and sorts. A few examples: https://flixable.com/ https://flixable.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/ https://instantwatcher.com/ https://instantwatcher.com/
- usrusr 7y ago
  > 3) promote Netflix original content You have no idea how much I prefer this over the dominant competing model which is "promote content that costs extra because it is not actually included in the subscription I already pay". Netflix at least is trying to make me satisfied with the content available, instead of making me yearn for more in order to upsell.
  - bootloop 7y ago
    There is no such thing on Netflix as there is nothing to pay extra for. They just try to avoid you canceling your subscription when their licensing agreements are not getting renewed and everything else except their original content is gone.
    - jessaustin 7y ago
      This phenomenon definitely exists on competitors e.g. Prime. Lots of screen space wasted on PPV stuff...
      - yoz-y 7y ago
        Prime has PPV? It that a US thing? In France it only shows content directly available. Amazon originals are often promoted first.
        7y ago
tracer4201 7y ago
What I find surprising is that despite their shallow catalog of content (my opinion), they fail to promote their shows to me that I’m actually interested in. When Stranger Things Season 3 was released and when The Witcher was recently released, it was no where on my home menus. Despite these shows being the exact genre I typically watch, I had to search for these shows. ?????!
- mrieck 7y ago
  Their machine learning algorithm is probably optimized to reduce churn and keep subscribers at any cost. By making people search and find content, there might be some subconscious effect on people that makes them think the service has more value. Tricking people subconsciously means less cancelled subscriptions. What's scary is that all these dark patterns Netflix and other tech companies are using are completely obfuscated. No one really understands what's going on because the patterns are part of some complex neural network. In the past they would have been shamed publicly for stuff like this, but now it's only 20% of their users who have such-and-such psychological profile can be exploited this way, while others can be exploited another way and no one knows what's happening. My theory is the more powerful AI becomes, the more it will exploit human psychology until everything sucks. Everyone will have the overwhelming urge to keep spending money while being miserable because that's the optimal customer according to the AI.
  - tenebrisalietum 7y ago
    > My theory is the more powerful AI becomes, the more it will exploit human psychology until everything sucks. It can hardly do worse than what human beings have done to themselves over the millennia and continue to do to each other every day. But it can probably do it faster and more efficiently.
Gravityloss 7y ago
Why is Netflix such a big deal? It's on the front page constantly. Their catalog is not massive and there are lots of other roughly equivalent services too. I think it's something that William Gibson notes that in the US in everyday language, phenomena are somehow always tied to brands.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago
  There are definitely strong network effects at play - people want to be able to watch and talk about the same shows as their friends and family.
duxup 7y ago
Netflix's UI is terrible for discovery, unlike the DVD days where I loved browsing it even if I wasn't going to watch. I do doubt that it's UI really makes anyone watch anything or binge.
ruuda 7y ago
This doen’t seem to be particularly new or specific to Netflix. When I am reading a catchy book at night, I often read more chapters than I intended to, occasionally until deep in the night.
- dmix 7y ago
  Same, plus I remember countless times I stayed up later than I should have as a kid watching network television as a kid in the 1990s. I guess Fox was fighting my sleep too? The main argument seems to be that binge watching makes it worse. But in reality there’s only a small amount of shows that are worthy of binge watching and Netflix has a very finite amount of them...per year.
- the_watcher 7y ago
  Also, the author has a TV in their room. Prior to Netflix, unless they watched movies, anything with commercials is also trying to keep you watching (much more so by design). Does anyone else remember how loud Billy Mays would introduce himself late at night?
the_watcher 7y ago
> I’ve always required television to get to sleep, and I’m not a good sleeper. These two statements are correlated. Television in your bedroom makes you a worse sleeper, and you can immediately improve your sleep quality by removing it and keeping your room as dark as possible. I was skeptical of this, but after a month of insomnia, I went to a sleep lab for a consult and took all of their advice. I'm still not an amazing sleeper but it's been a huge improvement.
surround 7y ago
> Good UX coupled with great television has a way of encouraging bad viewing habits. This reminds me of a project to make cigarette packaging less convenient in order to discourage smoking. http://www.erikaskin.com/index.php?/projects/design-to-annoy/ http://www.erikaskin.com/index.php?/projects/design-to-annoy...
jedberg 7y ago
The entire premise of this article appears to be based on the idea that peak viewing is from midnight to 2am. That is most definitely incorrect. Peak viewing, at least when I worked there, was during prime time in that time zone. Except for kids shows. Peak viewing of kids shows was Saturday morning.
- dickjocke 7y ago
  What was working there like? Does the whole "this is a professional sports team you might be cut at any moment" culture impart fear or undercutting or blame shifting? I worked at Amazon and I found that the horror stories were generally not true, but that if you ended up with the wrong manager could be very true. Always been curious about Netflix.
  - jedberg 7y ago
    I loved working there. Everyone was great. Everyone fears getting fired for the first few days, until you realize they don't really just fire you on a whim. Then you get over it. People don't get fired for making mistakes, so there really isn't any blame shifting or undercutting. Making mistakes is encouraged -- it means that you're innovating and trying new things. Making the same mistakes repeatedly is what gets you in trouble. The main difference between Netflix and other places is that at other places, when your current skills are no longer needed, they will move you into a new job and give you time to ramp up. At Netflix, they will say, "here is a big fat severance check, let us know if you need any glowing references".
harshalizee 7y ago
I can't think of another service other than Netflix with such a hostile UX/UI. And this is in the age of popups galore. Everything about their UI is designed to keep me out of it as much as possible. My bingeing habits have drastically reduced and switched to alternatives like prime and Hulu. 1. Auto previews is probably the worst thing they've come up with. I just want to read the description, not be assaulted with trailers and ad for the show. This means you need to scroll faster than it can be invoked. This also means a tense experience where I can't just take my time to find what I want to watch or I have to look elsewhere. 2. Constantly moving 'Continue Watching' . I just want to get back to the show I was watching. Why is that so difficult to understand? 3. Showing me previews by cutting out the end credits. It's like no one at Netflix has any idea how to watch a movie/show. Sometimes you want to reflect on what you just experienced. Or talk to the people around you about what happened. This is just extremely bad behavior on an app that's paid for. 4. The discovery is straight up garbage. A rand() function on the top global watched tv shows/genre will result in a better selection then the crap their ML algorithm puts out. Ironically all their 'engagement' tactics had moved my household from Netflix to Hulu and prime more. 2020 is probably when we'll cut the cord on Netflix. Netflix had a huge advantage of being the first and the biggest in streaming services. They could have been easily the Google Search equivalent in their field. Instead, today their just one of the very many services with no discernible difference. Netflix has solid engineers who were amazing to work with, but their product management teams would be people I'd never hire because it's very clear no one really understands the product.
lapink 7y ago
Can’t people be grown ups and stop blaming UXs for their behaviors?
- beart 7y ago
  No. It's no different than advertising. You may think you are "mature" enough but it does impact how you behave in suttle ways
krishsai 7y ago
Leveraging AI and ML making companies to increase their revenue multi-folds.
jalgos_eminator 7y ago
Maybe if Netflix had movies and TV shows that I actually want to watch, then I would stay up to watch them. Its become a recurring joke that every time I think "Hey this movie looks good, I'll check if its on Netflix", the movie has never once been available for streaming. This actually happened this weekend. I searched for 4 different movies, and in the "titles similar to {#4}" was one I was interested in so I watched it. I keep forgetting to cancel because I use Netflix so little now.
hollander 7y ago
For me, the Netflix user interface is a horrible experience that blocks me from finding the series I want to see. - I want vertical browsing - I want to be able to remove items from the list, mark them "not interested" Maybe some people prefer this layout. Fine! Make it optional. Give us the "pro" user interface as an option in the menu. My bet is all Netflix programmers want one. I can't imagine that there is one Netflix programmer who thinks this interface is how they would make it. This interface screams "marketing". Fuck those guys.
- pcurve 7y ago
  They are deliberately not providing the tabular list, categorization, and other features that most people would find useful. Most likely reason is, it would quickly reveal to broader audience how much content they really have and also how quickly they disappear.
  - standardUser 7y ago
    I think the most likely reason is that highly functional and customizable interfaces remove the ability of marketers to implement coercive experiences like the article discusses. I see this all over the internet and apps. What used to be standard customization options are becoming rare. How can a company A/B test something if users are running hundreds of different customized versions of an interface? Better to keep things as standardized as possible to ensure the desired experience and facilitate fine-tuning.
    - asdff 7y ago
      Ultimately lazy. Everything can be controlled. Give me a list view, I block trackers anyway and am already not helping improve the quality of the data set. Maybe I'm just pining for a streaming service in the terminal program.
  - samstave 7y ago
    This is exact;y what was stated to me by a friend who actually works at netflix.
libraryatnight 7y ago
I'm going to probably seem stupid here. I don't understand why Netflix should be obsessed with how long people stream. I keep seeing this metric and I don't get it for something subscription based. I have Netflix, I have no intention of getting rid of it but I do not watch it that much. It's not ad supported, so if they have my subscription isn't that enough? Who cares how long I watch? At the current subscription cost, keeping Netflix is a negligible expense for me and I'm not wealthy. So long as they put out 3-4 interesting things to watch a year (be it originals or something licensed) I can't imagine I'd cancel. I'm not looking to fill my days and nights, just something to kill a little time here and there or unwind for an hour or so a day. Am I an outlier? Do sub numbers drop if users can't sustainably spend 4+ hours a day on their platform?
- nemonemo 7y ago
  IMO, Netflix is at the stage where it collects mass preference to produce better movies by themselves, which creates a virtuous cycle for their bottom-line -- addiction to the platform of the mass & quality production. I would think they will start charging more if the growth stalls AND enough stickiness of the platform is proven. Currently, they are making profits and growing in terms of revenue, so as long as the founder keeps the control and the company is profitable, I think it might make sense to pursue more subscription at the cost of short-term profitability.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- wutbrodo 7y ago
  I wouldn't go so far as saying you're an outlier, but nuanced individual motivations for retaining a subscription are hard to measure at scale. Lots of people would love to cut $10/mo from their budget, and the thing you barely use is one of the easiest candidates, so keeping hours-viewed/subscriber up is both easy to measure and likely a very high-quality signal of subscriber retention.
- deskamess 7y ago
  Is it possible that more hours of streaming for a show somehow reduces the purchase price? In return the content producer gets more exposure (in their thinking). From Netflix perspective, the income per subscriber is fixed, so now focus on reducing operating expenses (including content acquisition). Maybe?
MisterBastahrd 7y ago
It's still the best among the major streaming companies. Amazon's is designed to sell you episodes, meaning that it's complete garbage for actually trying to view shows. Instead of coalescing all the seasons and episodes for a particular title, they'll break them up into individual seasons that are usually NOT in alphabetical or chronological order. Hulu? I tend to watch a couple shows on Hulu when I'm not viewing live TV. It is ALWAYS a giant pain in the ass to find those two shows. If I were at a computer it'd be one thing, but I'm sitting there with a remote trying to input text into a search bar.
dickjocke 7y ago
I always wonder if the public considers the Netflix UX to be as bad as it is considered here on Hacker News. I've noticed this with Airpods too. We as (mostly) tech people will deride a product and predict it's decline but it will have record sales and seem popular in the world. I have heard a few grumblings about the content library out in the wild, but in general people seem pretty excited and keen on Netflix. I know that everytime I happen to watch cable TV with commercials the experiences feels a bit dated; I can only imagine what it feels like for the 20 and under crowd.
teddyc 7y ago
About a year or so ago I realized that I cannot pay attention to English dialog shows (I speak English as my native tongue). I would either look at my phone, or even worse, start doing work on my laptop. I made the switch to International Shows (that are not in English) where I am forced to read subtitles. I am forced to pay attention. If I don't, I have to rewind or pause. It's actually a great system b/c: #1 - Netflix has a pretty solid international library b/c they've been making the global push #2 - Every country has some good shows (at least a few) #3 - It's pretty interesting seeing how the other half lives Also, to a lesser extent, Hulu and Amazon Prime also have good international shows, often licensed from real studios operating in foreign countries. Occasionally I will watch an English speaking show, but it's an exception now.
liminal 7y ago
I know Netflix will never make the faceted search interface I've always wanted: Show me shows that are between 45-90 minutes in a particular genre, made in the 70s. Show me animated shows from Japan that are <25 minutes long. Etc.
tptacek 7y ago
I feel so seen! For a very long time, I couldn't sleep without watching TV shows on my laptop, to the extent that I'd have insomnia if the Internet went out. In fact, even though I've weaned myself off it for the past several months, I'd probably still have trouble sleeping if I didn't at least know I could watch reruns of 30 Rock if I had trouble sleeping. More to the point: just like the author, there's a very particular kind of TV I'd watch to sleep: nothing for the first time, and nothing tense. The West Wing and the US version of The Office were both great for me, since there's so much of it to get through. I've probably seen every episode of The West Wing at least 15 times by now. Which, to me, sort of answers/challenges the concern the author has about binge watching. On a normal night, I'd barely make it through half an episode before I'd notice time slipping as I watched, my cue that I'm nodding off and should shut the laptop. I'm never watching first-run stuff like Mindhunter or Russian Doll, the stuff Netflix really wants me to be streaming, because it'd keep me alert.
nkkollaw 7y ago
Netflix's UI is probably one of the worst I've ever used. Horizontal browsing on desktop (or even mobile for that matter), are you kidding!? Mouseover will completely change the layout, etc. etc. Just very bad in general.
ablekh 7y ago
"The UX of the top streaming services are expertly designed to encourage me to binge and remain on the platform for as long as possible." -- I don't quite understand this. If it would be an advertisement-driven platform, like Facebook, then keeping people on a platform for as long as possible would certainly make sense. From a business perspective, that is. However, for subscription-based ad-free platforms like Netflix, I don't really see how it benefits them (assuming that people stay within the same plan/tier).

197 points by wallflower 7y ago

I love my Netflix subscription but absolutely hate their app. And to think that their software developers are among the highest paid in the industry! I fondly remember the old days, when they give is a long list of shows in a list from top to bottom. And you had an arrow to move your titles up and down. No fancy images and auto-play and atrocious design

Semaphor 7y ago

Does that really work on people? (Rhetorical questions, they wouldn't have been doing it this long otherwise) How? I feel like Netflix is trying its hardest to stop me from watching. Usually at the top is some show I have no interest in. That takes up most of the screen preventing me from seeing things I might be interested in. Then I see My List: 1 show with new episodes. Great. It just happens to be the show they wasted over 50% of their website telling me about. Onward: A bunch of shows that I finished watching and that are either canceled, finished or have no new episodes. Why would I want this information? Next line, "Continue Watching": 2 shows that I found so bad I stopped watching them (The Witcher and Criminal: Germany here) Next line, "European Mind Game TV Shows". Sounds good. One show I might eventually watch. 3 shows I already watched… on Netflix. 2 shows that I think I checked and disliked but can't say for sure because Netflix keeps changing their covers. I'd rather spend the time ranting about their dumb UI than being annoyed by re-checking the synopsis for a show I decided against. Trending Now: 5 shows I didn't like (where is that "Never annoy me with this cheap shit again"-button?), one that might be interesting. So, Netflix used up 2 pages on a Full HD Monitor and with careful checking I realized one show I like has new episodes, and one new show could be interesting. But I don't usually expend this much effort into finding something to watch. So instead I usually find a new show elsewhere and only use the search or a meta stream search to find out if something is on Netflix and don't bother otherwise. The only site I know with a worse UX than Netflix is Amazon Prime Video. Yet I keep reading that their design improves engagement, do people not care what they watch and instead just rewatch everything all the time? I really don't get it.

empath75 7y ago
I spend about five seconds looking at Netflix to see if any shows I watch have new episodes. It’s pretty good at getting them near the top. It’s not really a ui problem that the vast majority of shows on Netflix suck.
0xcafecafe 7y ago
That's what I was thinking as well. There seems to be a "dislike" button missing in the UI. If I am not interested in a movie/show, I should be able to stop it from wasting my screen real estate. There can be separate section for dislike list which the user can edit if needed.
- rasz 7y ago
  Twitch has "I am not interested in " button, but when you investigate deeper under under https://www.twitch.tv/settings/recommendations https://www.twitch.tv/settings/recommendations it turns out to be a ROLLING FILO list limited to ~100 entries :D YT "not interested" is similar but worse, forgets your dislikes after few days.
- cavanasm 7y ago
  That exists. It's the thumbs down button. Granted, I'm unsure whether they use it to reprioritize the specific show/film, or the entire genre / broader category, or both.
  - 0xcafecafe 7y ago
    That button is for rating the movie/show after you watched it. I want to apriori eliminate items before even attempting to watch them.
    - cavanasm 7y ago
      Except they're using that rating to influence what you're recommended, even if you don't watch (which they're also tracking). They document more of this than I expected. https://help.netflix.com/en/node/9898 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/9898

mistersquid 7y ago

The author, Madeleine Morley, of this very well-written article seems to be working against her own best interest as far as sleep goes. Quoting: > I’ve always required television to get to sleep, and I’m not a good sleeper. > Why watch the same thing if there was all this newness to explore? My nighttime viewing hours grew later and later. > For those of us who used television as a sleep aid, we now seem to be facing a new phenomenon. > All these streamlined UX features mean that when I’m tucked in bed in the dark, I barely need to think about what to watch when I’m trying to get myself to sleep. I understand the idea of television as a sleep aid. I used to use music in the same way. But I don't think the Netflix UI is as great a contributor to Morley's issues with sleep as much as her sleep hygiene which uses "television as a sleep aid", an oxymoron at best.

ckosidows 7y ago
I used to do this as a kid. In my family everyone was watching a television at almost all times when we were home. Naturally it was there when we would go to bed. I recognized this was a terrible pattern. I began shutting off the tv when I was going to bed. Eventually I moved the television out of my bedroom. This is learned behavior and it can be unlearned. There's one simple solution to the problem posed in this article. Get the tv out of your room; it's not doing anything positive for you and I'm fairly certain you won't crave to have it back once it's gone.
- abadar 7y ago
  I heard an anecdote that there's a Feng Shui ritual to exorcise the demon that harms sleep. They perform the ritual and then take the TV out of the room.
- McWobbleston 7y ago
  As someone who used to regularly fall asleep to TV, it wasn't just a learned behavior. I have a very overactive mind without stimulus it tends to get to work, but with something like TV sitcoms I'm not particularly interested in my mind empties and lets me get into a sleep mode. Despite not having a TV in the bedroom for years I still have issues if I try to go lay in bed right away, so it may not be so simple for OP What I've learned helps me is watching TV / listening to music while laying on the couch, and moving into the bedroom with a dim light once I feel myself drifting. Still, I often fall asleep next to the TV, but its better than tossing and turning half the time until I have to take melatonin to force my body to fall asleep

jakemal 7y ago

I wonder if Netflix will eventually get rid of discrete episodes all together. Generally, the end of an episode is when people make a decision to stop or continue watching. If the goal is to maximize engagement, it seems like it would be beneficial for Netflix to get rid of those decisions-making points all together and make a season of television like a 9-12 hour movie.

SpicyLemonZest 7y ago
I think most people would avoid the decision to start watching something with a listed runtime of 9-12 hours. Netflix has already made sure that episodes transition automatically and seamlessly into each other, including reaching into the content itself to skip past long credits.
- jakemal 7y ago
  I would imagine going into it, people would optimistically assume they are only going to watch for 30-60 minutes, but end up getting hooked and watching for hours.
NSAID 7y ago
This is an interesting thought. Over the holidays I've been watching my TV than I would during a normal week and I've noticed that my time in front of the screen is much different when there are commercials (forced 2 minute breaks) than when there are not commercials.
crazygringo 7y ago
That wouldn't work because people need satisfying points along the way. Even for TV shows with plots spread over a season, each episode has an arc of an intro that hooks you, development, and then a satisfying conclusion. And we can only hold so many plot details in our head at once, which is why movies and plays generally aren't longer than 2 hours and change. A 9-12 hr megamovie would be deeply unsatisfying to watch, without the carefully structured resolutions along the way. You need satisfying "stopping points" along the way where a few things get resolved but a few more things keep you watching the next night. It's the same way fiction books need chapters and symphonies need movements. Episodes are a basic creative organizational principle.

yalogin 7y ago

Can someone explain the reason behind the UX design? I have already paid for subscription and this is a yearly one too on auto re-enroll, why does Netflix have to do so much to make me watch? They only need to worry about providing great content. People already paid for it and they have algorithms that will guess what a user might like and bubble up those shows. Why does it have to do one click play and auto play without even clicking? It’s the most annoying feature ever and they seem to love it. There is no way to disable it. What are they getting out of it? It has gotten to a poi t where I expressly avoid Netflix unless I know there is a show I want to watch. All because of auto play. May be my hatred of it is extreme but I don’t get the point of it.

triangleman 7y ago
Same here. I don't get it: if Netflix UI causes me to go through all the episodes of a show faster, that's one less show available for me to watch on Netflix, making the service less valuable.
crazygringo 7y ago
Like with any subscription, if you don't use it much, you'll eventually realize it's not worth the cost and cancel it. If people subscribe to 3 TV streaming services and realize they're mostly watching only 2 of them, they'll cancel the 3rd. So for Netflix, it's extremely important that you watch a lot, because that's precisely what prevents you from cancelling.
- isoprophlex 7y ago
  So every minute spent watching Netflix is one minute not spent on Disney et al? Makes perfect sense to me in a space with increasing competition.
- mfer 7y ago
  As companies like Disney pull they content from Netflix and put it in their own services, Netflix will need other avenues to hook people in order to keep their subscriber counts up.
7y ago

qaezel 7y ago

It always confuses me how authoritarians and their ilk always end up admitting they do the thing they are complaining about. It’s like they are complaining to me for their lack of self control. In any case, Netflix does turn off if it thinks you are asleep. Or, you can configure your tv or Wi-Fi to turn off at a certain time, which is why my kids don’t watch tv at 3am.

DonHopkins 7y ago

How does Netflix make more money the more users watch, if users pay a flat monthly rate, and they don't show ads? They have to pay more bandwidth costs, the more people watch. Seems they should optimize for users who subscribe then never watch.

UserIsUnused 7y ago
That is a "keep users paying feature". If you watch netflix a lot, there is a slimmer chance of cancellation.
conradfr 7y ago
They're not a gym and can't exactly guilt people into renewing each January. If they have cache servers at most ISP maybe bandwidth is not really that expensive.
dehrmann 7y ago
> Seems they should optimize for users who subscribe then never watch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakage It's good while it lasts.

dathinab 7y ago

Is it just me who feels strange when noticing that its on a Adobe Domain? I mean objectively speaking it's all fine as it's on some form of "blog" for "interesting thinks about design". Which is what the article is about (design which keeps you watching). Still for some reason I can't pin down seeing it on a adobe domain irks me...?

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
Chris_Chambers 7y ago
First of all, keep in mind that in a brilliant stroke of cost-cutting, Adobe fired all the smart people 4-5 years ago and has been run by total morons for quite awhile. Now consider that any long form content hosted on adobe.com for the past 10+ years has always been from an Adobe employee and posting something directly relevant to Adobe. Now consider me. I’ve had a full Adobe Creative Cloud subscription for 6 years. I should be the last person to NOT have a fucking clue what on earth “XD” is or whether it enables random non-employees to make blog posts on the adobe.com domain. I still can’t tell if this woman is an employee or not.

newscracker 7y ago

The biggest (and worst) achievement of the Netflix UX is keeping people scrolling through lists (since almost nobody likes the blaring auto-playing previews of what's selected) and adding things to their lists but not really spending time watching movies or shows. This way, Netflix prevents its customers from spending time on competitors' platforms while also saving tons of bandwidth and other resources. It's a devious and genius UX! Anyone from Netflix claiming that they truly want their customers to watch more on Netflix is delusional or lying or both! For example, Netflix customers have complained about the auto-playing previews for a long time and there's no solution from Netflix.

TheFiend7 7y ago
I'd argue it's a balance. While I agree it's logical for them to want to optimize a balance between watching and scrolling. They don't want you to scroll forever, otherwise you'll get bored and not watch anything, I can only tolerate searching for nothing for so long. Do that enough times and you have a subscription cancellation fast approaching.
- newscracker 7y ago
  I don’t have the link handy, but I remember reading that many (or most) Netflix users spend a significant amount of time managing and going through their lists to decide what to watch. Anecdotal observations and a handful of personal conversations have revealed the same. I don’t think as many people are canceling for this devious UX to be a money problem for Netflix.
pixelrevision 7y ago
I hate that autoplay preview feature with a passion. So does everyone in my house. It’s gotten to the point for me where I’ll open any alternative ui (Roku app, Apple TV app, random web searches) to avoid having to use theirs.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago

Netflix's UI is designed to: 1) obfuscate its surprisingly shallow library 2) encourage user interaction (more telemetry data) 3) promote Netflix original content As a user, I don't want any of this. A small cottage industry of alternative Netflix UIs has popped up, because sometimes you just want some good old fashioned filters and sorts. A few examples: https://flixable.com/ https://flixable.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/ https://www.justwatch.com/ https://instantwatcher.com/ https://instantwatcher.com/

usrusr 7y ago
> 3) promote Netflix original content You have no idea how much I prefer this over the dominant competing model which is "promote content that costs extra because it is not actually included in the subscription I already pay". Netflix at least is trying to make me satisfied with the content available, instead of making me yearn for more in order to upsell.
- bootloop 7y ago
  There is no such thing on Netflix as there is nothing to pay extra for. They just try to avoid you canceling your subscription when their licensing agreements are not getting renewed and everything else except their original content is gone.
  - jessaustin 7y ago
    This phenomenon definitely exists on competitors e.g. Prime. Lots of screen space wasted on PPV stuff...
    - yoz-y 7y ago
      Prime has PPV? It that a US thing? In France it only shows content directly available. Amazon originals are often promoted first.
      - 7y ago

tracer4201 7y ago

What I find surprising is that despite their shallow catalog of content (my opinion), they fail to promote their shows to me that I’m actually interested in. When Stranger Things Season 3 was released and when The Witcher was recently released, it was no where on my home menus. Despite these shows being the exact genre I typically watch, I had to search for these shows. ?????!

mrieck 7y ago
Their machine learning algorithm is probably optimized to reduce churn and keep subscribers at any cost. By making people search and find content, there might be some subconscious effect on people that makes them think the service has more value. Tricking people subconsciously means less cancelled subscriptions. What's scary is that all these dark patterns Netflix and other tech companies are using are completely obfuscated. No one really understands what's going on because the patterns are part of some complex neural network. In the past they would have been shamed publicly for stuff like this, but now it's only 20% of their users who have such-and-such psychological profile can be exploited this way, while others can be exploited another way and no one knows what's happening. My theory is the more powerful AI becomes, the more it will exploit human psychology until everything sucks. Everyone will have the overwhelming urge to keep spending money while being miserable because that's the optimal customer according to the AI.
- tenebrisalietum 7y ago
  > My theory is the more powerful AI becomes, the more it will exploit human psychology until everything sucks. It can hardly do worse than what human beings have done to themselves over the millennia and continue to do to each other every day. But it can probably do it faster and more efficiently.

Gravityloss 7y ago

Why is Netflix such a big deal? It's on the front page constantly. Their catalog is not massive and there are lots of other roughly equivalent services too. I think it's something that William Gibson notes that in the US in everyday language, phenomena are somehow always tied to brands.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 7y ago
There are definitely strong network effects at play - people want to be able to watch and talk about the same shows as their friends and family.

duxup 7y ago

Netflix's UI is terrible for discovery, unlike the DVD days where I loved browsing it even if I wasn't going to watch. I do doubt that it's UI really makes anyone watch anything or binge.

ruuda 7y ago

This doen’t seem to be particularly new or specific to Netflix. When I am reading a catchy book at night, I often read more chapters than I intended to, occasionally until deep in the night.

dmix 7y ago
Same, plus I remember countless times I stayed up later than I should have as a kid watching network television as a kid in the 1990s. I guess Fox was fighting my sleep too? The main argument seems to be that binge watching makes it worse. But in reality there’s only a small amount of shows that are worthy of binge watching and Netflix has a very finite amount of them...per year.
the_watcher 7y ago
Also, the author has a TV in their room. Prior to Netflix, unless they watched movies, anything with commercials is also trying to keep you watching (much more so by design). Does anyone else remember how loud Billy Mays would introduce himself late at night?

the_watcher 7y ago

> I’ve always required television to get to sleep, and I’m not a good sleeper. These two statements are correlated. Television in your bedroom makes you a worse sleeper, and you can immediately improve your sleep quality by removing it and keeping your room as dark as possible. I was skeptical of this, but after a month of insomnia, I went to a sleep lab for a consult and took all of their advice. I'm still not an amazing sleeper but it's been a huge improvement.

surround 7y ago

> Good UX coupled with great television has a way of encouraging bad viewing habits. This reminds me of a project to make cigarette packaging less convenient in order to discourage smoking. http://www.erikaskin.com/index.php?/projects/design-to-annoy/ http://www.erikaskin.com/index.php?/projects/design-to-annoy...

jedberg 7y ago

The entire premise of this article appears to be based on the idea that peak viewing is from midnight to 2am. That is most definitely incorrect. Peak viewing, at least when I worked there, was during prime time in that time zone. Except for kids shows. Peak viewing of kids shows was Saturday morning.

dickjocke 7y ago
What was working there like? Does the whole "this is a professional sports team you might be cut at any moment" culture impart fear or undercutting or blame shifting? I worked at Amazon and I found that the horror stories were generally not true, but that if you ended up with the wrong manager could be very true. Always been curious about Netflix.
- jedberg 7y ago
  I loved working there. Everyone was great. Everyone fears getting fired for the first few days, until you realize they don't really just fire you on a whim. Then you get over it. People don't get fired for making mistakes, so there really isn't any blame shifting or undercutting. Making mistakes is encouraged -- it means that you're innovating and trying new things. Making the same mistakes repeatedly is what gets you in trouble. The main difference between Netflix and other places is that at other places, when your current skills are no longer needed, they will move you into a new job and give you time to ramp up. At Netflix, they will say, "here is a big fat severance check, let us know if you need any glowing references".

harshalizee 7y ago

I can't think of another service other than Netflix with such a hostile UX/UI. And this is in the age of popups galore. Everything about their UI is designed to keep me out of it as much as possible. My bingeing habits have drastically reduced and switched to alternatives like prime and Hulu. 1. Auto previews is probably the worst thing they've come up with. I just want to read the description, not be assaulted with trailers and ad for the show. This means you need to scroll faster than it can be invoked. This also means a tense experience where I can't just take my time to find what I want to watch or I have to look elsewhere. 2. Constantly moving 'Continue Watching' . I just want to get back to the show I was watching. Why is that so difficult to understand? 3. Showing me previews by cutting out the end credits. It's like no one at Netflix has any idea how to watch a movie/show. Sometimes you want to reflect on what you just experienced. Or talk to the people around you about what happened. This is just extremely bad behavior on an app that's paid for. 4. The discovery is straight up garbage. A rand() function on the top global watched tv shows/genre will result in a better selection then the crap their ML algorithm puts out. Ironically all their 'engagement' tactics had moved my household from Netflix to Hulu and prime more. 2020 is probably when we'll cut the cord on Netflix. Netflix had a huge advantage of being the first and the biggest in streaming services. They could have been easily the Google Search equivalent in their field. Instead, today their just one of the very many services with no discernible difference. Netflix has solid engineers who were amazing to work with, but their product management teams would be people I'd never hire because it's very clear no one really understands the product.

lapink 7y ago

Can’t people be grown ups and stop blaming UXs for their behaviors?

beart 7y ago
No. It's no different than advertising. You may think you are "mature" enough but it does impact how you behave in suttle ways

krishsai 7y ago

Leveraging AI and ML making companies to increase their revenue multi-folds.

jalgos_eminator 7y ago

Maybe if Netflix had movies and TV shows that I actually want to watch, then I would stay up to watch them. Its become a recurring joke that every time I think "Hey this movie looks good, I'll check if its on Netflix", the movie has never once been available for streaming. This actually happened this weekend. I searched for 4 different movies, and in the "titles similar to {#4}" was one I was interested in so I watched it. I keep forgetting to cancel because I use Netflix so little now.

hollander 7y ago

For me, the Netflix user interface is a horrible experience that blocks me from finding the series I want to see. - I want vertical browsing - I want to be able to remove items from the list, mark them "not interested" Maybe some people prefer this layout. Fine! Make it optional. Give us the "pro" user interface as an option in the menu. My bet is all Netflix programmers want one. I can't imagine that there is one Netflix programmer who thinks this interface is how they would make it. This interface screams "marketing". Fuck those guys.

pcurve 7y ago
They are deliberately not providing the tabular list, categorization, and other features that most people would find useful. Most likely reason is, it would quickly reveal to broader audience how much content they really have and also how quickly they disappear.
- standardUser 7y ago
  I think the most likely reason is that highly functional and customizable interfaces remove the ability of marketers to implement coercive experiences like the article discusses. I see this all over the internet and apps. What used to be standard customization options are becoming rare. How can a company A/B test something if users are running hundreds of different customized versions of an interface? Better to keep things as standardized as possible to ensure the desired experience and facilitate fine-tuning.
  - asdff 7y ago
    Ultimately lazy. Everything can be controlled. Give me a list view, I block trackers anyway and am already not helping improve the quality of the data set. Maybe I'm just pining for a streaming service in the terminal program.
- samstave 7y ago
  This is exact;y what was stated to me by a friend who actually works at netflix.

libraryatnight 7y ago

I'm going to probably seem stupid here. I don't understand why Netflix should be obsessed with how long people stream. I keep seeing this metric and I don't get it for something subscription based. I have Netflix, I have no intention of getting rid of it but I do not watch it that much. It's not ad supported, so if they have my subscription isn't that enough? Who cares how long I watch? At the current subscription cost, keeping Netflix is a negligible expense for me and I'm not wealthy. So long as they put out 3-4 interesting things to watch a year (be it originals or something licensed) I can't imagine I'd cancel. I'm not looking to fill my days and nights, just something to kill a little time here and there or unwind for an hour or so a day. Am I an outlier? Do sub numbers drop if users can't sustainably spend 4+ hours a day on their platform?

nemonemo 7y ago
IMO, Netflix is at the stage where it collects mass preference to produce better movies by themselves, which creates a virtuous cycle for their bottom-line -- addiction to the platform of the mass & quality production. I would think they will start charging more if the growth stalls AND enough stickiness of the platform is proven. Currently, they are making profits and growing in terms of revenue, so as long as the founder keeps the control and the company is profitable, I think it might make sense to pursue more subscription at the cost of short-term profitability.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
wutbrodo 7y ago
I wouldn't go so far as saying you're an outlier, but nuanced individual motivations for retaining a subscription are hard to measure at scale. Lots of people would love to cut $10/mo from their budget, and the thing you barely use is one of the easiest candidates, so keeping hours-viewed/subscriber up is both easy to measure and likely a very high-quality signal of subscriber retention.
deskamess 7y ago
Is it possible that more hours of streaming for a show somehow reduces the purchase price? In return the content producer gets more exposure (in their thinking). From Netflix perspective, the income per subscriber is fixed, so now focus on reducing operating expenses (including content acquisition). Maybe?

MisterBastahrd 7y ago

It's still the best among the major streaming companies. Amazon's is designed to sell you episodes, meaning that it's complete garbage for actually trying to view shows. Instead of coalescing all the seasons and episodes for a particular title, they'll break them up into individual seasons that are usually NOT in alphabetical or chronological order. Hulu? I tend to watch a couple shows on Hulu when I'm not viewing live TV. It is ALWAYS a giant pain in the ass to find those two shows. If I were at a computer it'd be one thing, but I'm sitting there with a remote trying to input text into a search bar.

dickjocke 7y ago

I always wonder if the public considers the Netflix UX to be as bad as it is considered here on Hacker News. I've noticed this with Airpods too. We as (mostly) tech people will deride a product and predict it's decline but it will have record sales and seem popular in the world. I have heard a few grumblings about the content library out in the wild, but in general people seem pretty excited and keen on Netflix. I know that everytime I happen to watch cable TV with commercials the experiences feels a bit dated; I can only imagine what it feels like for the 20 and under crowd.

teddyc 7y ago

About a year or so ago I realized that I cannot pay attention to English dialog shows (I speak English as my native tongue). I would either look at my phone, or even worse, start doing work on my laptop. I made the switch to International Shows (that are not in English) where I am forced to read subtitles. I am forced to pay attention. If I don't, I have to rewind or pause. It's actually a great system b/c: #1 - Netflix has a pretty solid international library b/c they've been making the global push #2 - Every country has some good shows (at least a few) #3 - It's pretty interesting seeing how the other half lives Also, to a lesser extent, Hulu and Amazon Prime also have good international shows, often licensed from real studios operating in foreign countries. Occasionally I will watch an English speaking show, but it's an exception now.

liminal 7y ago

I know Netflix will never make the faceted search interface I've always wanted: Show me shows that are between 45-90 minutes in a particular genre, made in the 70s. Show me animated shows from Japan that are <25 minutes long. Etc.

tptacek 7y ago

I feel so seen! For a very long time, I couldn't sleep without watching TV shows on my laptop, to the extent that I'd have insomnia if the Internet went out. In fact, even though I've weaned myself off it for the past several months, I'd probably still have trouble sleeping if I didn't at least know I could watch reruns of 30 Rock if I had trouble sleeping. More to the point: just like the author, there's a very particular kind of TV I'd watch to sleep: nothing for the first time, and nothing tense. The West Wing and the US version of The Office were both great for me, since there's so much of it to get through. I've probably seen every episode of The West Wing at least 15 times by now. Which, to me, sort of answers/challenges the concern the author has about binge watching. On a normal night, I'd barely make it through half an episode before I'd notice time slipping as I watched, my cue that I'm nodding off and should shut the laptop. I'm never watching first-run stuff like Mindhunter or Russian Doll, the stuff Netflix really wants me to be streaming, because it'd keep me alert.

nkkollaw 7y ago

Netflix's UI is probably one of the worst I've ever used. Horizontal browsing on desktop (or even mobile for that matter), are you kidding!? Mouseover will completely change the layout, etc. etc. Just very bad in general.

ablekh 7y ago

"The UX of the top streaming services are expertly designed to encourage me to binge and remain on the platform for as long as possible." -- I don't quite understand this. If it would be an advertisement-driven platform, like Facebook, then keeping people on a platform for as long as possible would certainly make sense. From a business perspective, that is. However, for subscription-based ad-free platforms like Netflix, I don't really see how it benefits them (assuming that people stay within the same plan/tier).