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After having sampled Disney+, HBOMax, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime a fair bit in the past year, my take is that Netflix has the UX nailed. I can, for instanc

After having sampled Disney+, HBOMax, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime a fair bit in the past year, my take is that Netflix has the UX nailed. I can, for instance, "thumbs down" a recommendation. Some offerings I never want to see. Their catalog tends to the darker themes, and I'm not fond of that. Hulu and Amazon Prime are mostly irrelevant to me. I'll probably axe the Hulu sub. HBO has a few things I like. Disney+ targets the kids/family/lighter theme demographic tightly. I think that the general provider landscape is a bit overdone; some consolidation would be welcomed by consumers, and any competitor that falls behind in offerings will crash exponentially.

gtaylor 5y ago
I feel like there are two minutes of ads for every ten minutes of content on Hulu. It's ridiculous that you have to pay even more for an experience that is similar to the flat rate on Netflix and Disney+.
- bradknowles 5y ago
  I refuse to watch anything on Hulu. Every time my wife insists and makes me watch something she really, really wants to see on Hulu, I am reminded of why I refuse to watch it. And yes, we have the highest level of Hulu+ that is supposed to avoid most ads.
  - vanilla_nut 5y ago
    Subtitles on Hulu on my Roku TV have been broken for months now, despite regular app updates. They work in every other streaming app. I’m this close to just investing in a seedbox…
  - gremlinsinc 5y ago
    I'm the same.... though we did watch Catherine the Great and that Murder Podcast one w/ Martin Short /Steve Martin... The thing that irks me w/ Hulu -- we have kids sleeping and it'll be soft for the actual show, then the ad comes in and it's like 5 decibals louder. and we have to physically just mute the commercials... it's the most annoying thing ever!
taeric 5y ago
A problem is that voting and getting recommendations is a tiny market compared to Disney basically pumping out what people are wanting to watch. Yes, you can say they just focus on family content. But that is kind of the point. They identified their market and cater to them really well. Who is the market for Netflix? Their curse is that they can find untapped markets, but then the content owners can invest surprisingly well into clawing back that market.
- pnathan 5y ago
  I don't actually like 99% of the Disney+ catalog and don't watch it. I like watching the MCU aaaand that's about it. Its great that D+ hitting a niche and hitting it hard, but I don't want it. A pal of mine has basically seen all of it with his family though. Niches, right? I would estimate the Netflix target market is basically the non-family under-35s. It's actually closer to my tastes in general. Netflix also has a better real international selection IMO. There's no clear differentiator between any of the above outside of (1) UX and (2) content. They all are a means of schlepping video to my screen. They are all almost perfectly commodity in my opinion.
newaccount2021 5y ago
yskchu 5y ago
I agree with you that the Netflix UI is superb for browsing, however I have one major gripe - on Android TV they broke the back button. I had to hardcode a kill app shortcut just for them. For all other android tv apps that I have been using so far, the back button works normally, exiting the app at the topmost layer. However, repeated clicks of the back button in netflix UI just re-triggers the menu - part of their dark patterns to make it harder to quit the app...
- sedatk 5y ago
  I think back button suddenly closing the app is more hostile. When you do it accidentally, the recovery steps are painful (app switch, find app, focus to it etc). I totally understand why Netflix would prevent it from happening. I think iPhone solved it better than Android with the "super back" link or the app hopping gesture. Android could improve the back button with a long-press requirement in order to navigate away from the app too. In this current situation, Netflix is completely in the right to disable the behavior.
  - yskchu 5y ago
    Sorry, I totally disagree that is is "completely in the right", I use 3 other video apps, they all give exit prompts instead, here is an example: Netflix could have done what Prime video does Prime Video: "Do you want to exit the app? (Yes/No)", then done Netflix: scroll all the way down the menu options: Home, Play something, New & Popular, TV Shows, Movies, My List, Get Help, Exit Netflix (click), 8 clicks in total before you can exit. So it takes orders of magnitude more clicks, and more time out of my life, every time I try to exit the Netflix app. Considering that exiting an app is something I do all the time, it is not great
    - sedatk 5y ago
      I think the existence of exit prompts is sole admission of how painful this experience is for the users. The prompt itself can be a hindrance for the user too. I still think that it's an Android UX problem, not Netflix.
sedatk 5y ago
UX is a night and day difference between Netflix and its competitors. It's mind-boggling that the giants like Disney and HBO can't even get close. It's especially more noticeable on slow devices like Smart TV's.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  It's the minor things that jump out to me. Peacock uses a white glow around the preview picture as their selection indicator. No border. Just a faint glow. HBO Max has no way of navigating to a show page from your most recently viewed carousel. You have to find or search the show separately. It's death by a thousand cuts, but jesus... use your competitor's app. See what UX works and what doesn't. I can't imagine any of the little stuff is actually patented.
  - zuminator 5y ago
    Paramount+ has subtitles that are almost impossible to read with some videos. And you're forced to watch an unskippable ad for their other content when you start your first show of the day, even if you have the commercial free plan. Amazon Prime awkwardly splits their shows into individual seasons ('series' in UK) in such a way that it's difficult to ascertain how much of the show you'll actually be able to watch on Prime. Other seasons may be available to rent, purchase, watch on one of their partner subscription services, and/or watch for free on their IMDb TV ad-supported service, all of which is haphazardly jumbled together in their main window in no particular order.
    - prirun 5y ago
      The thing I hate most about Amazon Prime is that I added shows to my watchlist that were free at the time, then when I went to watch them later, they cost. IMO, Amazon makes things free until they see if they're successful, then switch them to paid. This pissed me off so bad that I no longer spend any effort looking for shows to watch. If I don't find something in 10 minutes, I turn off the TV. Which is most of the time. I split my Amazon Prime with my neighbor so she can get free shipping. She doesn't care about the TV part, and to me, it's not worth much either.
boringg 5y ago
I offed my Hulu sub a long time ago. Prime is free with my account so I'm largely indifferent (their UX is pretty painful). Too bad Netflix doesn't have a sports deal for live content.
- bradknowles 5y ago
  Whereas I hate, loathe, and despise pretty much all sports. I’d be really happy if I could delete all sports from all video sources I have available to me, or at least just hide them so that I don’t have to look at any of that crap.
cestith 5y ago
IF you want Disney+ but are on the fence about Hulu and you're in the US, there's a bundle. I'm not sure about elsewhere. $13.99 for Disney+, Hulu (with ads), and ESPN+. $19.99 if you want the Hulu with no ads. https://www.disneyplus.com/welcome/disney-hulu-espn-bundle https://www.disneyplus.com/welcome/disney-hulu-espn-bundle
barbazoo 5y ago
Agree. Apple has a horrible UX for the reason that it doesn't support profiles alone.
- jen20 5y ago
  It supports profiles on an Apple TV using the system-wide profile switcher. Don’t know about other platforms, I won’t connect any other set top box to the internet to find out lest they start spewing ads forever.
  - andyfleming 5y ago
    I wish all the apps integrated with the system-wide profiles.
gremlinsinc 5y ago
I've been saying for a long time they need to team up, or a 3rd party and create bundles... that's basically $40/month and you get HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Disney+, Apple -- and the $40 is split $5 to the 3rd party company, and then based on 'hours watched' by users... so you can watch whatever and whoever you watch the most of gets the majority stake in your monthly fees. As a bonus this actually encourages them to work hard for your views.
alexd111 5y ago
I've found on my streaming device that Netflix is seriously fast at buffering and playing once you press play compared to D+ and Prime. Like 2 seconds vs 10+ seconds. Of course could just be my device but seems like they have really optimised the UX.

gtaylor 5y ago

I feel like there are two minutes of ads for every ten minutes of content on Hulu. It's ridiculous that you have to pay even more for an experience that is similar to the flat rate on Netflix and Disney+.

bradknowles 5y ago
I refuse to watch anything on Hulu. Every time my wife insists and makes me watch something she really, really wants to see on Hulu, I am reminded of why I refuse to watch it. And yes, we have the highest level of Hulu+ that is supposed to avoid most ads.
- vanilla_nut 5y ago
  Subtitles on Hulu on my Roku TV have been broken for months now, despite regular app updates. They work in every other streaming app. I’m this close to just investing in a seedbox…
- gremlinsinc 5y ago
  I'm the same.... though we did watch Catherine the Great and that Murder Podcast one w/ Martin Short /Steve Martin... The thing that irks me w/ Hulu -- we have kids sleeping and it'll be soft for the actual show, then the ad comes in and it's like 5 decibals louder. and we have to physically just mute the commercials... it's the most annoying thing ever!

taeric 5y ago

A problem is that voting and getting recommendations is a tiny market compared to Disney basically pumping out what people are wanting to watch. Yes, you can say they just focus on family content. But that is kind of the point. They identified their market and cater to them really well. Who is the market for Netflix? Their curse is that they can find untapped markets, but then the content owners can invest surprisingly well into clawing back that market.

pnathan 5y ago
I don't actually like 99% of the Disney+ catalog and don't watch it. I like watching the MCU aaaand that's about it. Its great that D+ hitting a niche and hitting it hard, but I don't want it. A pal of mine has basically seen all of it with his family though. Niches, right? I would estimate the Netflix target market is basically the non-family under-35s. It's actually closer to my tastes in general. Netflix also has a better real international selection IMO. There's no clear differentiator between any of the above outside of (1) UX and (2) content. They all are a means of schlepping video to my screen. They are all almost perfectly commodity in my opinion.

newaccount2021 5y ago

yskchu 5y ago

I agree with you that the Netflix UI is superb for browsing, however I have one major gripe - on Android TV they broke the back button. I had to hardcode a kill app shortcut just for them. For all other android tv apps that I have been using so far, the back button works normally, exiting the app at the topmost layer. However, repeated clicks of the back button in netflix UI just re-triggers the menu - part of their dark patterns to make it harder to quit the app...

sedatk 5y ago
I think back button suddenly closing the app is more hostile. When you do it accidentally, the recovery steps are painful (app switch, find app, focus to it etc). I totally understand why Netflix would prevent it from happening. I think iPhone solved it better than Android with the "super back" link or the app hopping gesture. Android could improve the back button with a long-press requirement in order to navigate away from the app too. In this current situation, Netflix is completely in the right to disable the behavior.
- yskchu 5y ago
  Sorry, I totally disagree that is is "completely in the right", I use 3 other video apps, they all give exit prompts instead, here is an example: Netflix could have done what Prime video does Prime Video: "Do you want to exit the app? (Yes/No)", then done Netflix: scroll all the way down the menu options: Home, Play something, New & Popular, TV Shows, Movies, My List, Get Help, Exit Netflix (click), 8 clicks in total before you can exit. So it takes orders of magnitude more clicks, and more time out of my life, every time I try to exit the Netflix app. Considering that exiting an app is something I do all the time, it is not great
  - sedatk 5y ago
    I think the existence of exit prompts is sole admission of how painful this experience is for the users. The prompt itself can be a hindrance for the user too. I still think that it's an Android UX problem, not Netflix.

sedatk 5y ago

UX is a night and day difference between Netflix and its competitors. It's mind-boggling that the giants like Disney and HBO can't even get close. It's especially more noticeable on slow devices like Smart TV's.

ethbr0 5y ago
It's the minor things that jump out to me. Peacock uses a white glow around the preview picture as their selection indicator. No border. Just a faint glow. HBO Max has no way of navigating to a show page from your most recently viewed carousel. You have to find or search the show separately. It's death by a thousand cuts, but jesus... use your competitor's app. See what UX works and what doesn't. I can't imagine any of the little stuff is actually patented.
- zuminator 5y ago
  Paramount+ has subtitles that are almost impossible to read with some videos. And you're forced to watch an unskippable ad for their other content when you start your first show of the day, even if you have the commercial free plan. Amazon Prime awkwardly splits their shows into individual seasons ('series' in UK) in such a way that it's difficult to ascertain how much of the show you'll actually be able to watch on Prime. Other seasons may be available to rent, purchase, watch on one of their partner subscription services, and/or watch for free on their IMDb TV ad-supported service, all of which is haphazardly jumbled together in their main window in no particular order.
  - prirun 5y ago
    The thing I hate most about Amazon Prime is that I added shows to my watchlist that were free at the time, then when I went to watch them later, they cost. IMO, Amazon makes things free until they see if they're successful, then switch them to paid. This pissed me off so bad that I no longer spend any effort looking for shows to watch. If I don't find something in 10 minutes, I turn off the TV. Which is most of the time. I split my Amazon Prime with my neighbor so she can get free shipping. She doesn't care about the TV part, and to me, it's not worth much either.

boringg 5y ago

I offed my Hulu sub a long time ago. Prime is free with my account so I'm largely indifferent (their UX is pretty painful). Too bad Netflix doesn't have a sports deal for live content.

bradknowles 5y ago
Whereas I hate, loathe, and despise pretty much all sports. I’d be really happy if I could delete all sports from all video sources I have available to me, or at least just hide them so that I don’t have to look at any of that crap.

cestith 5y ago

IF you want Disney+ but are on the fence about Hulu and you're in the US, there's a bundle. I'm not sure about elsewhere. $13.99 for Disney+, Hulu (with ads), and ESPN+. $19.99 if you want the Hulu with no ads. https://www.disneyplus.com/welcome/disney-hulu-espn-bundle https://www.disneyplus.com/welcome/disney-hulu-espn-bundle

barbazoo 5y ago

Agree. Apple has a horrible UX for the reason that it doesn't support profiles alone.

jen20 5y ago
It supports profiles on an Apple TV using the system-wide profile switcher. Don’t know about other platforms, I won’t connect any other set top box to the internet to find out lest they start spewing ads forever.
- andyfleming 5y ago
  I wish all the apps integrated with the system-wide profiles.

gremlinsinc 5y ago

I've been saying for a long time they need to team up, or a 3rd party and create bundles... that's basically $40/month and you get HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Prime, Disney+, Apple -- and the $40 is split $5 to the 3rd party company, and then based on 'hours watched' by users... so you can watch whatever and whoever you watch the most of gets the majority stake in your monthly fees. As a bonus this actually encourages them to work hard for your views.

alexd111 5y ago

I've found on my streaming device that Netflix is seriously fast at buffering and playing once you press play compared to D+ and Prime. Like 2 seconds vs 10+ seconds. Of course could just be my device but seems like they have really optimised the UX.