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They all are. Netflix's UX is garbage, as is Amazon Prime. And Now TV manages to be even worse than all of the rest put together. I'm convinced that nobody in

They all are. Netflix's UX is garbage, as is Amazon Prime. And Now TV manages to be even worse than all of the rest put together. I'm convinced that nobody in any of these companies actually uses their own products.

doix 4y ago
What's wrong with the netflix UI? I think it's actually the best one, my only complaint is that they constantly change the order of the rows so I'm always looking for "continue watching" one. I'm sure they have some data that by doing that they increase some KPI, but it's really fucking annoying.
- midenginedcoupe 4y ago
  Others have mentioned a lot of the problems already, so yeah, those. Perhaps the two most glaring are: 1) Auto-play previews. I'm browsing the unintelligble and randomly sorted lists of cover art trying to find something that looks interesting. If I pause for 2ms too long, like to try to read the title inamongst the graphics, it starts blaring the video at me. 2) I want some idea of what a title is about to decide if I want to watch it. The cover art and an auto-playing preview aren't it. Why can't I read a synopsis of it? See who stars and directed it? Even see the genre? Auto-playing the beginning of the film tells me absolutely nothing about it.
- mchusma 4y ago
  Autoplaying video is the bad part of Netflix UI, otherwise it's great. I don't know how to turn it off, and it is so annoying that I can't stop on any video while scrolling, I have to just keep moving.
  - collinmcnulty 4y ago
    https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102
    - yamtaddle 4y ago
      I toggled that back when they added it. Netflix still does it for me. IDK if they reset it at some point or what, but it's bizarre that "make the UI not be legendarily terrible" is opt-in to begin with.
    - joegahona 4y ago
      I wasn't able to get autoplay off on Netflix via Roku on one of my TVs. I really am intrigued by this decision by Netflix. Some PM was probably able to tie autoplay to some metric, but I can't stand it. I wonder if their research showed that older users miss the UX of old-school TVs, where you flip channels and instantly see something playing, rather than having to navigate and select something with more intent.
      - andsoitis 4y ago
        Rationale: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/new-netflix-tv-experience-includes-video-previews-that-speed-your-next-selection https://about.netflix.com/en/news/new-netflix-tv-experience-... tl;dr is that they found it helps people more reliably evaluate whether a show/movie is for them, esp. given the increase in unknown IP.
- thakoppno 4y ago
  > What's wrong with the netflix UI? Nothing is particularly wrong but we still have not advanced the state of the art in UX for TVs since ~2008.
  - andsoitis 4y ago
    Really? Netflix 2008 (you can only browse and play from a queue that you have to curate on the web): https://www.engadget.com/2008-12-23-rokus-hd-netflix-interface-gets-pictured.html https://www.engadget.com/2008-12-23-rokus-hd-netflix-interfa... Netflix today: https://images.ctfassets.net/4cd45et68cgf/5ZtWfmDAObY7ZSXnKzlx3f/06189d251224c775f76509a16883232b/english_tv_ui.jpg https://images.ctfassets.net/4cd45et68cgf/5ZtWfmDAObY7ZSXnKz...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- Yizahi 4y ago
  MyList cut after certain number of entries. Entries stay in Mylist after I've watched them (ok, this is a feature actually, but it certainly should be optional). MyList is not searchable and there are no categories or filters there. I can't add to Mylist without hovering over preview (no quick context menu). There is no history in some friendly interface, only some deeply buried list in the account settings. Autoplay (should be optional). Auto continuation (also should be optional). Horizontal scrolling sections is a bad UX, should be improved somehow. No quality toggles in the interface, no quality indicator in the interface (e.g. Prime has one, albeit a primitive one "HD" label). I want to know stream resolution being actually received on the device. (btw, they had a test stream for this, it was an ugly solution but it worked, and then years ago they disabled it completely without replacement). Categories are autosorted and auto chosen. I want to have these categories searchable and preferably browsable. No quick list of available voice and subtitle languages, you can only know this after you have started watching. Prime has this feature. No x-ray. I know it's a unique feature, but really, all streaming services should have it.
nailer 4y ago
You haven’t seen BT Sport. Imagine a 5 hour event with no markers for the individual fights.

doix 4y ago

What's wrong with the netflix UI? I think it's actually the best one, my only complaint is that they constantly change the order of the rows so I'm always looking for "continue watching" one. I'm sure they have some data that by doing that they increase some KPI, but it's really fucking annoying.

midenginedcoupe 4y ago
Others have mentioned a lot of the problems already, so yeah, those. Perhaps the two most glaring are: 1) Auto-play previews. I'm browsing the unintelligble and randomly sorted lists of cover art trying to find something that looks interesting. If I pause for 2ms too long, like to try to read the title inamongst the graphics, it starts blaring the video at me. 2) I want some idea of what a title is about to decide if I want to watch it. The cover art and an auto-playing preview aren't it. Why can't I read a synopsis of it? See who stars and directed it? Even see the genre? Auto-playing the beginning of the film tells me absolutely nothing about it.
mchusma 4y ago
Autoplaying video is the bad part of Netflix UI, otherwise it's great. I don't know how to turn it off, and it is so annoying that I can't stop on any video while scrolling, I have to just keep moving.
- collinmcnulty 4y ago
  https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102 https://help.netflix.com/en/node/2102
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    I toggled that back when they added it. Netflix still does it for me. IDK if they reset it at some point or what, but it's bizarre that "make the UI not be legendarily terrible" is opt-in to begin with.
  - joegahona 4y ago
    I wasn't able to get autoplay off on Netflix via Roku on one of my TVs. I really am intrigued by this decision by Netflix. Some PM was probably able to tie autoplay to some metric, but I can't stand it. I wonder if their research showed that older users miss the UX of old-school TVs, where you flip channels and instantly see something playing, rather than having to navigate and select something with more intent.
    - andsoitis 4y ago
      Rationale: https://about.netflix.com/en/news/new-netflix-tv-experience-includes-video-previews-that-speed-your-next-selection https://about.netflix.com/en/news/new-netflix-tv-experience-... tl;dr is that they found it helps people more reliably evaluate whether a show/movie is for them, esp. given the increase in unknown IP.
thakoppno 4y ago
> What's wrong with the netflix UI? Nothing is particularly wrong but we still have not advanced the state of the art in UX for TVs since ~2008.
- andsoitis 4y ago
  Really? Netflix 2008 (you can only browse and play from a queue that you have to curate on the web): https://www.engadget.com/2008-12-23-rokus-hd-netflix-interface-gets-pictured.html https://www.engadget.com/2008-12-23-rokus-hd-netflix-interfa... Netflix today: https://images.ctfassets.net/4cd45et68cgf/5ZtWfmDAObY7ZSXnKzlx3f/06189d251224c775f76509a16883232b/english_tv_ui.jpg https://images.ctfassets.net/4cd45et68cgf/5ZtWfmDAObY7ZSXnKz...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
Yizahi 4y ago
MyList cut after certain number of entries. Entries stay in Mylist after I've watched them (ok, this is a feature actually, but it certainly should be optional). MyList is not searchable and there are no categories or filters there. I can't add to Mylist without hovering over preview (no quick context menu). There is no history in some friendly interface, only some deeply buried list in the account settings. Autoplay (should be optional). Auto continuation (also should be optional). Horizontal scrolling sections is a bad UX, should be improved somehow. No quality toggles in the interface, no quality indicator in the interface (e.g. Prime has one, albeit a primitive one "HD" label). I want to know stream resolution being actually received on the device. (btw, they had a test stream for this, it was an ugly solution but it worked, and then years ago they disabled it completely without replacement). Categories are autosorted and auto chosen. I want to have these categories searchable and preferably browsable. No quick list of available voice and subtitle languages, you can only know this after you have started watching. Prime has this feature. No x-ray. I know it's a unique feature, but really, all streaming services should have it.

nailer 4y ago

You haven’t seen BT Sport. Imagine a 5 hour event with no markers for the individual fights.