Maintaining a good user experience
A premium streaming app experience is more than just branding, design, usability and function. The key fundamental of creating an high-end user experience is understanding the user and their engagement points within the app.
We will talk about the 5 essential product features for OTT apps on the market today and why they are important in maintaining a good user experience in an already competitive market.
1. Recommended Content
Online media is taking over how we consume content. The expansion of OTT content providers is continuing to rise and the available content to users is following suit.
So how can OTT providers help their users find new content in an already competitive market?
The significance of recommendation engines for OTT providers is paramount to unlocking the full potential of their chosen monetisation model. By promoting content of interest, recommendations help reduce churn rates which in turn increases subscription/transactional and ad-supported revenue by retaining customers over longer periods of time.
Read More about Recommended Content Here
2. Kids Profile
Kids profiles for entertainment content providers with a Subscription or Advertising based content model is shown to be a key success factor in the subscription of new users. Families with Kids spend on average 90% more time on OTT services than families without Kids. Parents’ concern about what their kids are watching online is also increasing.
With this in mind, enabling the functionality of a Kids profile with customisable parental locks will become the norm for any content provider looking to target families as their user base.
Read More about Kids Profiles Here
3. Trailer Previews
Netflix is without a doubt one of the biggest household names in the OTT industry. Their success in UX has been directly correlated with nostalgia. The dark grey and warm red brand colours were inspired by the colours you find in a traditional Cinema. The rows of movie posters on Netflix are a digital replication of old video rental stores and remind us of the days we were standing in Blockbuster choosing a movie from the endless line up of DVD covers.
In 2016 they released ‘Trailer Previews’ a function which yet again takes us back to the old days of content consumption. This time reminding us of the time we said that ‘the trailers are the best bit’ while enjoying popcorn and a coke at the local Cinema.
Obviously this interactive function does more than just ignite nostalgia, it also reduces the amount of time a user is searching for something to watch. On average a user will look through 10-20 titles, if they don’t find anything of interest after that, they’ll give up. This preview function allows an extra layer of convincement to end-users and in turn reduces churn rate.
Read More about Trailer Previews Here
4. Continue Watching
It’s important to note that quite often a user is not trying to find something new to watch, rather their goal is to continue watching something they have already started. With this in mind it’s important to showcase a list of content a user has started watching. Most of the time this ‘Continue Watching’ list is placed at the top of the poster rails on a homepage enabling easy access for the user.
Continue Watching is a feature which users indicate they would miss very much if it was removed or not implemented.
Read More about Continue Watching Here
5. Downloads
One of the reasons why subscribers cancel a paid video subscription is because they think that they just don’t use the service enough to justify the cost. Making content available for download increases the amount of time users spend on an OTT service which increases the feeling of ‘value for money’ amongst users.
Downloading content at home on high speed networks prevents buffering and during periods where data usage is necessary such as ‘on the go’. Sometimes data usage isn’t available at all, underground commuters and frequent flyers will understand the struggle of loss of connection. It also minimizes the worry of exceeding data plan limits for users as streaming video soaks up a lot of data.
Read More about Downloads Here
ENLIGHT is DIAGNAL’s application solution for premium OTT service providers looking to publish and monetize content quickly.
ENLIGHT provides a collection of feature rich premium application experiences across a wide range of device platforms. Well tested and deployed with global customers, ENLIGHT apps provide high performance and a high end experience to end-users.
