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Hulu Watch Party
Usability Case Study

Project Overview

Hulu Watch Party is a feature that allows Hulu subscribers to watch movies and shows together and connect from different locations. The features includes a synchronization function on video playback and has a group chat where guests can interact. Usability testing sessions involved observing 6 participants navigate tasks in the order of a typical user flow.

Study Objective

To understand user's experiences starting and navigating the features of Hulu Watch Party.

Research Questions

  • How easily can users find the Watch Party button?

  • Are users successful in sending links to other Watch Party participants?

  • What obstacles prevent users from starting a Watch Party session?

  • What obstacles prevent users from navigating a Watch Party session?

  • How well do users understand and use the symbols and icons in the video player?

  • How well do users understand the system feedback?

Recruitment and Participant Profile

A screener was distributed via UW student channels and personal networks. There were 6 participants total, 1 male, 5 female.

Recruitment criteria:

  • Current Hulu User

  • No experience using Watch Party

  • Between 18-49 years old

  • Must use Hulu on desktop (browser)

  • No professional affiliation with Hulu

Methods

  • usability test sessions ran from February 19th to February 21st, 2021

  • all studies were conducted remotely via Zoom

  • the study was conducted with one moderator and one group member who acted as a fake participant to join and interact with participants on Watch Party; two other members observed and took notes on the session

  • each participant performed 6 main tasks with the Hulu Watch Party system on a desktop computer and began on the Hulu homepage

  • Likert scale questions regarding the ease of completion were administered after tasks 1 and 5

  • overall satisfaction rating Likert scale question administered after participants completed all of the tasks, as well as a System Usability Scale questionnaire

Findings and Recommendations

Summary

  • All participants were able to initiate Watch Party and felt confident using the feature again

  • Participants experienced a lot of frustration looking for the Watch Party button and were surprised by the lack of information or prominence about the feature on the homepage

  • The limited interactivity in Watch Party and confusion about synchronization were some reasons participants were unlikely to host a Watch Party 

  • Increase discoverability of Watch Party feature, add interactive functions like voice chat, and automatically sync host and guests’ videos

Continue scrolling to learn more specifics about our findings

What Went Well:

  • Watch Party icon is recognizable and clearly understood

  • Inviting friends to a Watch Party is easy to do

  • Sending a message via the chat function is easy to navigate

               “This is like any text messaging system I have used before. I kind of know what to                  expect.” - P4

                “Very easy. It’s just very intuitive.” - P3

  • Participants felt confident in starting another Watch Party after their initial experience

                “Now that I know where [Watch Party button] is, I think I could find it again super                  easily.” - P5

Opportunities for Improvement

To measure the severity of the discovered issues we used Nielsen's Severity Ratings scale​

Nielsen's Severity Ratings

4: Usability catastrophe: imperative to fix this before product can be released​

3: Major usability problem; important to fix, so should be given high priority

2: Minor usability problem; fixing this should be given low priority

1: Cosmetic problem only; need not be fixed unless extra time is available on project

0: I don't agree that this is a usability problem at all

Discovered Issues

Participants had difficulty finding Watch Party button

3

Confusion of how synchronization worked in Watch party

2

Lack of information on participants in Watch Party group

2

Watch Party icon not prominently displayed on the Details Page

1

1

Limited interactivity functions in Watch Party

images of different screens our participant tried when looking for Hulu Watch Party icon

Severity 3

The Watch Party feature was not easily discoverable

​

​

  • 6/6 participants express frustration while trying to initiate a Watch Party

    • "It was annoying. It was like, alright, I'm looking very stupid right now not knowing where this is." - P3​

​

  • 6/6 participants had issues finding the Watch Party button

    • "Just [looking] for something that will signal that I can activate the Hulu Watch Party - so I don't know what I'm looking for right now." - P4​

​

  • 5/6 participants navigated to Hubs to find Watch Party button

    • "Hubs to me means central grouping...like the Hub of the home." -P5​

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Recommendations:

​

  • Highlight the feature on the homepage

​

  • Add multiple opportunities to start a Watch Party, such as within the video player

screenshot of out of sync alert

Severity 2

The Watch Party synchronization function was unclear

​

​

  • 6/6 participants did not understand how their video was syncing with others

    • "I am concerned that out of sync is something that I would have to click, like it's not something that; automatic." - P4​

    • " I wonder if I pause it, does it pause for her too? I can't tell." - P1

    • "Say we have 7 people on the call, how do I know who's out of sync and how do I know how ahead of behind they are?" - P6

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Recommendation:

​

  • Update feature to sync videos automatically

​​

screenshot of two users' chat in Hulu Watch Party

Severity 2

Messaging feature lacked information on other participants in Watch Party group

​

​

  • 4/6 participants mentioned being unable to identify guests in their Watch Party and in the chat

    • "How do I see my party?" - P3​

    • " It's cutting it short for no reason and it's pretty easy to have 2 people with the same first letter of the name." - P1

​​​

Recommendations:

​

  • Allow users the ability to choose a display name

​

  • Provide information on all guests in the Watch Party

​​

​"Typing seems not very immersive in the show. It seems a little bit more natural to just talk/ There's a little bit of a delayed reaction...The scene has already passed by the time you've typed that." - P3​

​​​

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Severity 1

Limited interactive functions in Watch Party

​

​

  • 4/6 participants felt they couldn't use their preferred form of communication

    • "I would probably send her a gif because that's our language" - P3​

​​​

Recommendations:

​

  • Add a voice communication feature

​

  • Allow the ability to send other formats in the chat like gifs

​​

screenshot showing small size of Watch Party icon on show start page

Severity 1

Watch Party icon is not prominently displayed on the Details Page

​

​

  • 1/6 participants did not see the Watch Party icon

    • "The Details [page] is really strange...I didn't see [the Watch Party button] originally though like when I came here." - P6​

​​​

Recommendations:

​

  • Make the Watch Party button more visible

​

​​​

Reflections on Study Improvement

  • Specifically recruit participants that primarily use the desktop version of Hulu 

  • Ask participants to set their video player in their preferred viewing experience 

  • Ask more follow-up questions about participant’s experience with searching for the Watch Party button

  • Give clearer directions to participants on SUS evaluation so they all rate only the initial experience

  • Perform a competitive analysis of similar streaming services’ synchronized viewing features

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