Challenge
With the increase in movies and shows available on streaming services and our dependence on them, prices continue to increase. This, along with poor user experience using the apps, push consumers to other sources of watching media. There must be an affordable and dependable way to watch movies and shows without a price increase while also maintaining a good user-friendly experience.
Goals
My goals for this project are to target those wanting to watch old movies and foreign films. The app must be easy for an older person to learn as well as younger audiences seeking old classics. As a user myself, I have had bad experiences and frustration with ads that were disruptive or extremely long while watching movies and shows. This app would need to minimize ads while still being a profitable platform.
Sketching
Fortunately, there are many streaming apps to pull inspiration from. I incorporated the vertical and horizontal scrolling feature from Netflix and other streaming apps. Based on my research, however, there are many times that users know exactly what they want to watch and many of the current streaming apps make you hunt a little to find those categories at times. One thing I wanted to do differently was display the user's Recently Watched and their Watchlist at the forefront when the user opens the app. If the user wishes to browse, they can scroll through titles like they normally would; however, if they just want to get to their show as fast as possible, that is an option for them.
What's Next?
The next step is to design a mockup in Figma so I can have users test a MVP prototype version of the app and make updates and changes. This will ensure my target audience is able to easily use and enjoy the app. I am also researching AWS and the backend of the app so that I can get an accurate idea of what it will cost to build a streaming app and if I need to reach out to investors.