How the company is working to solve one of its biggest threats: decision fatigue.
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This story is the first ina two-part seriesabout the inner workings of Netflixs homepage.
Read the second storyhere.
Ten years ago, Netflix got the idea that its app should work more like regular TV.
But users werent impressed.
It failed, the 14-year Netflix vet tells me.
The technology wasnt as good.
And I dont think consumers were ready for it.
Netflix believes audiences are ready now.
If you do, the usual page upon page of box art and show descriptions disappears.
Dont like what you see?
A quick button press skips ahead to another selection.
Netflix is betting Play Something wont be one of those mistakes.
Choosing has become a chore, and Netflix knows this.
Bruce Springsteen was soon lamenting the small torture of 57 Channels (and Nothin On).
Things only got more complicated from there.
The dawn of the 20s brought stillmoresupersize streaming services(Disney+!
), all looking to give us yet another viewing option.
The phrase What should we watch?
has always had the ability to start minor squabbles among couples and families.
Now, in the era of streaming, it can prompt existential despair.
Netflixs Yellin understands this all too well.
Some people, they like that choice and theywanttheir choice.
But some people get analysis paralysis.
I could do this, I could do this, I could do the other thing.
We start to feel overwhelmed.
And that can carry real risks for a streamer.
Yellin thinks this is nonsense.
More and more content its hard to describe it as anything but a good thing.
Im shocked when people dont think its a good thing, he says.
Its giving the viewers more interesting things to choose from.
Theyre really codependent, he said.
People underestimate the 4,000 engineers in Silicon Valley who make Netflix work every single time you push play.
But Netflixs intense focus on its product, particularly its user interface, also comes out of necessity.
There was no way to lean back and simply watch TV.
Figuring out how to fix that was what led Netflix to launch Play Something.
A final name for the feature hasnt been determined.
Inside Netflix, the company simply refers to the project as Instant Joy.
He tells me thats exactly what Netflixs designers were going for.
In other words, Play Something is meant to evolve the Netflix recommendation engine, not replace it.
Getting to this point took lots of trial and error.
I was curious, Yellin says.
The virtue is that users want the power and control of the product.
Thats the barrier to entry, Davis says.
But linear TV, it’s possible for you to turn it on and something is just playing.
Its a very understood paradigm, Davis tells me one afternoon over Zoom.
In this vision of a Netflix home page, the now-familiar rows of categories would be invisible at first.
But the default would be a personalized Netflix channel playing something the algorithm thought you might enjoy.
And thats why this idea never made it past the drawing board.
Were not trying to force them into this kind of vision of the future, Davis says.
Shuffling Toward Success
Still, one thing from that initial, anything-goes mock-up caught everyones attention.
Hit the button, and the user would exitCarmen Sandiegoand be taken to a completely different show or movie.
Unlike the bigger redesign, the Instant Joy team decidedthisidea was worth exploring further.
A working prototype was designed and a test launched.
It did not do well, Davis says.
There were some signals that people didnt understand what it was for.
Despite this initial strikeout, We still felt like there was something really interesting there, Davis says.
Some of the research results were surprising to the Netflix team.
Despite how common the word is, Channeldid not do well at all, Davis says.
They had no idea it would actually start playing something.
(Yes, Netflix reads your tweets.)
The first test was overly complicated from a design perspective, Davis says.
In the next test, Netflix decided to try out multiple entry points.
There was some psychology behind the positioning of this second entry point.
And this was actually pretty successful.
This option, unlike the two in Browse, didnt come with training wheels.
Its more opt-in instead of forcing everyone into that experience, Davis explains.
Play Something needed a few more tweaks before it was ready for a wider rollout.
(No comment.)
(Fact check: True!)
You entered this mode tonotbe in that space.
Its not just random things that are programmed in, Yellin emphasizes.
The company does not incorporate new ideas into its interface lightly.
The more controls you add, the more complicated it all gets, Davis explains.
So we have to be very careful about the things we add.
And make no mistake, Netflix brass believe thisisa major bit of evolution for the streamer.
We are in a way starting to dip our toe into the realm of playback first, Davis says.
We wouldnt attempt that until our members tell us thats the right thing to do.
Yellin cautions Netflix would need to see a lot more evidence before making such a big leap.
But its in the realm of possibility.
And for those who dont, the traditional way of browsing Netflix will still be there.
Were not abandoning anything, he tells me.
Were complementing what we have.
Different people want different experiences.
People go like, Oh, thats always been there.
