12 ms·

All those hours and millions of dollars into perfecting their recommendation system, and Popcorn Time still has a better UI for viewing movies than Netflix does

All those hours and millions of dollars into perfecting their recommendation system, and Popcorn Time still has a better UI for viewing movies than Netflix does. Just show me all the top movies and let me pick one, why partition them into drama/comedy and filter out the one's you don't think I'll like? it makes the experience worse.

jandrese 11y ago
Or you know, just let me use scrollbars instead of having to wait for your stupid javascript to SLOOOOOWLY pan the movie list. And then I have to hover and usually click through to get details about a movie. What's wrong with vertical lists with relevant information next to the picture? Something like every shopping interface ever? Using Netflix is like going to a grocery store, deciding that you want some canned corn, and having to walk up to a conveyer belt and wait while canned beans, turnips, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc... slide by before the corn comes around. And it is like this for every single item.
- noir_lord 11y ago
  Agreed on every point, the sideways scroll is a UX disaster, I use a media PC with a cordless keyboard/integrated touchpad and it's horrible, it's not much better with a mouse. I probably watch netflix once or twice a month, I'd cancel but I'm not the only user.
- Pxtl 11y ago
  Seriously, Netflix' UI is a complete trainwreck. The searching is painful too. I still cannot find a way to say "give me all your View Askew movies" or "all your DC Animated movies". The search is woefully primitive and there is functionally no UI for categories... can't I just pick multiple category tags? Or see all the categories you're using under the hood?
  - cwbrandsma 11y ago
    I agree there are some problems with the ui, but at the same time the number of devices they design for is quite large (desktop web, mobile phone, set-top boxes, Apple TV, Google TV, Amazon TV, etc). Creating a UI that is consistent between all of them must be a bit daunting.
    - jblow 11y ago
      So don't do that. Make a few UIs. They are a big company, they can do that if they actually have anyone who knows how to program.
- kelseydh 11y ago
  It might partially be due to how it makes the list of good movies look bigger than it really is.
- mattbessey 11y ago
  They've parted ways from your described UI quite a few weeks ago on my PC anyway. Still using a carousel but at least its fully paginated now (click > new page, no slow scroll). The performance is abysmal though, lots of CSS3 hover transitions that seem to slow things to a crawl on scroll
rch 11y ago
I think that rather than simply letting users find and watch all their favorite movies in the (finite) library as quickly as possible, the objective is to use content presentation to maximize subscriptions. In that context it becomes worthwhile to present movies that one might be willing to watch, along with just enough 'top' movies to maintain the perception of quality, while optimizing the depth of an exhaustive search to prevent frustration.

jandrese 11y ago

Or you know, just let me use scrollbars instead of having to wait for your stupid javascript to SLOOOOOWLY pan the movie list. And then I have to hover and usually click through to get details about a movie. What's wrong with vertical lists with relevant information next to the picture? Something like every shopping interface ever? Using Netflix is like going to a grocery store, deciding that you want some canned corn, and having to walk up to a conveyer belt and wait while canned beans, turnips, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc... slide by before the corn comes around. And it is like this for every single item.

noir_lord 11y ago
Agreed on every point, the sideways scroll is a UX disaster, I use a media PC with a cordless keyboard/integrated touchpad and it's horrible, it's not much better with a mouse. I probably watch netflix once or twice a month, I'd cancel but I'm not the only user.
Pxtl 11y ago
Seriously, Netflix' UI is a complete trainwreck. The searching is painful too. I still cannot find a way to say "give me all your View Askew movies" or "all your DC Animated movies". The search is woefully primitive and there is functionally no UI for categories... can't I just pick multiple category tags? Or see all the categories you're using under the hood?
- cwbrandsma 11y ago
  I agree there are some problems with the ui, but at the same time the number of devices they design for is quite large (desktop web, mobile phone, set-top boxes, Apple TV, Google TV, Amazon TV, etc). Creating a UI that is consistent between all of them must be a bit daunting.
  - jblow 11y ago
    So don't do that. Make a few UIs. They are a big company, they can do that if they actually have anyone who knows how to program.
kelseydh 11y ago
It might partially be due to how it makes the list of good movies look bigger than it really is.
mattbessey 11y ago
They've parted ways from your described UI quite a few weeks ago on my PC anyway. Still using a carousel but at least its fully paginated now (click > new page, no slow scroll). The performance is abysmal though, lots of CSS3 hover transitions that seem to slow things to a crawl on scroll

rch 11y ago

I think that rather than simply letting users find and watch all their favorite movies in the (finite) library as quickly as possible, the objective is to use content presentation to maximize subscriptions. In that context it becomes worthwhile to present movies that one might be willing to watch, along with just enough 'top' movies to maintain the perception of quality, while optimizing the depth of an exhaustive search to prevent frustration.