IMDb Redesign Proposal
Over the past seven weeks, a site analysis on the popular movie database, IMDb, has been performed. This was an extensive process, with a multitude of different user research methods utilized, such as interviews, diary studies and card sorting. Below is a more in-depth description of each step in the process.
Site Origin, Description and Design
After deciding on IMDb for a redesign analysis, the first step in the process was to provide a general overview of the site. To do this, brief descriptions about the site, such as its origin, current design, and potential changes. During this analysis, a few of the main problems with the site were discovered. While it’s a database site, the over abundance of text used to describe visual mediums like movies can make the site a slog to go through at times. The site’s hierarchy was also flawed, as the site is more occupied trying to push you to different pages rather than giving you all the information you want on a particular movie.
Comparing Marketing and Business Requirements
When redesigning a site, there’s two main sides you have to focus on, the business side and the marketing side. Marketing focuses more on the general perception of the site, which as described before will be a less text heavy site with a better sense of hierarchy. Business requirements are usually what’s requested from higher ups. For example, IMDbPro is a paid subscription service for the site. Knowing that, it’s important that that feature is clear at both what it does and how to get it, so that the business side of the site sees profit.
When comparing the two, they align fairly well. A better navigation and hierarchy will likely lead to users feeling more comfortable with the site, as well as more aware of features like IMDbPro. Where they may not align though is the design requirements for the business side. Since the site is owned by Amazon, those colors are required for any potential redesign. While this brings unity and a distinguishable brand, it also makes it limiting with how much you can alter certain aspects of the site.
Competitive Analysis
For the next step, a competitive analysis was performed. While they’re not exactly database sites like IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes, Fandango and Metacritic were used as comparisons due to the dearth of information they have on movies. This analysis helped show that IMDb’s main advantage over most sites is the pure volume of data. If I could think of any piece of media I've seen, I’m likely to find it on IMDb. The same cannot be said for the other sites, which often can’t find info on obscure movies and shows.
Site Interview
Next, to better understand what other current users thought of the site, an interview was constructed. There were a total of nine questions, many with a variety of different follow up questions depending on the answer. During this interview, the main focus was on the navigation of the site, as well as what users think the site should focus on. All in all, this interview would give me a much clearer idea on what IMDb is frequently used for and how it’s thought of by the average user.
Survey
Along with the interview, a survey was created to continue to get more answers from users on how they feel about the site. Compared to the more focused interview, there’s a wide variety of different questions being asked here. Along with the basics on navigation, things such as what entertainment mediums do you search for, are you involved in discussion forums, have you heard of IMDbTV etc… Along with each question, a brief description was written for each question, describing its overall purpose to the redesign study.
Personas
Now with a clearer idea on what users of this site may like and dislike, multiple Persona’s were created to establish the different kinds of audience the redesign will try to reach. Furkan Tekin for example is an aspiring filmmaker who’s looking for a way to get in contact with the people he needs to make a movie. Isaiah Jones on the other hand is simply a big video game fan and would like an easy way to find and digest information on his favorite games.
Diary Studies
To better understand how a user uses the site, diary studies were created. The goal of these studies is to examine how the user uses the site naturally over a specific time span. An expansive set of users, about 20, was the number chosen for this study. This is due to the site often having very short, focused visits, as compared to something like YouTube where you may spend hours watching videos. The study itself would be monitored with a combination of a custom book for each participant, as well as a universal email for them to send info to.
Card Sorting
As a way to better determine what the navigation should be, card sorting was performed. To perform this, I first made six main categories for the site itself. I then took a bunch of different pages such as Events and Release Calendar and made around 30 different cards using them. The participant would then line up each of those 30 cards with what they felt was the most appropriate category. The main benefit of this compared to all the other studies so far, is that it showed how differently certain people can look at the navigation for a site.
User Interview’s
The last research method performed was a user interview. Unlike the previous interview, this was specifically tracking a user on how they performed specific tasks on the IMDb site. These were extensive interviews, containing a full script and five different tasks for the participants to perform. Three participants were chosen for these interviews, each with a different level of experience with both entertainment and web design. Here is a link to a sample of one of the interviews.
Redesign Recommendation’s
With the research fully done, full redesign recommendations could be suggested. First, problem areas for the site were distinguished, One of the main problem areas was the navigation, which I expected. Oftentimes during my interviews, if the user couldn’t find what they needed instantly, they were pretty much lost. A more unexpected problem area was the lack of site unity. My users were generally not a fan of how different each page looked, making it a bit of a nuisance to surf around. With this in mind, eight recommendations for improvement were listed, with the possibility for far more.