Letterboxd: Bringing Movie Lovers Together
Adding two features to Letterboxd’s app.
Figma, Maze.co
Tools
Role
UX/UI Designer
Overview
Letterboxd provides a platform for movie lovers to come together and share their passion for all kinds of movies. Keeping this in mind, the goal of this project was to create two new features that elevate the social element of the brand.
Problem
Movies are an important art form that brings different cultures, ideas, feelings and people to the big screen. However, Letterboxd’s social features and interactions are minimal and don’t allow users to connect more deeply.
Solution
In order to enhance the brand’s social element, this project’s goal was to design two features that allowed users to connect with one another; connecting in an open public space and another in a more closed and personal space.
“Movies can depict life and the human condition in a manner that’s more honest and multidimensional.”
— Insight from Danica, a participant from the user interviews
Understanding The Users’ Needs
User Interview Main Takeaways
Key Information Movie Lovers Look For
When asked about what key information, participants looked for when reviewing a movie, most of the users said they wanted to see information such as the synopsis, cast, director, release date, duration, and rating.
A Community For Movie Lovers
Movies and shows have always formed a huge part of people’s hobbies and social activities. The interviewees think streaming websites have significantly changed the movie-watching experience and have brought people closer.
Movie Review Apps
One interviewee likes to see what other people have been watching and commenting on because it is fun to see what people are into and it helps her decide what to watch.
The Importance Of Movies
Without movies, we just live in reality, but with movies, we’re allowed to look at it and try to live differently as a result. It is media that fills us; cohesive and substantial, not hollow junk.
Defining Letterboxd
Letterboxd, according to one interviewee, is an archive of sorts where users can collect movies and share them with a community of movie lovers, friends and/or family.
The Pain Points of Using Letterboxd
Letterboxd can be tedious when scouring through movies to watch and movies already seen.
Competitive Analysis
Rotten Tomatoes
Tomatometer: An easy visible measurement to see whether the movie is worth the watch or not.
Pros
Bad UI: The UI can sometimes come off as clutter.
Cons
IMDb
Clear Navigation Menu: The sections in the menu are clear and concise, making it easy for users to navigate through their platform.
Pros
Cons
Lack of variety: Limited to only Hollywood or western movies.
Stamp
Social media app: Stamp acts like a social media app where there are followers, following, notifications and posts.
Pros
Cons
Too simple: The features feel too simple or lack a unique UI.
Letterboxd
Cons
Social element: Does not have a chat feature for users to connect with each other more.
Community-based: Compared to other platforms, the community is a lot smaller, which gives users free range to comment their thoughts on the movies.
Pros
Designing To Meet the Users Needs
Feature #1: Creating A Forum
How was I going to design a way for Letterboxd’s users to interact with one another more? The first design solution for this problem was creating a forum. Forums are a great way for users to discuss about different topics and share different opinions or start debates, ultimately creating a community for that specific topic. Implementing a forum feature into Letterboxd’s platform would allow users to come together and allow an open and public discussion about any movie.
Feature #2: Creating A Chat/DM Feature
What is another way for users to interact with one another? How can users deeply connect and build relationships with one another over their passion for movies? The second feature focuses solely on this problem. Having a chat or direct messaging (DM) feature is important for a platform like Letterboxd because it allows users to have a more personal, one-on-one conversation with one another, boosting user engagement and allowing users to build relationships, without having to rely heavily on other platforms.
UI Component Library
It was important to create components that would make the user experience of the two feature designs both satisfying and seamless for the users without having to compromise the brand’s existing UI.
Testing the Design
For the usability testing, the main goals were to evaluate the user experience of the two features and assess whether or not the UI was consistent with Letterboxd’s brand. Once testing was done, the participants had given me the necessary feedback to iterate and finalise the digital product.
Iteration #1: More Than One Forum
Participants wanted more than just one forum, where users could dive into many different topics about the specific movie, which would bring in more engagement. So to solve this problem I created a screen that would show more than one forum discussion, where users can scroll through what discussion they would want to see, as well as a ‘create’ icon/button where the user could make their own discussion post.
Iteration #2: Visual Hierarchy
40% of the participants had an issue with the visual hierarchy of the forum card from the Forum Screen. They expressed how it was hard to spot certain icons, like the star rating, and made it hard to understand what they were for. To solve this problem, I redesigned the main forum card to make the star rating more visible and clear that it related to the movie.
Before
After
Iteration #3: Search Bar
The last iteration of this project was changing the search bar. When doing the usability test, 1 participant was concerned with how much space the search bar was taking up. I redesigned the search bar to be smaller and blend in with the colour scheme of the inactive buttons, as well as adding the search icon to make it easier to spot when needed.
Before
After
Final Prototype
Forum Feature
The forum feature, also known as the ‘Cinephile Corner’, is a feature where users can have different in-depth conversations with one another about the selected movie. It is different from the ‘reviews’ feature, as the forum feature focuses on certain topics made about the film and allows an ongoing conversation, whereas the ‘reviews’ feature solely focuses on the overall opinion of the user.
DM/Chat Feature
The Direct Messaging or Chat Feature lets users have one-on-one conversations, which allows users to have a more intimate and personal relationship with one another.
Supporting the chat feature, I added the task flow of letting users share the selected movie to the user’s chat, making it easier for users to find the movie and possibly save it for later, instead of having the manually search for it in the search engine.
Closing Thoughts
This was an interesting project that allowed me to dive into the psychology of movie lovers and explore solutions to bringing people closer. I think what I would have done differently if given the time, was challenge myself and maybe try to redesign some of Letterboxd’s UI. Some elements of their UI hinder the user experience of Letterboxd, which I found myself as a regular user but also with my participants during the usability tests. But overall, this project was a learning experience and a valuable opportunity for growth, making me a more proficient designer.
My Other Works
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From Broken to a Working User-Friendly Website
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A Journey of Functionality and Visual Design
Redesigning Verso Books’ website to be more user friendly and functional.