
Popcorn
Popcorn is a media streaming e-commerce site where users can rent or buy movies and watch TV shows for free. Popcorn also allows users to import their Facebook friends and synchronize their streams to watch content together in different locations.
Team
2 researchers
2 designers
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Role
Designer
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Year
2015
Design question
"How might we create a more social platform for web media users to share and enjoy content together?"
Research
Popcorn all started with the idea to make an e-commerce media streaming platform that’s easy and efficient without a monthly subscription model. We started this process by doing a competitive analysis with popular models such as Hulu & Netflix, and taking notes around information architecture, feature list, responsive layouts, etc. We began to sitemap the architecture of our web portal and white-boarding ideas to get an understanding of our users, how the content is provided, and scenarios in which our users would use this content.

Business opportunity

Ideate / prototype
The ideation process revolved around how might we differentiate Popcorn from our competitors; brainstorming personalized features and doing focus groups centered around how Popcorn can better cater to the user’s needs for readily accessible media content. We used our persona, Lucius, to get a better understanding of how to implement payment, imported friends (through social media), site design, synchronized streaming, and other features. We sketched all of these ideas and discussed them in a team meeting at the end of the week. We narrowed down our key feature list and focused on their implementation.



We began to look at how we could provide a responsive experience with Popcorn, and explore the user’s interaction with our product through different platforms (web, tablet & mobile). We sketched up three of our major screens (homepage, movie details & account details) in a responsive format and then created low-fidelity prototypes from them using adaptive displays on Axure. Throughout two weeks, we iterated on these designs and added higher fidelity content and visuals. We opted to minimize clutter and make sure that the user has a seamless experience creating an account, browsing, searching & purchasing with Popcorn.




“Popcorn aims to provide its users with a personalized experience through importing friends & synchronizing video streams!”


Evaluate
Nearing the end of our project, we wanted to focus heavily on the mobile-to-web interactions with Popcorn. Using our user scenarios, we took a deep dive into how our users would use Popcorn on the go and how that experience could tie in to their web experience once on their laptops. This revolved around personalizing features such as the “watchlist” & “my friends.” Through our final attempts at research, we realized that there was a niche for expanding into providing a platform for game consoles, chromecast, apple TV, etc.


Results
It is important for us to realize the kind of market that Popcorn falls under. With today’s increase in streaming media content, we want to expand Popcorn into entertainment systems such as smartTVs, game consoles, chromecast, apple TV, etc. This will allow not only an ubiquitous experience across all devices, but also allow for Popcorn to truly be the next media streaming competitor on the market.
