OSN+

Search on whole
new levels

Search on whole
new levels

How it is possible to search

blazingly fast in a huge movie database?

Back

Back

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Role

Product Designer

Timeline

2 months, in 2022

Platform

Web, Tablet, Mobile

Responsibilities

User Research, UX Design, Visual Design, Interaction Design

Overview: Touching the soul of the

whole product

I believe it's not a surprise if I say searching is one of the most important features of a streaming platform. We are using it a lot because it's commonly hard to find what we want to see. We have our preferences, and childhood memories and all of them point us in the search direction. So it's clear thatwe have to provide the perfect results to the users.

But the streaming search is really different than in e-commerce. It has its own characteristics and it's unique in the way it works. It can help the users or cause a lot of headaches. Let's keep our eyes on the first way.

Problem space

At the beginning of the design phase, we conducted workshops to find out what the common challenges are with the search feature.

It was also an important brief throughout the workshop, that we need to keep the balance between the business and the user needs,
such as recommending a lot of content
and make these contents personalized.

It was also an important brief throughout the workshop, that we need to keep the balance between the business and the user needs, such as recommending a lot of contents and make these contents personalized.

It was also an important brief throughout the workshop, that we need to keep the balance between the business and the user needs, such as recommending a lot of contents and make these contents personalized.

Showing results

How might we show the results in the best way to our users? How might we set the search engine?

Filtering

How might we help the users to give them the possibility to filter their results?

Finetuning

What kind of settings, small touches need to be defined for the perfect operation?

Recommendations

How could we recommend alternative content if something is not available?

Opportunities

Based on our previous workshops, we are able to list our key opportunities that we can achieve in order to provide a function that can help the users and the business as well.

Instant, tailored results

What if people can get quick and smart results after the first character being written?

Filtering options based on metatags

What if people can filter further down their search results by reusing our existing metatags?

Personalized recommendations

What if people can get alternative contents if something is not available based on their search, location and interest?

Providing a great search engine

Designing and defining a search engine started with setting the key principles of it.

Help the users until their final decision

To build a great search experience, we should help the users on the results page too. If we are only providing them with a couple of results it's still hard to manage them, so we should help to specify the right content for the users.

Instant search

As I mentioned previously, OSN operated with a search engine that required a minimum of 3 characters to provide results. Analyzing our competitors when it comes the search, showed us that we should not wait until 3 characters, we have the possibility to show content after one single character in the search field on the same page.

Instant search

As I mentioned previously, OSN operated with a search engine that required a minimum of 3 characters to provide results. Analyzing our competitors when it comes the search, showed us that we should not wait until 3 characters, we have the possibility to show content after one single character in the search field on the same page.

Instant search

As I mentioned previously, OSN operated with a search engine that required a minimum of 3 characters to provide results. Analyzing our competitors when it comes the search, showed us that we should not wait until 3 characters, we have the possibility to show content after one single character in the search field on the same page.

Tags as filters

There can be a lot of cases when the users don't search for a specific movie or series. Instead of that, it's pretty common that somebody searches for Action, or simply just writes the letter A in the search field, so we needed to help them on the results page as well. To do that, we used tags to allow the users to filter their results.

Tags as filters

There can be a lot of cases when the users don't search for a specific movie or series. Instead of that, it's pretty common that somebody searches for Action, or simply just writes the letter A in the search field, so we needed to help them on the results page as well. To do that, we used tags to allow the users to filter their results.

Tags as filters

There can be a lot of cases when the users don't search for a specific movie or series. Instead of that, it's pretty common that somebody searches for Action, or simply just writes the letter A in the search field, so we needed to help them on the results page as well. To do that, we used tags to allow the users to filter their results.

No results

If we can't provide a match for the search, it's a top priority to provide recommended content and let the users know, the search was right, the content they searched for was just not available. We just don't want the users to leave, so we should suggest them alternative movies and series they can watch.

No results

If we can't provide a match for the search, it's a top priority to provide recommended content and let the users know, the search was right, the content they searched for was just not available. We just don't want the users to leave, so we should suggest them alternative movies and series they can watch.

No results

If we can't provide a match for the search, it's a top priority to provide recommended content and let the users know, the search was right, the content they searched for was just not available. We just don't want the users to leave, so we should suggest them alternative movies and series they can watch.

Final tunes to make the search better

One of the hardest things during building a search was the final tunes, so setting up all of the rules that a search engine should follow, because this will give us the feeling that a search is smart, quick, transparent, and flexible.

Partial matches

We set our search that it should accept the partial matches at the beginningof a word. We can't expect the users that they will always write "Ford…" at the start of the search, so we should also accept, and provide the same result when they write "Ferrari".

Ignoring special characters

Sometimes the names of the contents are tricky so we had to configure the search to ignore the special characters. This way, there won't be frustration because the search will display the same results and remains flexible to the users’ needs.

Ignoring the order of words

We learned that there are a few cases when the users don't remember the name of the content correctly and they just swap the order of the words, so we needed to make surd that both ways are accepted and avoid the frustration on the users' side.

Tolerance for mispelling

A lot of people don't speak English in the MENA region so they more or less remember the title or words from the title so this tolerance was a really big help to them.

The outcome &
the takeaways

The Outcome & The Takeaways

The Outcome & The Takeaways

Details matter, right? I personally really loved working on this feature, because it was an excellent collaboration between the designers and the developers. A cooperative brainstorming, drawing ideas, testing, and learning from them to make it better. I enjoyed creating this feature and I feel like I can bring this experience to every search feature that I work on.

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