Netflix Content Hub
Revolutionizing Collaboration for Netflix Studio teams
User Research
Usability Testing
Design Recommendations
project Background
Overview
I explored how users interact with Netflix's Content Hub by conducting user interviews, evaluating the interface through design heuristics, and testing usability with a diverse group of participants to uncover challenges.
I presented design recommendations and opportunities for improvement to the Netflix Product Design Team
Role
UX Research
Usability
Prototyping
Outcome
Research Report
Team
Design Lead
Product Owner
UX Researchers
Type
Client Project
What happens after “CUT!”?
Think about Netflix, the largest streaming platform with over 260 million subscribers worldwide.
And 55% of this content is Netflix Originals.
Behind the scenes of your favorite Netflix shows, studio and production teams create magic with an avalanche of media and footage, crafting thousands of hours of captivating content.
How do they do this?
Enter Content Hub
Netflix Content Hub is a collaborative platform that helps different teams across the world collaborate on creating and managing content.
It allows thousands of users on studio and production teams to work together as they bring content together from various sources.
It essentially acts as a "Google Drive on steroids" for teams to upload their assets and media.
Yet, here's the twist: these teams are not confined to a single location; they're scattered across the globe. Now, imagine the complexity of collaborating remotely while juggling terabytes upon terabytes of data.
Netflix
Los Angeles
Editorial
New York
Picture Finishing
London
Visual Effects
Mumbai
On-Set Location #2
Auckland
On-Set Location #1
Sao Paulo
Current Challenges
#1
Each show has a unique workflow, making standardization difficult.
A multi-camera show with visual effects such as Stranger Things vs Formula 1: Drive to Survive with an extensive amount of footage - vastly different workflows!
#2
Each process requires several users from Studio and Production.
Studio users are Netflix employees, while Production users can be freelancers or contractors.
Think about how many names there are in the end credits!
research
How do we approach this?
As external consultants with little familiarity of content hub, it was important for my team to gain a thorough understanding of users’ relationship with Netflix Content Hub before diving deeper into the if it solves the problems of remote collaboration
This required a two-fold research approach - cultivating a deeper understanding of Content Hub, and evaluating the tool to uncover potential areas of friction
Netflix design team chat
Explore the tool
Interaction map
Understand workflow and Integration with external tools
Pain points
Analyzing interviews
Heuristic evaluation
Usability testing
Analyzing test results
Design recommendations
Context
Interviews
Analysis
Validation
Solutions
What was the Netflix team looking for?
Being an internal tool with no competitors or scope for monetization, the sole purpose was to provide value for its users - the superstar studio and production teams who bring every Netflix original to life
For this project, Netflix wanted to focus on the Workspaces section - we’ll dive into that a little later.
#1
Finding areas of improvement that can facilitate smoother workflows for Netflix employees, dive deeper into how they supplement current insufficiencies with external tools.
#2
Evidence of what people are doing in terms of storage and what people are doing to interact with files
#3
Understand if Content Hub is working as required for collaboration
#4
Be able to support additional needs or edge cases.
At this stage, it was imperative to put together everything we’d learned from both designers and actual users of Content Hub to get a better picture of touch points
This resulted in an map outlining how users interact with Content Hub, with a focus on the Workspaces section
With a better understanding of what Content Hub is built for, it was time to talk to people who spent several hours using the tool everyday - Studio and production teams
With all of the background research so far, it would be easier to empathize with the user and probe into their responses. understanding what doesn't work helped inform the next steps in our research plan. In order to pinpoint where the users run into issues, we decided to conduct a targeted usability test
Let’s dive into what we found
Talking to people who used Content Hub daily for most of their tasks put into perspective the variety of ways in which the tool was being used.
This helped us validate and probe into the areas of friction we’d uncovered so far
What works
Users trust Content Hub as a secure platform to share sensitive and copyrighted content
Users employ supplemental tools to get through shortcomings of Content hub, but wouldn’t want to move away from the tool since it is reliable
Onboarding tutorials and training materials are useful in understanding Content Hub
What doesn’t work
External tools are required to make up for the shortcomings of Content Hub, and this switching disrupts workflows
Difficulties with file access and permissions is frustrating and wastes time.
Managing files and folders can be messy and challenging.
Usability testing
Talking to people who used Content Hub daily for most of their tasks put into perspective the variety of ways in which the tool was being used.
What we found
File and folder creation is confusing.
File and folder creation is confusing and messy - an “add folder” button within the parent folder creates a new folder at the same hierarchy, and requires drag-and-drop to create the desired hierarchy.
Recommendation
Support intuitive user action: double-click, right-click to navigate through files and perform file creation within a folder.
No inspection for file formats while submitting.
No verification for correct files formats when it is submitted makes errors more likely.
There is no way to fix these errors either.
A user shouldn’t be able to upload a .docx file for a video cut.
Recommendation
Adding a layer of check can prevent errors and resubmissions of files
Wrap-up
Towards the end of the project, I presented these recommendations to the Product Design team and studio partners regularly using Content Hub.
Takeaways and reflection
Working with the Netflix Design Team was an incredible experience. This project reinforced the importance of understanding user needs and showed me the impact of thoughtful design on building stronger partnerships.
Netflix Content Hub
Revolutionizing Collaboration for Netflix Studio teams
User Research
Usability Testing
Design Recommendations
project Background
Overview
I explored how users interact with Netflix's Content Hub by conducting user interviews, evaluating the interface through design heuristics, and testing usability with a diverse group of participants to uncover challenges.
I presented design recommendations and opportunities for improvement to the Netflix Product Design Team
Role
UX Research
Usability
Prototyping
Outcome
Research Report
Team
Design Lead
Product Owner
UX Researchers
Type
Client Project
What happens after “CUT!”?
Think about Netflix, the largest streaming platform with over 260 million subscribers worldwide.
And 55% of this content is Netflix Originals.
Behind the scenes of your favorite Netflix shows, studio and production teams create magic with an avalanche of media and footage, crafting thousands of hours of captivating content.
How do they do this?
Enter Content Hub
Netflix Content Hub is a collaborative platform that helps different teams across the world collaborate on creating and managing content.
It allows thousands of users on studio and production teams to work together as they bring content together from various sources.
It essentially acts as a "Google Drive on steroids" for teams to upload their assets and media.
Yet, here's the twist: these teams are not confined to a single location; they're scattered across the globe. Now, imagine the complexity of collaborating remotely while juggling terabytes upon terabytes of data.
Netflix
Los Angeles
Editorial
New York
Picture Finishing
London
Visual Effects
Mumbai
On-Set Location #2
Auckland
On-Set Location #1
Sao Paulo
Current Challenges
#1
Each show has a unique workflow, making standardization difficult.
A multi-camera show with visual effects such as Stranger Things vs Formula 1: Drive to Survive with an extensive amount of footage - vastly different workflows!
#2
Each process requires several users from Studio and Production.
Studio users are Netflix employees, while Production users can be freelancers or contractors.
Think about how many names there are in the end credits!
How do we approach this?
As external consultants with little familiarity of content hub, it was important for my team to gain a thorough understanding of users’ relationship with Netflix CH before diving deeper into the if it solves the problems of remote collaboration
This required a two-fold research approach - cultivating a deeper understanding of Content Hub, and evaluating the tool to uncover potential areas of friction
Netflix design team chat
Explore the tool
Interaction map
Understand workflow and Integration with external tools
Pain points
Analyzing interviews
Heuristic evaluation
Usability testing
Analyzing test results
Design recommendations
Context
Interviews
Analysis
Validation
Solutions
research
What was the Netflix team looking for?
Being an internal tool with no competitors or scope for monetization, the sole purpose was to provide value for its users - the superstar studio and production teams who bring every Netflix original to life
For this project, Netflix wanted to focus on the Workspaces section - we’ll dive into that a little later.
#1
Finding areas of improvement that can facilitate smoother workflows for Netflix employees, dive deeper into how they supplement current insufficiencies with external tools.
#2
Evidence of what people are doing in terms of storage and what people are doing to interact with files
#3
Understand if Content Hub is working as required for collaboration
#4
Be able to support additional needs or edge cases.
At this stage, it was imperative to put together everything we’d learned from both designers and actual users of Content Hub to get a better picture of touch points
This resulted in an map outlining how users interact with Content Hub, with a focus on the Workspaces section
With a better understanding of what Content Hub is built for, it was time to talk to people who spent several hours using the tool everyday - Studio and production teams.
With all of the background research so far, it would be easier to empathize with the user and probe into their responses. understanding what doesn't work helped inform the next steps in our research plan. In order to pinpoint where the users run into issues, we decided to conduct a targeted usability test
Usability Testing
Talking to people who used Content Hub daily for most of their tasks put into perspective the variety of ways in which the tool was being used.
Users don’t know if a file upload is complete
Uploading files shows a continuous throbber icon. There is no indication of how much is pending, leading to uncertainty and confusion
Recommendation
Adding progress bars or adding a message that upload is completed would help users know upload is finished.
Let’s dive into what we found
Talking to people who used Content Hub daily for most of their tasks put into perspective the variety of ways in which the tool was being used.
What works
Users trust Content Hub as a secure platform to share sensitive and copyrighted content
Users employ supplemental tools to get through shortcomings of Content hub, but wouldn’t want to move away from the tool since it is reliable
Onboarding tutorials and training materials are useful in understanding Content Hub
What doesn’t work
External tools are required to make up for the shortcomings of Content Hub, and this switching disrupts workflows
Difficulties with file access and permissions is frustrating and wastes time.
Managing files and folders can be messy and challenging.
Wrap-up
Towards the end of the project, I presented these recommendations to the Product Design team and studio partners regularly using Content Hub.
Takeaways and reflection
Working with the Netflix Design Team was an incredible experience. This project reinforced the importance of understanding user needs and showed me the impact of thoughtful design on building stronger partnerships.