The movie business has up until now, weathered the internet onslaught fairly well. With a few hiccups, the industry has moved through VHS, DVDs and now into movie downloads with most of their structures intact.
Let’s mess with it.
I grew up with movies, worked as a projectionist and got a film studies minor. I’ve seen a TON of movies and like most people, I can tell in a matter of seconds whether I’m interested in a movie or not. Even more than that, I can gauge how much hassle I’ll put up with to see a movie. On occasion, I’ll be undecided on a film and will look to a critic’s recommendation and when I do, I’m usually satisfied with the “4 stars” or “B+” rating. On very rare occasion, I’ll actually read a review of movies and that will decide if I want to see it.
So why isn’t there an app that matches that process?
The other major problem with movies in the many formats in which we can consume them is that this is where the process ends unless someone or something reminds me a movie is premiering or on cable or something. I see a preview, decide I want to see it, and never hear of the film again, often until it has left theaters.
Really, there should be an app that keeps these ratings of movies and reminds me when the movie is available in the format I have chosen.
So let’s build an app that matches the process of rating movies based on how we want to see them and then reminds us when they are available in that format.
Here’s my decision making process in micro format:
1) Discover film is coming up
2) See synopsis of plot, see who is in it, if enough info, go to #6
if not:
3) Watch preview. If enough info, go to #6
if not:
4) See the critic rating. If enough info, go to #6
if not:
5) Read review from favorite reviewer in order to
6) Decide how much money/time/effort I will invest to see a movie.
Once we figure out the process, the UI is fairly easy, but I’m going to add one wrinkle – because I have an inherent bias against abstract number/star/grading systems. The problem I have with them is that they present information in a format that I, as an interpreter, have to assess in order to take action. Why not build that assessment into the interface as a preference?
Rather than rating movies based on a scale of zero to five, I’m going rate movies base on how much time/money/effort I am willing to undertake in order to see it.
0= Actively Avoid
* = See on Broadcast
**= See on Pay Cable
***= See on Netflix/Amazon/iTunes
****= See in Movie Theater
***** = See in Movie Theater on Opening Day
The normal interface convention says that the user will be presented a way of rating movies in a series of stars (the key of the key-value pair), which is fine if the intent of the rating is public consumption, since the meaning of each star rating is personal. But if I assume the use is entirely personal, I believe that the value (See on Broadcast, See on Pay Cable, etc) is the pertinent information.
The Basic Interface is a list of movies that are known to be premiering soon.
Note this is the ‘speed’ version of the interface. It allows the user to quickly rate a film as worthwhile or “Meh.” (not interested). Yes, “Meh” is a bit of fun, and in a real app the label would be something like “Delete”.
If the user has more time to invest, there is a Play All Previews button, the interface of which (not shown) would mirror the experience in the theaters when you watch 10 or more previews. The difference is that there would be a control to let the user rate the film based on his/her level of interest.
Swiping a movie to the left reveals the “delete” button.
A tap on the “Meh” button will remove a movie from the user’s queue permanently.
A tap on a movie title or a swipe to the right will reveal the preview screen.
The preview screen allows the user to read the synopsis and watch the official preview (if available).
Swiping to the right on the synopsis will bring up a screen of critic reviews. Those reviews, in turn, will be linked to the full reviews which will be read in the user’s default browser.
A swipe left will return the user to the upcoming movie list.
Finally, the user will use a selector to decide whether and how they will see the movie.
What happens after the user has rated a movie? That would be up to a preferences screen (that I won’t bother drawing). I imagine it would use the mobile device’s alert system so that when a movie premiers, the user will be notified and sent to a ticket buying app (Fandango is my favorite). If the movie was rated as ‘See on Netflix‘ the user will be notified when it is available on that service. Finally, using a TiVo or similar service, the user will be notified if/when the movie will be shown on broadcast.
This is a sketch. A complete app writeup would include a preferences pane, a list of related apps, and most importantly, a way of making money.
Making Money with this App
I foresee two different ways of making money on this app. The most basic is to use Amazon and other companies referral system, so that when someone buys a movie from this app, the author would get credit. Sure it is only a few pennies per movie, but that could easily add up.
Secondly, I imagine the studios and the chain movie theaters would KILL for the aggregate ratings of each movie before they premier IF enough people use the app to give a reliable idea how well the movie will do and how much money the movie will eventually return (keep in mind even “Watch on Broadcast” is important information).
UX UNbound 