Funn

Imagine that you have just been hired as a product designer for a new entertainment startup. Your goal is to help the startup build a mobile app that helps people plan their entertainment.

With the rise of entertainment platforms within the last decade, users have a lot of options to pick from. Often, users find themselves paying for too many platforms than they actually use. They also have a hard time deciding what choice of entertainment to go with.

Funn is a mobile application that helps users plan and organize their entertainment, while also reducing costs.

The Funn App starts with a brief display of its logo and slogan, then moves to three straightforward onboarding screens with options to swipe, click 'next', or 'skip'. This leads to a login page with easy options for existing users and a sign-up button for new ones, along with quick Google and Facebook sign-in alternatives.

Funn's onboarding includes personalizing entertainment choices and adding new categories via a 'plus' button. Users can manage subscriptions or skip this step. The app features a genre page with common selections and a 'view all' option, alongside a voice-enabled search bar for specific genres.

Funn's movie page features trending films and user-specific suggestions, with a dynamic 'suggested' section adapting to viewing patterns. A search function, complete with voice search, allows for browsing all available movies. The 'Explore' button broadens movie choices beyond usual genres. Movie cards show the associated streaming platform and movie ratings, aiding in subscription management decisions.

On the Music homepage of Funn, users find sections for recommended and trending songs, based on their selected genres. They can explore specific genres to discover new songs, playlists, or albums. A search function covers all music content within the app. An 'Explore' button extends music discovery beyond preferred categories.

I conducted qualitative research through user interviews over Zoom and Google Meet, interviewing 7 people in total. My aim was to find out:

• Why people want to be entertained in the first place
• What most people like to do on their phones when they are bored
• What factors make people decide the type of entertainment they want to go with
• What factors hinder them from achieving their goal after deciding
• What they would not want to see in an entertainment application
• If their current mode of navigating to entertainment can be improved

• We love entertainment because we always want to be in a good mood.
• Participants watch movies, listen to music, play games, go on social media, and listen to podcasts.
• Most participants are spontaneous regarding their choice of entertainment.
• Users hate having to pay for different platforms to achieve their aim.
• Most participants with a routine lifestyle would love to plan what to do ahead of time.
• The process of finding what exactly matches their mood is herculean.

The main problems were:

• The process of arriving at what to do is cumbersome.
• Users get frustrated because they don't get the best out of their money.

How might we help reduce the difficulties in arriving at a chosen entertainment by helping users organize their entertainment while reducing costs?

To organize entertainment:

• Integrate user's most used entertainment apps into one app.
• A power search button that lets you search through all available content.
• A schedule feature that lets you select what to do in advance.
• Freedom to alter app layout, arrangement, and themes.
• Powerful recommender system based on category selection and frequently played genres.

To cut down costs:

• Help users cancel and renew their subscriptions.
• Notify users of which subscription to cancel based on inactivity.
• Update users on any fee change.
• Update users on how they can get cheaper plans.

I created a survey to know whether users want an integrated entertainment app, and which apps they'd want integrated. Most responded that movies, music, games, and podcasts can be integrated, but they'd prefer to play games and use social media as they normally do.

Solution modification: Funn would primarily focus on integrating music, movies, and podcasts, with options to add other categories.

I also interviewed a senior software engineer at Netflix, who confirmed most entertainment platforms wouldn't give a third-party app direct access to their content.

Solution modification: Funn would be a search API that manages the different entertainment applications for the comfort of the user, with logo icons indicating which platform is being used.

Working on this project exposed me to the realities of solo designing. At the same time, it made me become super resourceful and increased my strength in the various aspects of research and design thinking.

• Conduct research on extra features I can add to make the application more Funn.
• Conduct more usability and multivariate testing with a wider audience on the onboarding category selection screens.
• Work on designing the other insights obtained from my research.

Thank you for reading.