After hearing the prompt, my teammates and I sought out to interview teenagers and young adults about their Netflix and movie-watching experiences. We found that many people watch movies and TV shows with their friends and family, and even though they can watch things with their friends via Netflix Party (a Google Chrome extension for watching Netflix remotely with others), they miss having the face-to-face interaction that they had before COVID-19. In addition, more people chose content to watch based on reviews from other people, especially their friends, rather than by scrolling through the recommended list provided by Netflix. Finally, we found that people do like to converse with their loved ones during and after watching something together. They mostly do so to clarify any confusion they may have had and to talk about their favorite scenes/characters.
From this, we decided to create a website that allows users to video call while watching with others to keep the face-to-face interaction. Users could have a profile that shows off their favorite films and TV shows, and other users can get recommendations based on that. Finally, individuals could join a discussion thread for the show or movie on the website, where they can talk to strangers about specific elements of what they just watched/
After deciding on an overall idea, we spent the rest of the night making wireframes! Examples of our wireframes are shown below.
Starting a watch party with friends
Posting to a discussion page after watching
Here are the main features of the project!
- Starting a watch party with friends, or joining a watch party hosted by a member of the community
- Adding to the discussion about the movie or TV show - sharing your opinions about the characters with others, or talking about specific themes present in the content
- Posting a review about what you just watched
- Adding favorite movies to your profile, and discovering more friends!
