thesis case study

Synopsis

The idea to create one platform for all OTT services came about from a basic and recurring observation I had during conversation among peers. “Hey, guess what? Last weekend I watched The Game of Thrones, on Hotsar and streamed it through my Fire TV Stick.”

Mentioning the service is not ridiculous. As over abundance of content has created a world in which it has become almost impossible to sort through the chaos and clutter to find shows you actually want to watch. We need to be directed precisely in order to access the content that is being talked about. “What should I watch tonight?” has become one of the most intimidating question, as we often find ourselves hopping and browsing from one OTT platform to the other.

With this one app we can have the freedom to watch everything (all subscription plans) under one roof without having to leave the space. Though the advent of streaming movies has given the user a lot of advantages over the traditional cable, but it also has comes with its own set of challenges. This thesis project is an attempt to tap into those problem, solve for making the lives of users easier and try to some bring order to the world of streaming.

Overview

Introduction

Whistling Woods International

Whistling Woods International is a film, communication and creative arts institute located in Mumbai, India. The institute is promoted by the Indian Filmmaker Subhash Ghai, Mukta Arts and Film City Mumbai. In July 2014, The Hollywood Reporter named Whistling Woods International on its list of “The best film schools in the world”. The school was first ranked among the top 10 film schools by The Hollywood Reporter in 2010. Programmes offered at Whistling Woods International vary in duration from 1 year to 4 years. All the major specializations of the Media, Communication & Creative industry are catered to in the seven schools housed at Whistling Woods International, namely, School of Film-making, Actors’ Studio, School of Animation, School of Design, School of Fashion, School of Media & Communication and School of Music. Whistling Woods International has partnered with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to ratify its three and four year courses with BSc, BA & BBA degrees, and Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas and Post Graduate Diplomas.

Visual Communication Design at Whistling Woods International

The objective of the 3-year, 6-semester course is to nurture and create quality visual communication design professionals, to meet the rapidly growing, complex communication design needs, nationally and globally. The programme emphasises on students undergoing core design foundation inputs in the first year, followed by intensive project based semesters that culminate in a major design project in

semester six. The integrated programme allows students to choose electives in the areas of Motion, Interaction Design and Spatial/Environmental Design. Inputs in Professional Practices, Design Research and Design Strategies + Management, also go towards making the students industry ready. The final year of the programme offers more advanced inputs. Founded on an ethos of Learning by Doing, students are expected to be hands on, minds on, while engaging proactively and productively with all individual and group learning activities. Frequent workshops and Masterclasses by professional visual communication designers round out the learning.

Whistling Woods International has partnered with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences to ratify its three and four year courses with BSc, BA & BBA degrees, and Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas and Post Graduate Diplomas.

Have you ever wondered about those people who have their laptops open at cafe’s? Are they really working or just pretending to work? I’m one of those people and I can say for myself that I’m really working. This began a few years back when I transitioned from being a dental student to a copyrighter in a small firm in Gurgaon, figuring out what to do with life.

I’m a social butterfly, analytical thinker, an avid book reader and tech enthusiast. I appreciate great ideas, stories and art. I doodle and sketch as well. To this day I’ve combined my superpowers and charted a course to become a designer who can make a difference. Kind of felt like a calling! I strive daily to enhance my soft and technical skill-sets to better able myself to present ideas running through my head, hoping one of them will help contribute something of value to the world. All this doesn’t happen by itself. Hence, the hard work at cafes!

About me

Thesis proposal

One app to stream all OTT media

A modern media center that’s a one-stop solution for all video entertainment. We often find ourselves hopping and browsing from one OTT platform to the other. With this one app we can have the freedom to watch everything (all subscription plans) under one roof without having to leave the space.

Timeline

Phase 1

6 weeks

Research
Analysis

Phase 2

6 weeks

Conceptualizations
Structuring

Phase 3

5 weeks

Visualization
Final Design

Phase 4

1 Week

Documentation

Research

Framing the design challenge

A design challenge articulates the problem you are trying to solve, and helps you define a scope that is neither too narrow nor too broad. It guides through a series of steps to get the right frame on the challenge and get started on the right foot.

What is the problem you’re trying to solve?

A modern media center that’s one stop solution for all video entertainment. We often find ourselves hopping and browsing from one OTT platform to the other. With this one app/webpage the user can have the leisure to watch everything under one roof without having to leave the space.

Take a stab at framing it as a design question.

How might we declutter/organize the media spread across various OTT platforms.

Now state the ultimate impact you’re trying to have.

Enhance the media consumption experience.

What are some possible outcomes to your problem?

Common search engine and streaming service (webpage/app).
Bundled OTT subscriptions plans and platform for the same

Finally, write down some of the context and constraints you’re facing.

Time constraint, developmental limitations, lack of legal knowledge, tight budget

Does your original question need tweak? Try it again.

How might we build an app/webpage that gives the user access to all the media spread across different OTT platforms and subscription plans.

Secondary/desk research

Secondary research or desk research is a research method that involves using already existing data. Existing data is summarized and collated to increase the overall effectiveness of research.

What is OTT?

OTT stands for “over-the-top” and refers to the productized practice of streaming content to customers directly over the web.
OTT Users – “cord cutters”
OTT Services – Video, Audio, VOIP, Messaging

Devices

Smart TV – Apple TV, Fire Tv Stick
Gaming Consoles – PS4, Xbox, Wii
Smartphone/Tablets
Laptops/Desktops

Why the shift from traditional cable TV to OTT?

•High-value content at low cost
•Original content
•Compatibility with multiple devices
•Play and pause convenience
•Supports binge culture

OTT media categories

OTT video users - watch video via any app or website (unicast)
Linear OTT users - service that delivers live TV channel bundles over the internet
IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) users - TV sets connected to the internet through built-in internet connectivity

Revenue Models

AdVOD – Ad based
SVOD – subscription based
TVOD – say-per-content
Hybrid – Ad based free version, pay for premium content

Top OTT players

Indian Media Landscape - key insights

Opportunities and trends

•“Cutting the cord”
•Educational content
•Hybrid monetization
•Mobile is surpassing TV
•Bundling of content (Fibre Plans, Airtel)
•Live TV services bundled with SVOD streaming services (Hotstar)
•SVOD platforms will form partnerships for subscription products (Amazon)
•Media aggregators will be buried from mainstream consciousness (candy bar analogy)

Challenges

Increased competition- Content Fragmentation
Subscription fatigue
Overabundance of content
Content discovery is the biggest pain point
OTT market is getting saturated

Primary research

The area of interest of learnings from the user includes:

OTT awareness
Content consumption behavior
Content selection criteria
Search process
Browsing process
Spending behavior

In order to achieve this I conducted an online survey and took a set of long interviews. Survey Planet, an online tool was used for taking the survey and long interviews were taken over video calls and with permission the conversations were recored for revisiting at a later stage in the project.

Survey results (88 respondents)

Long interviews (6 participants)

Questions

What is your name? Age? Sex? Profession?
What do you understand by the term OTT?
What streaming services do you use on a daily basis and which are the occasional ones? Why? How? When? And Where?
What sort of content you consume on these platforms? sports/educational/movies/series/news? (including Lynda/ Udemy)
How many paid subscriptions do you have? What made you select them?
What is your favourite setting to watch a movie? (alone/friends)
Anything that dips your viewing experience? (tech/ human)
How and where do your search for titles?
When unsure, where and how do you browse for content?
Most frustrating part about OTT platforms? What would you change?
Views on cord-cutting?

Participant 1

Participant 2

Participant 6

Participant 1

1/6

Analysis

Mind map

Task analysis

Before performing the Task Analysis I created different personas based on how each persona might take a different route to achieve, what are the trigger and required knowledge to achieve the same goal.

Redefining the Problem

On the basis of analysis I understood that consolidation is inevitable in the future of OTT industry, but this will yet not solve the problem of overabundance.
What we gather from the analysis as well is that viewers are looking for more guidance from fellow humans with a pinch of AI and not the other way around.
From the task analysis I understood that if funnel down to solving for the problems of the Explorer and Curators the solution might have a domino effect for the rest of personas. Since the process undertaken by them to achieve the goal encompasses the subtasks of the rest as well, in one way or the other.

How might we create a consolidated OTT app to stream original, regional and exclusive shows from across platforms based on user recommendations while overriding multiple subscriptions and app hopping?

Conceptualization

Defining the user

Existing Persona

Our target audience is the youth and young adults who have already cut the cord and made the shift and are looking for the solutions to the challenges it poses. The existing persona will be among the first wave of app downloders as they are already looking for the solutions that we are trying to provide, with the proposed application.

Aspirational Persona
In the second wave of downloads we expect to have the one’s who are lured into the simplicity of the OTT experience and would skip through the painpoints that they already have foreseen and were avoiding since the get go. We expect the early adopters to set base for this persona.

Feature priotisation

Identifying the MVP - as each feature adds up to the cost of development, we need to identify the most important features that will get the product in the market and set it apart from the rest of the competition. At a later stage we can always keep iterating and adding more features to the product. The features highlighted in bold text in the above list are the final features decide to go ahead with for this application.

Search for titles from across the internet
Create App Bundles
User Based Recommendations
Additional Categories based on human behavior for exploring content
Watch Together
Voice Search
Movie Matchmaker
Movie Reactions
Account Sharing

Structuring

Information Architecture

Based on the user flow observed and referencing other OTT application I came up with the information architecture as a point of reference for wireframing the application. The flow of the user as shown in the next page will undergo changes and get adjusted accordingly as more research and information come to light during the wireframing stage.