Smart Binge (iPhone app)
This app will be designed to keep track of films and television shows that the users watch in an organized diary, while allowing them to engage with other users by following them and leaving comments on their diary entries.
“Binge watching” has become the most prevalent way of talking about watching television shows. Binge watching involves tearing through a whole series, and then moving on when you burn out on it. With the amount of television series coming out from streaming services like Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu, to only name a few, we don’t really take the time to reflect on the shows we watch, and all of their strengths and weaknesses. With the high production quality put into television nowadays, it’s a shame to just eat up the content as quickly as possible and then forget about it weeks later. This app is meant to help people keep track of and remember the media they’ve consumed, which is an engineering problem.
User Personas:
Tina, age 23: Tina watches Netflix religiously and binge watches television shows. She needs a social media app to talk about the shows she’s watching because she doesn’t want to overload her Facebook feed with television posts. She also wants a comprehensive to-watch list that can include all the streaming services she uses.
Liz, age 30: Liz is an avid movie watcher. She likes contemporary film and also loves to dive into the classics on occasion. She’s decided to start keeping track of how many movies she watches every year, but she’s tired of keeping track of them in a google doc. She also watches a few TV shows, if they have quality production standards and are highly recommended. When she finishes a TV season or series, she likes to review it as a whole as she would with films. She’s familiar with most social media and likes to keep her content organized.
Bill, age 45: Bill loves film and television and has watched a lot of both in his life. He wants to go back and revisit and review his old favorites, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek: The Next Generation. He doesn’t use social media that often, but he likes to read different opinions (and let’s be honest, argue with other people) when it comes to media.
This app will address the user persona’s needs and problems with a review/diary system that keeps track of every film and television show they enter, and the day they watched it. There will also be a diary option for miscellaneous media blog posts. Entries will be categorized as TV, Movies, and Misc. The TV entries will have a little old fashioned television icon next to them, film entries will have a little film reel icon next to them, and the miscellaneous entries will have a little pen or pencil next to them. There will be a filter option in the diary screen to narrow them down and only show one category at a time. Each user will also have a watchlist for the film and television they plan to watch. A social media component will exist to keep the users connected, and they’ll be able to follow different users and comment on reviews/posts. The social media component will satisfy Tina and Bill’s needs in that they can connect to other fans or have discussions/arguments with other users. The log/review system will satisfy Liz’s needs with keeping track of the movies and occasional TV shows she watches.
Site Map
When you open the app it will take you to a create account page. After setting up an account it will take you to set up your profile, including adding your favorite TV shows and/or movies to your profile. After your profile picture, one line bio, and favorites are added, you can browse through popular television shows and movies, find other users to follow, and start adding your diary entries. When you go to add a diary entry it will ask you if you want to review a TV show, a movie, or make a misc. post. You can also select TV shows and movies and add your review to it as well as a star rating. An activity button will be on the lower navigation page to keep track of when someone comments or likes one of your entries.
Wireframes (click to enlarge) (sorry about my childish handwriting)
April 15, 2017 at 9:51 pm
Hey Lindy,
I think an like this is super timely. We consume a lot of media and it’s nice to have an easy way to document and reflect. Based on your last persona, someone who is less of a social media user, would there be the option to make accounts public or private? I would imagine some people love the idea of connecting with others while some users want to maintain this logging for themselves. Also, with the limited time that many people have, I was wondering if there would be any quick logging tools or rating systems within the diary in addition to your star ratings? There’s a beer logging app that suggests some adjectives to choose from, for example. Would there be any overall lists that users contribute to like their top 5 TV shows of 2017 or top 10 docs of the month…any sort of summary? Or perhaps, based on ratings, the app could make some summaries and conclusions for you and contribute those to a profile. I like the idea of following others and getting inspired by their daily media digest. Is there some sort of “newsfeed” page that users are greeted with, listing the activity of their app-peers? I think there are a lot of options here and it would be to play with the social as well as the analysis-related componetens of your app!
April 22, 2017 at 4:46 am
Jackie, thank you so much for your feedback! I’m sorry I’ve taken so long to respond to it. I like your suggestion for public/private posts and I will definitely include that in the app. Also, I decided to make the “activity” tab a general sort of newsfeed of your friends’ posts and watching activity, to give it the newsfeed feel. As far as the quick logging goes, I would also make it so people could give it a star rating without having to write a review. It’s crazy the more I think about it the more things could be included in this app!