Netflix patterns and user flows
It has been about10 years since Netflix changed the way people watch tv shows and movies forever. Through an exceptional system of user flows, it accommodates people who just want to binge-watch a few tv shows to more users who go on the website looking to find rare and specific films. Since there are so many titles to watch, and many types of users, Netflix has a combination of a navigation bar on the top right, that will display the main categories of the website, pictured below.
All of these categories will take the user to another screen, with broken-down sections in horizontal rows. If the user prefers to be more specific and navigate within those categories, all they have to click on is on the “Genres” dropdown menu, which will list all sections of their Tv Shows or Movies.
However, since many users (including me) are expecting Netflix to tell them what to watch next, it also has different categories, such as new and most popular in a carrousel pattern, under a with the title and below of it, images that will expand into video of trailers and a short synopsis when the user hovers their mouse over it.
This carousel pattern, however, can be confusing for some users, who prefer a grid that will show all titles on the same screen without the horizontal scrolling pattern, there is an option for the user to change this at the top of the screen before they start scrolling down, next to “suggestions for you”
Another take on their navigation patterns, and this is something hard to find in some big established competitors, such as Disney+, is that, once you click on any show, you have the ability to choose the season, and an episode within that season, if that is what you re looking for. You can do this by clicking on a form of three squares that resemble a small collection of images, and it will provide a trailer video and a brief description of the film.
Netflix has gained the position in the industry, by studying the way their users behave and implementing different flows and patterns for different types of navigation of their users.
