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Netflix Just for Kids UI lands on Boxee Box & WD TV

Janko Roettgers — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 14:30:19 +0000

Netflix continued the roll-out of its Just for Kids UI to a number of connected devices this week, including the Boxee Box and WD TV Live players. The UI, which adds a separate section optimized for kids to the regular Netflix user interface, also was rolled out to newer models of Sharp and Vizio TVs as well as newer models of Panasonic and Sony Blu-ray players among other devices, according to a spokesperson. The company didn’t provide an exact list of all the devices affected by the update, so it might be worth to turn on your connected TV or Blu-ray player and just give it a try.

Upon launch, the app prompts viewers to either access the regular Netflix experience or Just for Kids. The kids section adds TV show characters as categories and allows children to find episodes of a show without relying on text. Check out a few snapshots of Just for Kids on the Boxee Box below:

As you can see, there are still some kinks to be worked out with the little text that actually does get displayed.

Netflix launched a kid-friendly UI as part of its website in August of 2011. It began bringing Just for Kids to connected devices late last year, beginning with the Wii and then quickly rolling it out on the PS3 and the Apple TV. “More will follow through the course of this year, including Xbox and iPad,” I was told via email by a company spokesperson.

Kids content is undeniably one of Netflix’s key strengths, and the company has been adding numerous kids TV shows from PBS, Nickelodeon and others to its catalog. In fact, Netflix has been so successful with the youngsters that some blame it for Nickelodeon’s recent double-digits ratings drop. Both Netflix and Nickelodeon corporate parent Viacom have maintained that the service isn’t at fault for fewer kids watching Nickelodeon, but Bernstein Research’s Todd Juenger recently presented some data that makes a good case for Netflix really taking over kids TV.

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Netflix tests new web UI for kids. First look

Janko Roettgers — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:30:16 +0000

Netflix has started to test a separate section for children’s content on its website with a UI that is optimized to be used by kids themselves. Select Netflix members have been getting a new tab labeled “Just For Kids” in the main menu of the Netflix website that takes them to the section, but the page has been inaccessible for others.

The first visible difference between the new kids section and you average genre page on Netflix.com is a horizontal scroll bar that displays various kids characters from Hello Kitty to Shaun the Sheep.

A click on one of those characters opens a new page that offers access to TV show episodes and movies starring that character. Each episode is previewed with a screenshot, and there is barely any text at all. Everything is optimized for instant playback of the episodes displayed.

We reported just two weeks ago that Netflix was looking to hire a Senior User Experience Designer for Kids & Family to make its site more kids-friendly. A job opening posted on the company’s website said at the time that potential candidates for that job should be able to “envision kids’ interfaces that are friendlier, simpler (and) more fun” as well as be “passionate about creating fun, easy-to-understand interfaces that communicate with kids on their level.”

It’s unclear whether the current kids page design will be rolled out to all Netflix members or whether it’s still part of a limited test. Netflix is famous for its A/B testing, a process that the company uses for almost every design decision. That means it’s entirely possible that there are other versions of kids pages being tested at this very moment.

We’ve asked Netflix about the scope of this feature and will update this article as soon as we get an answer.

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Netflix revamps website for more instant access

Janko Roettgers — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 21:05:24 +0000

Netflix relaunched its home page on Wednesday to put a bigger emphasis on its Watch Instantly online video offering. The site now features bigger cover art, and clicking on one of these pictures will directly play the associated video.

Previously, clicking on cover art led to the detail page with reviews and information about the movie. That page can now be accessed by clicking on the movie title in the info bubble that pops up when you mouse over the cover art.

Netflix Director of Product Management Michael Spiegelman said in a blog post that the goal of the redesign was to “make it easier for you to find something to watch instantly.” From his post:

“We’ve also made some changes to several pages on the site: adding more rows, and filling out the rows with more TV shows & movies, which you can find by hovering your mouse over the end of a row.”

However, it looks like not everyone agrees with the direction the company took for the relaunch. Most of the comments on the post are candidly negative, with one user musing that iPad-centered design decisions may have been to blame for some of the issues:

“It’s quite dazzling how much I hate the new look and feel of the Netflix site. It might be a great idea for people on tablets or PS3s or dealing with remote controls for input, but for those of us who have keyboards and mice (or trackpads), you’ve just made navigating the site considerably slower.”

What’s your take on the Netflix.com redesign? Let us know in the comments!

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For Hipmunk, it’s all about the users– and the UI

Colleen Taylor — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 13:14:03 +0000

Online travel search has been one of the tech industry’s most crowded and cutthroat spaces since the launch of Expedia some 15 years ago. But the stiff competition didn’t stop Adam Goldstein, the CEO of San Francisco-based travel website startup Hipmunk, from throwing his hat in the ring.

So far, the bold move has paid off. Hipmunk has become a popular online destination for a devoted and growing base of users. The company has secured $5.2 million in venture capital from an impressive list of investors including Ignition Partners, Ron Conway, Paul Bucheit, and even Silicon Valley’s favorite Hollywood gate-crasher Ashton Kutcher.

A defining feature of Hipmunk is its user interface (UI) and the way it ranks search results based on a variety of factors such as price, layovers and overall travel time– a method meant to minimize a traveler’s overall “agony,” the company says. Most existing sites prioritize low prices above all else when it comes to ranking flight search results.

Hipmunk has been so successful in part because it’s so young, Adam Goldstein told me in a recent interview. According to him, Hipmunk’s UI is optimized for how users want to behave today, rather than for the technology limitations of the past. “The way that most existing sites sort travel information is easier from a technical standpoint. They’ve been doing it that way for 15 years,” he said. “It wouldn’t have been possible to build Hipmunk 15 years ago.” The website itself is written in Python, and its back end is built on Tornado, the open-source framework built by FriendFeed. Hipmunk’s super slick front end is comprised of “boatloads of Javascript,” Goldstein told me with some pride. “It’s kind of impressive that we pulled this off without any Flash.”

Indeed, it’s very clear that Hipmunk’s technical credibility is Goldstein’s top priority– which makes sense, considering the source. He began his own technical career early, authoring two books for O’Reilly while still in high school. He went on to launch a startup called BookTour while earning dual engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Talking to Goldstein in person, it became clear to me why top-tier investors have taken bets on his company, even with its long-shot entry into a very competitive space. He represents what many investors have described to me as their holy grail– a highly technical engineer with product sense and good people skills. An added bonus is how he carries his capabilities in an approachable way, without the type of hubris often exhibited by talented business people and good engineers.

Those qualities, and the fact that Hipmunk had achieved profitability before taking on its first venture capital round, have enabled Goldstein to be choosy about who he partners with, and how Hipmunk grows. The company has only 10 employees, and has no plans to scale its staff up in any major way in the months ahead. Most of the $4.2 million in funding the company took on in January of year will stay in the bank for a while, he says. The company is no longer operating profitably, but Goldstein told me he’s fully confident that Hipmunk will be able to regain cash-positive operations without putting UI-interfering ads on the site. Currently, the company’s main source of revenue is collecting a commission on each flight or hotel booking it facilitates.

That’s an honorable strategy, but it’s not exactly unique. Other startups, such as Twitter and Facebook, began with zero-ad ambitions, only to change their tunes in response to growing investor pressure. Goldstein told me he’s aware of the paths of his predecessors, but he is determined to stay his own course.

“We’ve said very clearly to our investors that we don’t want to just flip this company around [in a sale to a larger company],” Goldstein said. “We want to do this in a way that respects our customers. That’s how we keep them.” Hipmunk has a lot of fans hoping that the company’s initial vision will continue to bear out. But as evidenced by many of Hipmunk’s travel site forebears, no one ever said it would be easy.

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