Giloo

From the perspective of a product designer, we need to explore innovative design solutions to meet this challenge. This may include enhanced video tours, interactive infographics, supplementary background information, and in-depth topic discussions. Our goal is to enable the audience to quickly and comprehensively understand the issues discussed in the video within a limited time through the design of user interfaces and interactive experiences, thereby enhancing their viewing experience and knowledge absorption.

Take aways

To break through the dullness of documentaries, we look for ways to reduce the barriers to understanding the film and event background through the design thinking process. The content layout will also chronologically present the development of events, adding annotations to highlight important turning points. Additionally, after the film, extended readings will be provided for interested audiences to continue exploring. As a result, the launch of glossary has been well-received. Furthermore, based on user feedback after the launch, we plan to implement a marker feature in the film, allowing viewers to record their current emotions and participate in discussions. The design of information architecture is one of the key challenges for the product, considering that each discussion topic of the documentary is different, so the tools will also be different. Therefore, we will break down each piece of information into the smallest unit of data and combine them in different films. Through these design considerations, Giloo hopes to immerse the audience in the thoughtful world presented in the documentary in a relaxed atmosphere. On a personal challenge note, this is the first practical experience in app design, and there is a different understanding of dual-system guidelines and thoughts on how to achieve balance in differences.

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Product Research, Brainstorming, and Design

Part 1 : Feature exploring

Always Asking!

What is the difference between documentaries and fiction films?

In our lives, we have all seen at least one movie. Whether based on a true story or fictional, the main purpose is to resonate with the thoughts the screenwriter and director want to express to the audience, just like admiring a painting. However, documentaries tend to focus on events that occur in reality, including the stories behind the characters, the social environment, and the causes of these events, just like news reports, informing us that an event has occurred in the past, providing the audience with informational content.

In other words, the main difference between documentaries and fiction films lies in their purpose: documentaries aim to provide knowledge and stimulate discussion, while fiction films aim to entertain the audience and convey a message. That's why our reactions and feelings when watching these two types of movies may be different. These two different narrative approaches may lead to differences in audience behavior, prompting us to consider the need to differentiate the product.

We analyze the differences between documentary websites and documentary film festival websites:

1. MVP validation: There is indeed a market for documentaries, however, due to the differences in film types, there is a lack of post-viewing discussion and systematic tracking of follow-up information, making it difficult for the public to have more participation in the event itself after viewing, which is a pity.

2. Competitive analysis: We have separately analyzed documentary festivals, major documentary film websites, and existing streaming platforms such as: Nefilx and Prime Video.

   1. Film Festival

      • Online library of documentary films

   2. Documentary website

      • Easy to track reports

   3. Existing streaming platforms

      • Can easily select documentaries or movies to watch, no need for single film rental or search for other sources

Part 2: Metadata Define

Former Facebook VP of Product design Julie Zhuo:

• Craft & Execution - sharpening the basics of design, mastering the tools, getting better at designing clear and visually aesthetic interfaces.

• Product thinking - Strong product thinking means that you understand what a good outcome is and how to design an experience that would lead to those good outcomes.

• Influencing skills - clear communication, effective collaboration.

Product goal:

• Story Value + Social Engaging = The big data of documentary for whom is digging into the social events

After the first exploration step, we found that in fact, after watching the film, we often have many thoughts, such as discussing the plot, emotional connections to the film, curiosity about the information and historical background of the film, and wanting to know what others think about the film. From this behavior, Giloo can unearth the value of all films. By interacting with videos and related information on Giloo, we aim to create a centralized history documentary collection about world events for heavy documentary viewers. Simply put, you can imagine Facebook starting to play licensed documentaries and becoming an online film library with a time relationship. That is Giloo's goal.

Why SVOD, not TVOD, AVOD or a mix? How should we respond to the transition from TVOD to SVOD from a product perspective?

With the increase in the number of films and consideration of business goals, we transitioned from the TVOD to SVOD business model. TVOD is suitable for users interested in specific content and willing to pay, while SVOD is suitable for users who frequently watch and seek diverse content. SVOD matches our business goal: to increase the stickiness from the niche market and maximize it.

Membership

Membership uses a grading mechanism, with 4 grades, and is also segmented for marketing:

Artists, chroniclers, researchers, civilian artists are obtained by related workers of documentary films, and they can discuss topics with viewers in the pre-production and follow-up tracking reports. Chroniclers are the most sticky members: they can rate and comment, and this level also requires breadth and depth. Those who obtain this badge will be recalculated every three months. Researchers are particularly concerned about specific issues—willing to rate and help leave follow-up tracking information. Those who obtain this badge will be recalculated every three months. Civilians are common members who often dive, may post 1 to 2 times a month or not at all, and watch movies and leave the platform. It is a group with lower stickiness.

The association between the smallest unit of information architecture and SVOD?

As mentioned above, maximizing the value of the niche market through the SVOD model, this value proposition is that we expect to obtain more content of documentary films through monthly subscriptions and save members' time in finding resources, so that discussions and entry into topics can be 'simplified', and members can obtain exclusive value through different activities and functions. These values will be mentioned in parts three and four.

Part 3: Social Engage functions

Community discussions take various forms, but the challenge is how to effectively increase the fermentation of topics and increase stickiness.

1. Community UCG

   • Timeline discussions: open audience to report real events, multimedia reviews, etc.

   • Q&A interaction

   • Community member rewards

2. Platform

   • Background information explanation

   • Background information tracking

     • Articles

     • Data

   • Theme exploration

Part 4: Watching experience enhance features

1. Stage 1 Supplementary background information

   • Glossary: As mentioned in Part 2, the curiosity of viewers about information and historical background of the film drives users to search for related information, however, such behavior may also easily disrupt the viewing experience. Therefore, we provide the function to view supplementary information in the film to help viewers quickly understand background information.

   • Background information report articles: Invite film critics to write reviews of documentary films, introducing and explaining events, reducing the audience's entry threshold for the documentary events. The sharing function can also increase the stickiness of members.

2. Stage 2 Main Body Integration

   • Topic Collection: Bring together various themes to form play lists, just like the function that combines Youtube mix and Netfilx series, making it easier to find similar themes.

3. Stage 3 Member comments

   • Members can leave their thoughts on the film after watching it, and can discuss related issues with other viewers. Directing and film critics can also participate in the discussion to increase the value of the members.

   • Stage 3.1 Member comment reward-driven mechanism similar to Google Maps' member reward mechanism

4. Key take ways: The definition of high stickiness and how to calculate the badge is the most important and difficult key in member reward drive.

   • Stage 4 Film curator online

   • Stage 5 Online Q&A interactiveThe Q&A activities were previously offline events. In our digital society, we have been considering what the digital form of Q&A would be like? What will digital Q&A be like for the visual representation of film viewing?

   • Stage 6 Event tracking data information when data is digitized, data analysis accuracy increases. From our experience on Twitter, we have all seen in the trending section, the number of posts for the current Trending event, making the discussion of the event in the community more meaningful.

Workflow

Research

As mentioned in the first part of the research, we have studied the documentary media websites on the market, several noteworthy phenomena:

1. Timely reporting: Particularly significant in documentary media websites, such as Vox, The Intercept

2. Use of the video player: In mainstream streaming platforms, except for Amazon Prime, the injection of background-related information into playing sequences is rarely used

3. Theme-based film collections: The concept of online curation—increasingly more streaming platforms are using this method to combine films on related themes

4. Community discussion: Dispersed across various community platforms, making it difficult for viewers to focus on discussions, and exposure is also affected by algorithms, making it easy for only a homogenous audience to see

Design

Design continues the concept of the product in the first part and incorporates feasible directions discovered during the study:

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