As Netflix's 1st-ever UX Intern

Discover games from browsing on TV, screensaver ads, and social features.

My Role

Product Design Intern

My Scope

1. Cross-promo Screensavers on TV
2. MVP Recommendations
3. Games on TV

The Team

Emerging Content Experiences, Netflix Games!

Impact

- Lifted adoption metics by XX million
- Designs informing future products

Netflix's first-ever Product Design Intern

Background1. Awareness2. Social3. Games on TV
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My Role:

Support multiple projects across Netflix Games

In Summer 2023, not only was I able to shape the internship program as their inaugural Product Design intern, I brought my fresh perspective, curiosity, and enthusiasm to pivotal 0-1 conversations and features, wireframing, prototypes, and interaction designs.
Project 1: Marketing

How do we inform users that games exist?

Users lacked awareness that Netflix Games exist and that they can find them in the Mobile App.
My solution & thinking:

Data-driven TV screensavers ads create a positive perception of games and inform users where to find them.

Show a variety of games in case one is familiar and catches a member's interest to play a game.
If we advertise games in mobile formats, members would realize that they can play them on phones.
I collaborated closely with content design to iteratively design using visual hierarchy, grouping, and results from A/B tests + dog fooding.

In initial A/B tests results, my design was
proven to successfully lift metrics, generating:

$XX million in revenue.

(Due to NDA I am not able disclose specific values)

Dog fooding results

I believe that the reason why my designs were so successful (green across all A/B tests) was because I took the extra initiative to do a cognitive walk-though my explorations with internal employees to iterative refine. I showed each variant to different participants for 15 seconds and then inquired:

Final Design

What did I learn?

Design for learning goals and it's operational variables

While designing for A/B testing at Netflix and collaborating with subject matter experts, I was able to gain so much visibility into what drives their recommendation system - and it is all about exploration and experimentation. I've gained so many learnings on how to design with (and for!) data. My three months at Netflix had me diving deep into terms like test cells, isolating variables, and inputs & outputs.
Project 2: Social

What could social features look like?

Playing with friends is core to the gaming experience but during Summer 2023, the Netflix mobile games did not have any social features. Users could not add a friend, play with a friend, or interact with other users. I collaborated with another designer to research how existing services design social features.

As a non-gamer, I brought a fresh perspective because I analyzed a broad range of platforms from content apps with social features (Spotify, Duolingo) to gamer heavy ones like (Steam and Playstation). Examples of my design recommendations and insights are below and these slides were used in cross-functional conversations to lay the foundations for social features.

What did I learn?

Approach With Sensitivity, Trust, and Safety In Mind

From this internship, I've gained a layer of thinking systematically to tackle adding new features or creating innovation at a legacy company with millions of users. I learned to identify things seemingly small (ex. playing with friends) can be much more complex than they appear.
Project 3: Games on TV

What could lots of games on TV look and feel like?

Netflix is expanding their library of games on TV and would need to visualize what more games on TV would look like. I collaborated with a designer, UX researcher, and Design Technologist to design future concepts and visual components that touched every aspect of the games strategy. I designed my explorations based on my research questions:
Salience
What's most important to a member when they decide to play a game?
Social Proof
How does the behaviors/presence of others influence the selection of a game?
Accomplishment
What motivates someone to play a game? How does those needs influence the selection of a game?
What did I learn?

Talk to Everyone to Navigate Ambiguity

With so many moving parts and unknowns at Netflix, I learned how to pivot quickly with a new lens based on changing alignments and build a supportive network to learn from by reaching out and talking to teams I don't work directly with.
Thank You

I want to take a moment to extend my gratitude to my stunning colleagues and the entire XD team for making my summer as an intern truly cinematic:

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