Research Specific Cases

As part of a group pilot study, I worked with my team to investigate the usability of Netflix’s Autoplay Feature. The idea being that autoplay has the potential to distract users from their browsing experience and lead to frustration in their decision making. This followed a between-subjects design comparing the results of 2 groups of 3 participants; one with autoplay enabled and the other with it disabled.

Methodology:

• Identify Gulf’s of Execution and Evaluation

• Map Emotional Experience Gulf from Intended to Actual on Circumplex Model

• Global Measures of Congnitive Load and Distraction

Methods and Measures:

• Pre-test Likert establishing baseline perceptions

• A Post-Test Survey with qualitative feedback and an adapted NASA-TLX items to measure mental demand, effort, and temporal frustration (with the addition of decision confidence).

• Eye-tracking to measure gaze scatter and blink rate, which can indicate distraction or cognitive load.

• Observations to validate the finidings from the physiological measures.

Results:

• Eye tracking indicated significantly increased blink rate and gaze scatter for the group with autoplay enabled. The participants frequently switched their gaze from the preview and the description. This indicated increased distraction and congnitive load.

• Participants exposed to autoplay reported higher agreement, in the survey, with statements related to mental demand, distraction, and loss of control. This was futher backed through thematic analysis of qualitative feedback given.

Takeaway

The pilot study showed that Netflix’s autoplay previews, designed to make browsing smoother, actually caused more distraction, cognitive load, and frustration. This highlights the importance of user control in design, with possible improvements of allowing users to play a specific preview themselves without starting the Film or TV show.