UI/UX hellscape part 1: loud noises

A rant about autoplaying videos and the ruckus they cause.

Prologue

Before we begin, I suppose an explanation of what this series is about is in order.

Let’s start with two basic questions: what is the point of a user interface (UI), and why is user experience (UX) important?

The answers to these questions should be pretty straightforward: a well-designed UI makes whatever we’re working with easier to use, and UX is important because if we’re not having a good time, what’s the point?

But from where I’m standing, it seems as if things are becoming less usable and more irritating by the day.

Now, I don’t know when it started or who’s to blame, but every time I browse the web, play a video game, or use my phone, it feels as if I’m not the one who’s in control.

And for me, control is paramount.

And with so many companies going through UI/UX redesigns, you would think that things would be getting better and not worse.

As such, the goal of this series is to examine different UI/UX shortcomings and see if we can fix them.

Are you ready? Yes?

Let’s begin.

Chapter 1: loud noises

Tell me, when did browsing videos on the internet become such an assault on the senses?

Take, for example, Netflix: it’s bad enough when the startup jingle shakes my entire living room, but must every video preview play automatically and at max volume?

Do people enjoy the sudden jolt of sound when opening the app and moving from one preview to the next? Does it make them feel alive?

It doesn’t make me feel alive—quite the opposite.

And it’s not just Netflix: YouTube and Amazon Prime Video are also guilty, and I’m sure there are plenty more examples that we could find if we had the time.

The funny part about all this is that Netflix knows its UI/UX is an issue, so much so that they added the ability to disable video previews way back in 2020.

Here’s the original tweet announcing this capability: 

https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1225506511184703493?s=20

But here’s the thing, if you use Netflix on anything other than an iPad, iPhone, or an Android phone or tablet, the only way to disable video previews is through a web browser.

So, if you’re watching Netflix on an Xbox Series X or PS5, you can’t turn off video previews within the Netflix app—you’ll have to pause what you’re doing and switch devices.

If that sounds ridiculous to you, it’s because it is ridiculous. It’s 2023, and Netflix has yet to provide users with the in-app capability of turning off autoplaying previews across all supported platforms.

In addition to autoplaying video previews, Netflix has another cute trick up its sleeve: at the end of whatever you’re watching, Netflix will present you with several video recommendations.

Oh, and there’s a countdown because, well, Netflix hates you.

Tick Tock

At the end of this 18-second countdown, Netflix will automatically play the first video in the queue.

Moreover, the UI on the screen is confusing: 3 video recommendations pop up at the bottom, but the overall appearance makes it look like the recommendations are part of an overlay sitting on top of the credits.

My intuition is to hit “back” on the remote since that’s what you do when a UI element is layered on top of something else. But hitting back doesn’t remove the overlay; it kicks you out of the credits altogether and tosses you back to the home screen where the sonic assault resumes.

And if you try to get back to the credits, chances are you’ll have to spend 20-30 seconds fast-forwarding through the entire movie or show just to get back to where you were.  

See, even though the video previews look like they’re layered on top of the credits, Netflix doesn’t want you to go back, it wants you to go to the upper left and select “Watch Credits”, which doesn’t make much sense at all.

I mean, seriously, why direct my attention to the bottom of the screen when the button I want is at the top?

And why is there no capability to turn off these recommendations?

I don’t know about you, but I kind of enjoy watching the end credits, and when I was a kid, watching the credits was an end-of-the-night ritual for my family.  

It allowed us the time to gather runaway popcorn kernels, talk about what we just watched, and so on. And when my mother was pregnant with my sister, we would all sit and watch the credits together as a family to see if we could find interesting new baby names.

But nope, no time for that anymore. Here's another video for your viewing pleasure.

Seeing red

Listen, I’m quite aware that I might be a special case—an outlier if you will—and that I tend to be dramatic.

But am I wrong?

Let’s look at another example: YouTube Shorts.

Say you’re browsing some Shorts on your smartphone with the sound enabled, but your attention shifts to something else, and you close the app.  

But when the time comes to reopen YouTube, Shorts will automatically start playing, and guess what? The sound will be on.  

And here’s the funny part, there’s no telling what the Short might be.  

Sure, maybe you were looking at crab-walking cats before you closed the app, but the next Short might be something completely unrelated and perhaps even something you’re not interested in at all.

Now tell me, is this a good user experience?

Wouldn’t it be better if YouTube waited for the user’s input before doing anything?

No?

Well, okay then—I’ll see myself out.  

That’s a joke, you couldn’t get rid of me if you tried.

Business as usual

Listen, I fully understand that Netflix and YouTube are businesses, and businesses need to make money. As such, ensuring that the content keeps flowing is super important.

But there’s no reason why us users and the corpo suits can’t get along and strike a balance between usability and profits, especially when this balance has already been achieved with YouTube’s standard video content.

When watching standard, non-Short content, YouTube will automatically create and queue up a list of videos after selecting something to watch. And once the video ends, the next video in the queue will automatically play.

Now, I can accept this feature for a few reasons: 1) at this point in the funnel, the user has already decided to engage with the content, so automatically playing the next video in the queue isn’t as terrible, 2) YouTube doesn’t automatically play standard video content with the sound enabled upon launching the app, and 3) there’s a button to disable this feature.

Additionally, I can imagine that videos automatically playing one after another makes YouTube more accessible to those who struggle with user interfaces due to age, lack of experience, or perhaps even a disability.

That said, I still don’t love this setup, but it works because the user is still mostly in control of their viewing experience. Moreover, YouTube has a greater chance of serving users ads and making money—so, it’s a win-win.  

By the way, if you’re reading this and want to test things for yourself, be warned: the UI/UX between the desktop version of YouTube versus the mobile version is not identical.

For example, while YouTube Shorts might autoplay on mobile, the desktop version of YouTube doesn’t automatically play the next Short in the queue, and going to YouTube.com will always default to showing you its standard video content first regardless of what you were previously watching.

Don’t ask me why, it is what it is.  

So, what now?

Well, the good news is that fixing these issues should be relatively easy: in every single example, the solution is simply to provide users with more control over how and when videos play.

So, if I want to allow Netflix previews to play while muted, I should have that ability. Or, if I don’t want video previews to play at all, I should have that option as well. And all these options should be within reach—I shouldn’t have to stop what I’m doing and load up a web browser on a separate machine to adjust my in-app experience.

The bad news, unfortunately, is that these issues will never get fixed.

Why?

When it comes down to it, I think companies like Netflix and YouTube value profits over usability, and so long as the money keeps rolling in, nothing is going to change.

I mean seriously—the fact that the solutions to these issues are so simple yet they persist year after year should be a huge giveaway about their motivations.

And if it’s not greed, then I guess it’s incompetence.

That may sound harsh, but how else am I to explain all these autoplay-related issues and the UI/UX inconsistencies between platforms?  

It’s not rocket science.

Allow users to control their user experience, it’s their experience after all, and in the case of Netflix and YouTube Premium, users are already paying for the service, so force-feeding content shouldn’t be necessary since both services are free of advertisements.

I mean, isn’t it enough that they already have our money? Must they confiscate our time as well?