It’s been a while now since I started using Netflix. Being a big fan of cinematography, I became interested in creating an account almost as I first moved to the US. After my first visit, I have to admit, I was fairly disappointed, mainly by the structure and layout of the whole site. It seemed chaotic and cluttered beyond belief. It certainly took some time to digest the flood of information of the first page.
As a new user, the first thing that came in mind was that I would have preferred a simple and clear interface with few, basic genres, that possibly expand to sub-genres. I’ve always found this fisrt page storm of information discouraging and confusing. At first, the search tool, which is fairly basic but efficient, became my best friend.
Much later I realized that there was a mouse over feature on the main headings — that way I could get menus with the basic genres — and also, that I could get rid of this flood of thumbnails and improvised genres and obtain a sortable list of titles. So, a step forward but still limited as far as customizability and ease of use.
The next feature I discovered was their personal rating system. Even after having used the website for more than two years and having rated a fair amount of titles, the rating system rarely works for me. The suggestions are usually irrelevant and based on superficial (or subjective) criteria, which automatically makes the personal ratings sytem fairly useless. On the other hand, the reviews section is useful and even though the users’ ratings are not always indicative of the quality of a title, after reading a number of reviews, normally one can form an opinion.
Overall, Netflix.com can be considered a below the average website considering the amount of “thinking” that is required for using it, especially as a new customer. Maybe it’s time to give the competition a chance.