Netflix started rolling out the first major revamp of its television app in a decade on Thursday.
The world’s biggest sreaming service is testing changes designed to help viewers more quickly decide what they want to watch on TV.
Rather than static tiles, the new look sees boxes that extend to show a preview and more information as soon as your remote control selects them.
At the moment on the TV ap – which is found on Apple TV, Roku devices and smart televisions – the trailer and details of the cast and a synopsis appear at the top of the screen.
Overall, it is simpler – in that customers get all the key information in one place. It looks a bit less busy and more like the mobile.
The design of the new homepage for the Netflix app is shown. It pares down down of the optoins previously available on the left-side menu
There is now a MyNetflix tab at the top, which had first been rolled out on the mobile app. It offers quick access to titles you recently watched or saved
The changes come after company research showed users were performing what Netflix executive Pat Flemming called ‘eye gymnastics’ when trying to find a title to watch.
Viewers’ eyes were darting around from ‘the row name to today’s top picks, to the box art, to the video, back to the synopsis,’ Flemming, senior director of member product, told Reuters in an interview.
‘We really wanted to make that simpler, more intuitive, everything easier to navigate.’
The video streaming pioneer wants to increase the time that viewers spend on the app to help retain customers and draw subscribers to its new, lower cost plans with advertising.
Revisions to the home page included enlarging title cards, reorganizing information and highlighting easy-to-read tidbits such as a show or movie “spent 8 weeks in the top 10”.
A subset of Netflix’s nearly 270 million users around the globe will see the new format starting Thursday. They have been selected randomly.
The company will take feedback, and possibly make changes, before unveiling it more widely.
Netflix has been emphasizing engagement time as a key metric, telling investors it is the ‘best proxy for customer satisfaction’.
The company will stop regular reporting of subscriber numbers next year to shift Wall Street’s focus.
Trailers will appear in an enlarged tile – meaning viewers do not need to look up to the top of the screen. This borrows a feature from Hulu
Among other changes to the TV app, the menu button was moved from the left to the top of the screen.
A new ‘My Netflix’ tab was added, with shows or movies a user has started watching, or ones saved to check out later.
Netflix will continue to offer personalized suggestions to each user. It is not making any changes to its recommendation algorithm as part of the redesign, Flemming said.