Maximizing Conversion Rates in Stage OTT

Streamlining Onboarding and Boosting Content Discoverability

Introduction

When I saw the founders of the Stage app presenting their idea on Shark Tank, I realized there was a chance to improve the user experience and make more people sign up for their service. I teamed up with two designer friends to create a design that would focus on users’ needs and help Stage become the first OTT platform in India for local languages. Our goal is to use our design skills to make a positive impact on the business and showcase our work in our portfolio.

Hello, My name is Sarvesh

I am an aspiring UX designer currently enrolled in a boot camp with Growth School, under the mentorship of Mr Anudeep Ayyagiri.
This is my first project case study. I came across Stage OTT on shark tank and decided to work on a case study for my project as a UX designer with two of my group mates

My role in the project:

User Testing,
Research,
UI design,
Prototyping

Process:
1.Emapthize
2.Research
2. Challenge definition
3. Solution, Testing & Iterations

Empathize

Product

Stage is an OTT app which caters to Haryanvi and Rajasthani dialect speakers, It releases content weekly and uses subscriptions to charge for its service. The app distributes content through web series and videos.

Key data :

1. Conversion Rate
   Only 10% of logged-in users become paid customers upon subscription.
2. Subscription Model
   The Stage app operates on a subscription-based model rather than a freemium model. (Now changed to Freemium)
3. Paid Membership
   The app boasts a subscriber base of over 2 lakh (200,000+) paid members.
4. Dialect Expansion
   Future plans include expanding the app’s content offerings to cover 20+ dialects in the next 5 years.
5. Customer Terminology
   Users refer to the subscription process as “recharge” rather than “subscribe.”
6. Average Watch Time
   Users spend an average of 4.5 hours per month watching content on the Stage app.
7. Retention Rate
   The app exhibits a high retention rate of 94% by week 4, indicating strong user engagement and satisfaction.
8. Value-Based Payment
   In the Indian market, customers are willing to pay for services that deliver value.

Flow selected : Onboarding flow for Haryanvi

Research

1. User Testing
2. Competitive analysis

User Testing Report

Product: Stage OTT App
Sample Size: 4 Participants
Testing Focus: Original Onboarding Flow
Mode : Web Conference

Objective

The objective of this user testing was to gather insights and feedback on the original onboarding flow of the Stage OTT app.
The aim was to identify usability issues, gather user feedback, and inform design decisions to improve the onboarding experience.

Methodology

Participants were selected based on their user profile, including being OTT users, Tier 2 residents, and already familiar with the ‘Stage’ platform. The sample size consisted of four participants, representing a diverse range of backgrounds.

Testing Process

1. Participants were instructed to log in to the Stage OTT app.
2. They were asked to select a show of their choice.
3. Participants were observed throughout their journey, paying attention to their interactions, challenges, and overall user experience.
4. After completing the onboarding flow, participants were encouraged to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Findings:

1. Language Preference
   Two participants expressed confusion with the default Hindi language and had to manually switch to English. This indicates the need for clearer language preference options during onboarding.
2. Clarity of Benefits
   Participants had difficulty understanding the benefits offered, such as the free first episode of VIP and freemium content. Clearer communication of these benefits is necessary to ensure user comprehension.
3. Visual Indication of VIP Feature
   Participants were unaware of the VIP feature due to the absence of a visible tag or label on the plans banner. Adding a clear visual indicator can enhance understanding and promote engagement with the VIP offering.
4. Button Design and Feedback
   Participants found the stroke appearance of buttons confusing, often mistaking their active states. Rethinking button design to provide clearer visual cues and incorporating user feedback is recommended.
5. Navigation and Video Section
   Some participants found the video section in the bottom navigation confusing, indicating the need for better categorization and intuitive navigation cues to enhance user understanding.

Competitive Analysis Report

Competitors:

1. Chaupal
2. Netflix (Founder claims to be the Netflix of India)
3. Disney+ Hotstar

Introduction
This competitive analysis aims to provide insights into the features and user experiences offered by key competitors in the OTT industry, namely Chaupal, Netflix, and Disney+ Hotstar. Understanding their approaches and market positions will help inform design decisions for the Stage OTT app.

1. Content Exploration Priority
   Competitors like Chaupal, Netflix, and Disney+ Hotstar prioritize content exploration over onboarding forms like login. They focus on providing seamless access to a wide range of content, allowing users to discover and explore diverse categories.
2. Screen Size Consideration
   Netflix and Disney+ Hotstar offer larger screen sizes for optimized content display. This enables users to enjoy an immersive viewing experience without compromising on visual quality.
3. Home Page Category Explorations
   Chaupal, Netflix, and Disney+ Hotstar prominently feature category explorations on their home pages. This allows users to easily browse and access content based on specific genres, languages, or themes, enhancing the content discovery process.
4. Unique Content Features
   Netflix stands out with its humor-specific short content feature, which adds a distinct value proposition for users. Stage’s “videos” feature could be further developed to offer unique content categories that differentiate it from competitors.
5. Branding of Paid Feature
   Disney+ Hotstar verbally brands its paid feature, ensuring clear communication about its premium offering. Incorporating similar branding elements for the paid feature of Stage could enhance its value perception.

Challenges Defined

1. Habitual Skipping of Feature Explainer
   Users tend to skip the feature explainer at the beginning of the onboarding flow, resulting in a lack of understanding of the app’s features and benefits.
2. Language Preference Confusion
   Users face confusion when selecting language preferences, leading to manual adjustments and potential frustration during the onboarding process.
3. Ineffective Benefits Communication
   The app fails to effectively communicate its benefits, such as free episodes and VIP features, limiting user engagement and awareness of the app’s value proposition.
4. Ambiguous Button Design
   Users struggle to differentiate between active and inactive states due to the button design, leading to confusion and potentially impacting user interaction.
5. Confusing Video Section
   The layout and organization of the video section cause user confusion, making it difficult for them to navigate and discover content efficiently.
6. Inadequate Branding of Paid Feature
   The paid feature lacks clear branding, leaving users uncertain about its significance and potential benefits.

Solutions, Testing & Iterations

1. Dynamic Ui
2. Login after play
3. Language selection priority
4. Redesign

1. Dynamic UI for onboarding

To address the challenge of users habitually skipping the feature explainer during the onboarding process, a dynamic UI can be implemented to create a more engaging and informative experience. One solution is to incorporate an introductory video that highlights the key features and benefits of the Stage app.

Benefits and Implementation:

1. Engaging Visuals: A video can captivate users’ attention and effectively communicate the app’s value proposition, capturing their interest from the start.
2. Clear Communication: Through visuals and narration, the video can provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the app’s features, ensuring users understand the benefits and functionality.
3. Interactive Elements: The dynamic UI can include interactive elements such as clickable buttons within the video, enabling users to explore specific features or proceed to the next step.
4. Personalization: By tailoring the video content based on user preferences or demographics, the onboarding experience can feel more personalized, increasing user engagement and satisfaction.

Considerations:

1. Length and Timing: The video should be concise, avoiding excessive length that may deter users. Additionally, it should be strategically positioned at the beginning of the onboarding flow to capture users’ attention before they proceed further.
2. Localization: If targeting a specific dialect or region, ensuring the video content aligns with the target audience’s language and cultural preferences can enhance the overall user experience.
3. Seamless Integration: The video should seamlessly integrate into the onboarding flow, maintaining a smooth transition to subsequent steps without causing interruptions or delays.

2. Login on content play

To address the challenge of users skipping the onboarding flow and improve content exposure, a solution is to implement a “Login on Content Play” feature. This solution aims to provide users with immediate access to content while encouraging them to complete the onboarding process.

Benefits and Implementation:

1. Seamless Access: Instead of requiring users to complete the onboarding flow before accessing content, this solution allows users to start consuming content right away.
2. Reduced Drop-off: By eliminating the need to go through a lengthy onboarding process upfront, users are less likely to abandon the app.
3. Increased Engagement: Allowing users to experience the content firsthand can pique their interest and motivate them to continue using the app.
4. Contextual Onboarding: With the login occurring during content play, the onboarding process can be integrated contextually, providing explanations, benefits, and tutorials within the content viewing experience.
5. Customized Recommendations: As users interact with the content, the app can gather data and provide personalized recommendations, enhancing user satisfaction and engagement.

Considerations:

1. Seamless Transition: The login process should be integrated smoothly into the content play experience, ensuring minimal disruption to the user’s viewing experience.
2. Permission and Data Collection: Users should be informed about data collection and given clear options to provide consent or adjust privacy settings.
3. Clear Onboarding Elements: While integrating onboarding within content play, important information such as benefits, features, and navigation should be effectively communicated to users to ensure a smooth and informative onboarding experience.

3. Language selection priority

To optimize the user experience on Stage OTT and cater to a global audience, language selection becomes a crucial aspect. By implementing the following strategies, we aim to provide a seamless and inclusive experience:

Benefits:

1. Improved user experience: Offering language options enhances user comfort and engagement, resulting in increased satisfaction and longer viewing sessions.
2. Expanded reach and user base: Multiple language options attract a broader audience, opening up new markets, increasing subscriptions, and boosting revenue.
3. Cultural inclusivity: Acknowledging diverse languages fosters a sense of cultural inclusivity, making users feel valued and connected to the platform.

Considerations:

1. Localization efforts: Accurate translation and cultural relevance are crucial for content, interface, and navigation to ensure a consistent user experience across different language versions.
2. User preferences and default language: Balancing user preferences and market demands in selecting the default language is important for driving adoption and engagement.
3. Technical infrastructure: Adjustments to the backend systems, databases, and content management may be required to support seamless language switching and ensure a smooth user experience.

4. Redesign

1. Redesign of VIP Icon
   Changed the VIP diamond icon to “STAGEVIP” for better understanding and recall.
2. Button Style Redesign
   Updated buttons from circular to boxy to avoid confusion about their active state.
3. Addition of ‘Watch for 0’ Icon
   Created a new icon for free shows and placed it prominently at the top of the screen, enhancing discoverability.
4. Settings Icon Placement
   Moved the settings icon to the top fold for better visibility and accessibility.
5. Improved Access to Content Categories
   Increased prominence of content categories to facilitate easy content discovery.
6. Main Banner Redesign
   Modified the main banner to feature a mix of free and premium shows, avoiding the perception that the app is entirely premium.
7. Gradient Addition
   Added gradient effects to enhance visual appeal, aligning with Stage’s premium services.
8. Navigation Bar Redesign
   Removed unnecessary tabs (My Videos, Settings, VIP, Coming Soon) and added new tabs (VIP Videos, VIP Series) to improve accessibility to premium content.

Other Redesigns

1. Introduction of Trending Content
   Incorporated trending shows in the first fold for increased content discoverability and user engagement.
2. Redesign of VIP Banner
   Enhanced the VIP banner’s communication by including features such as the availability of the first episode for free, plan information, and content preview.
3. Removal of WhatsApp Icon: Eliminated the confusing WhatsApp icon to simplify the user experience, while still allowing access through the settings if needed.

Impact on Metrics

This redesign focuses on impacting the below metrics positively.

User Retention
By effectively communicating the app’s benefits and improving its ease of use, we aim to increase user satisfaction and retention, leading to a lower churn rate and higher levels of user engagement.

User Engagement
By helping users choose the language of the app, and better understand the free episode feature and category feature, we aim to increase user engagement with the app, leading to higher levels of usage and engagement.

Conversion Rates
By improving the app’s navigation and communicating the benefits of both VIP and free features, we aim to increase the likelihood of users becoming paying customers, resulting in higher conversion rates and revenue.

App Store Ratings
By ensuring that users have a positive experience with the Stage, we aim to increase the likelihood of receiving positive reviews and ratings in the app store, which can enhance the app’s visibility and reputation.

With the redesign of the onboarding flow, it is possible to improve these business metrics and drive overall success for the app.

Future Considerations

1. Brand Integration: Incorporate the Stage VIP icon into the overall branding strategy to create a consistent experience for premium users.
2. User Testing: Conduct user testing sessions to gather feedback on the redesigned app and identify areas for further improvement.
3. Engaging Landing Page: Design a captivating landing page specifically for Stage VIP to highlight its exclusive features and benefits.
4. Playback Experience Enhancement: Continuously work on improving the playback experience to ensure seamless and high-quality content delivery.
5. Short-Form Content: Create easily shareable short-form content to cater to users’ preferences for quick and engaging video experiences.
6. Evaluation of Short Films vs Videos: Explore the effectiveness of short films as a content format compared to traditional videos and determine the audience response.
7. Navigation Bar Optimization: Continuously test and optimize the design of the navigation bar to improve usability and enhance user satisfaction.
8. Personalization: Implement personalized content recommendations and interfaces to provide tailored experiences for individual users.

Learnings

1. Adaptability and Flexibility: Each project presents unique challenges that require adaptability and flexibility in the design process to overcome obstacles effectively.
2. Collaboration and Communication: Effective design often involves collaboration and communication with a diverse team to create a better end product.
3. Continuous Improvement: Feedback and iterative design are essential for creating more effective designs that meet the needs of the target audience.
4. Critical Thinking and Analysis: Solving design problems requires critical thinking, careful analysis, and prioritizing what is important to create an effective and suitable design solution.
5. Learning and Growth Mindset: Embracing a growth mindset and continuous learning are crucial aspects of the design process, enabling designers to develop new skills and knowledge, and improve their craft over time.

Appreciation :

Thank you for reading! Feel free to reach out to me

• LinkedIn
• Email: sanglesarvesh@gmail.com

Let’s connect and discuss further!