Video streaming major Netflix is introducing a new feature in its rating system that aims to help improve content recommendations for its members, the company said on April 11.
The feature will enable members to let the service know what types of television series and films they want to see more of, with a new 'Two Thumbs Up' feature that will be present on each title on the platform. It will be available on television, web, Android and iOS devices starting April 11.
Netflix currently offers thumbs up/thumbs down rating buttons to help users rate television shows and movies they watch on the service and in return, receive personalized recommendations based on their taste. This replaced the previous five star rating system in April 2017, however the current system leads to a more binary response from users, with no specific way for users to indicate any specific show they liked over others.
"Our members felt really strongly that they wanted not only to indicate when they liked a title, but there was a difference between liking and really loving a title, and they wanted to provide that feedback back to Netflix, when they thought that something was really special that deserve that extra credit for it," Christine Doig-Cardet, director of innovation for personalization at Netflix told Moneycontrol.
Doig-Cardet said they have been testing this feature for quite some time and have noticed an "increase in usage and satisfaction from members". These additional inputs are going to be helpful in providing more relevant context to their personalization and recommendations in order to know what members will enjoy watching, she said.
During these tests, Netflix tested different icons that could express love including heart and plus but eventually zeroed in on two thumbs up, since it was more intuitive for its members, said Ratna Desai, director of personalization design at Netflix.
Doig-Cardet said the new feature is part of the company's broader strategy to "give more control and agency to members to express how they want to tailor and customize their experience" and one can expect to see more such features that gives users more control over what recommendations are being shown to them and provide feedback to fine tune their Netflix experience.
"We're constantly innovating and trying new things, because we believe that, right now, given how many choices members have for great entertainment, it's really important to be the easiest place to choose and find great content. The area that we're particularly excited about is the ability for members to give that feedback right back so that it's a two way dialogue and not just based on your viewing experience," she said.
Netflix's personalisation push
Over the years, Netflix has delved deeper into user personalization, either through new features or improvements to its existing ones as it significantly ramps up its content catalog, which makes discovery of these titles more challenging on the platform.
Among the features include its shuffle mode feature, which was recently rebranded as 'Surprise Me' from 'Play Something' that instantly plays a television show or movie that Netflix believes users may like and haven't watched as yet, based on their interests and prior viewing behaviour.
"There are some additional inputs that we are exploring like marked as watched, hide titles, show me more or less of something, as additional entry points to exploring the catalog" Doig-Cardet said.
"We're also exploring multiple entry points to complement the personalized recommendation (the user receives) to increase the variety of shows the members are watching, since it's also important to show new categories of content that you might have not watched before, to get the most of the value of your Netflix experience," she said.
That said, the streaming major wants to strike a balance between user-driven input and its own algorithms. Desai said they are currently looking into which of the manual users actions and inputs are more meaningful.
"We still want to have the product feel like a content forward experience. We just want enough control to where members feel like they have that agency, but not so much to where it feels like they're overburdened," she said.
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