Year
2024

Hulu Video Trailers

Increasing discovery through video trailers

Year
2021

Role
Lead Designer on Living Room Devices

Target Platform
Roku, tvOS

Design Process

  • Research

  • Prototypes

  • Design

  • Presentation

Challenge

Users often rely on trailers when deciding what to watch. However, accessing trailers required additional clicks, disrupting the discovery flow. Teams believed autoplay trailers within tiles could:

  • Boost engagement

  • Help users quickly evaluate content

  • Bring theatrical excitement into the at-home experience

Research confirmed autoplay trailers are polarizing:

  • Some users love quick visual previews

  • Others feel autoplay is intrusive, “gets in the way,” or repeats content they’ve already seen

  • A significant number of users want control over autoplay settings

Top quantified pain points (April 2020 Survey):

  • 94%: Want settings to manage autoplay

  • 86%: Don’t want autoplay for content already viewed

  • 90%: Feel autoplay “gets in the way” in some contexts
    Video Tiles Kickoff

Research

UXR conducted surveys, experiments, and usability testing from 2019–2021. Key findings:

Autoplay Preferences

  • Users value trailers but only in specific contexts (browse, not play).

  • They dislike when autoplay repeats trailers for content they’ve already seen.

  • Control (mute/unmute, disable autoplay) is essential.
    Video Tiles Kickoff

Ideal Autoplay Experience

  • Autoplay appears only in browsing contexts

  • Users can easily disable or adjust autoplay

  • Trailers should not autoplay for previously watched content

  • Autoplay should never slow down navigation or create buffering experiences

Usability Testing Findings (Aug 2020)

  • Users appreciated more video tiles on Home, Movies, and Shows pages

  • Loading bar was understood and not disruptive

  • Mute default supported quick browsing

  • Visibility issues: icons sometimes disappeared against bright video scenes

  • Some users mistook HE tiles for ads due to their size
    Video Tiles Kickoff

Approach

1. Inform, don’t distract

  • Trailers should support content evaluation, not overwhelm the browsing experience.

2. Empower user control

  • Default autoplay mute on

  • Quick access to audio controls

  • Autoplay settings per device (MVP) and later global

3. Contextual & appropriate

  • Avoid spoilers

  • Indicate maturity ratings

  • Personalize trailer selection

  • Consider co-viewing contexts
    Video Tiles Kickoff

P0 use this-1.png
P0 Fade In-1.png
P0 Safe Zone.png

Outcomes

  • Delivered a non-intrusive, informative browsing experience

  • Ensured autoplay respects user preferences and context

  • Achieved a balance between cinematic richness and platform performance

  • Reduced risk of misinterpreting tiles as ads through clearer design and iconography

  • Enabled scalable foundations for future autoplay experiences

Takeaways

“The goal is to build a seamless experience, to move from discovery, to playback for both VOD and Live content.”

— Hulu Product Team

Back to Work