I think Netflix has a really good user interface. I even sang its praises in a short paper I wrote for my Fundamentals of Human Behavior class last spring. They take the elements of what is fun about picking out a video from a video store and transfer it to an online portal. I especially love the funny little genres from which they cull their recommendations for me. Some examples:
Witty Comedies Featuring a Strong Female Lead (a la Baby Mama and Juno)
Ballet & Modern Dance
Dysfunctional-Family TV Dramas (a la Dexter, Six Feet Under and I imagine Arrested Development)
However, when I browse on demand movies, I often begin watching as a form of browsing. If I don’t like a movie, I stop it and look for something else, usually within the first 5 minutes or so. However, my recommender system thinks I watched the entire movie, and provides recommendations based on movies I flat-out didn’t like. Usually I end up disliking them for reasons that can’t be described with text– for example, I don’t like the lighting, the acting is bad or it isn’t what I thought it would be based on the description. Furthermore, upon login, Netflix tells me:
“You watched: [title of the movie I didn't actually watch]”
This is both inaccurate and annoying. Netflix should keep track of whether or not people finish on demand movies, perhaps by finding a sweet spot at which most people continue or navigate away.
But that’s just my two cents. Netflix can, of course, do what they want.