Cue'It

Project Overview:

Cue'It is a social app designed for film and television enthusiasts to discover, discuss, and share their passion for entertainment. It allows users to document their watching experiences, engage with like-minded cinephiles, and explore a rich ecosystem of movie and TV content.

By combining the functionality of a personal film diary with social networking and community engagement tools, Cue'It aims to be the go-to platform for film/TV discovery, discussion, and personal curation.

Role:

Lead Product Designer

Prototype:

Explore the Figma prototype at your leisure.

Optional: For the full mobile experience download the Figma Mobile app

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‍Problem Statement

Fragmented Tools: Most enthusiasts rely on multiple platforms to track films (e.g., spreadsheets, apps) and discuss them (e.g., forums, social media). There is no unified space dedicated exclusively to film and tv.‍

Limited Community Engagement: Existing platforms lack deep social features that foster meaningful discussions among cinephiles.

Curation Overload: Users are often overwhelmed by unfiltered recommendations and lack tools to discover films tailored to their unique tastes.

Opportunity: Create a centralized platform where users can track, review, and discuss films while fostering a vibrant community.

‍Goals‍

Build a platform that blends personal movie tracking with social and community-driven features.
Provide tools for personalized film discovery.
Empower users to document and showcase their cinematic journey.
Foster a vibrant, engaging community where users can connect and discuss.

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Overview of the IA Structure

The IA visually organizes the app’s main sections and subsections, helping define the user flow and how different features interconnect. It ensures intuitive navigation and a clear content hierarchy.

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How This IA Supports User Experience (UX)

Clear Navigation: Each section logically flows into the next, making content easy to find.

Personalization: Features like watchlists, recommendations, and collections create a tailored user experience.

Community Engagement: The community board and notifications encourage user interaction and engagement.

Efficient Film Discovery: The explore, search, and curated lists ensure users can find relevant content quickly.

As the IA is finalized, I begin wireframing based on this structure.

Narrowing Down User Personas & Keeping Them in Mind in Design

When designing Cue'It, I focused on defining clear user personas to ensure the platform serves the right audience while maintaining an intuitive and engaging experience.

Defining Core User Personas: To narrow down personas, I considered

‍Behavioral patterns – How do users engage with film and TV content?‍

Motivations & pain points – What drives them to seek community-based discussions?‍

Tech-savviness – Are they casual users or advanced curators of film lists?

Engagement levels – Are they passive viewers, active reviewers, or discussion leaders?
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Those User Personas:

Persona 1: The Aspiring Critic

Goals: Build a reputation as a film/tv reviewer, connect with other cinephiles.
Pain Points: Wants a platform to share thoughtful reviews and gain recognition.
Needs: A profile to showcase reviews and interact with like-minded users.

Persona 2: The Casual Viewer

Goals: Discover good films to watch and keep track of what she’s seen.
Pain Points: Overwhelmed by generic recommendations.
Needs: Tailored suggestions and a simple way to log films.

‍How I Keep Personas in Mind During Design with:

Navigation & Accessibility: Ensuring the platform is easy to explore, catering to both casual and expert users.‍

Personalization Features: Allowing users to create watchlists, save recommendations, and engage in tailored discussions.‍

Community & Social Interaction: Integrating comment threads, discussions, and shared collections to encourage engagement.‍

Content Discovery: Balancing algorithmic suggestions with user-generated recommendations to meet different discovery preferences.

By grounding my design decisions in these personas, I ensure that Cue'It remains an intuitive and engaging platform that meets the needs of its diverse user base. From there I delve into some competitor analysis of similar platforms and streaming platforms as well.

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‍Research & Insights

Competitor Analysis: Platforms like Letterboxd offer tracking and reviews but lack deeper personalization and insights. IMDb forums were discontinued, leaving a gap in film-specific community discussions.

User Interviews: Interviews with cinephiles, ranging from casual viewers to hardcore film buffs.

Pain Points: Difficulty remembering what films they’ve watched or their thoughts on them, lack of meaningful recommendations based on unique preferences and the desire for a “film-focused social network” without the noise of mainstream platforms.

Behavioral Insights: Users often share opinions informally on social media but crave deeper, focused conversations, many users maintain spreadsheets or lists to track their films but find them cumbersome and gamification (e.g., badges, stats) motivates users to stay engaged.

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‍Design Process

Wireframes: Initial low-fidelity sketches focused on user flows for:
Logging a film, creating and sharing a review and exploring trending discussions on the community board.‍

Prototyping: High-fidelity prototypes were created to test key interactions such

Film Diary: Seamless input flow for logging films and adding details.‍

User Profiles: Clean layouts for showcasing reviews and stats.‍

Community Forum: Simple navigation between topics and posts.

‍Final Design

Visual Identity:

Color Palette: Inspired by classic cinema (rich blacks, warm golds, deep reds).‍

Typography: Bold, modern fonts with subtle retro influences.‍

Imagery: Film stills and posters integrated into UI elements.

User Interface Highlights:

Homepage: Combines trending films, personalized recommendations, and community highlights.‍

Film Pages: Comprehensive details (synopsis, cast, ratings) with user reviews prominently displayed.‍

Community Board: Modular layout for browsing discussions and future iterations of polls, live community watch etc

Interactive Article Content: Articles and Lists

Exploration designs of Interactive Content

When designing interactive content for Lists, and Articles I prioritize user engagement, readability, and intuitive navigation. I focus on creating seamless, dynamic interactions that encourage exploration—whether through micro-interactions, scroll-triggered animations, or personalized content recommendations.

Lists are designed for clarity and efficiency, balancing hierarchy, customization, and visual interest to enhance scannability without overwhelming users. For article views, I emphasize readability, immersion, and accessibility, integrating multimedia elements strategically while maintaining a smooth reading flow.

I also explored the design of an interactive article interface that seamlessly adapts to both light and dark modes. My focus was on ensuring readability, user engagement, and an optimal experience across both visual modes.

Key design considerations included:

Typography and Contrast: Carefully selected typefaces and optimized contrast to maintain legibility in both light and dark modes.‍

Visual Harmony: Created a balanced aesthetic, ensuring that interactive elements and imagery remained visually cohesive regardless of the mode.‍

User-Centric Design: Focused on delivering a smooth transition between modes to enhance the overall user experience, enabling users to effortlessly switch between light and dark settings according to their preference.‍

Accessibility: Ensured the design was inclusive by adhering to accessibility guidelines, particularly with regard to color contrast and element visibility.

The result was an intuitive and visually appealing interactive article that adapts to different environments, enhancing engagement and usability for diverse user preferences.

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‍Reflections and Next Steps

What Worked: The combination of personal tracking and community engagement resonated strongly and the gamification features boosted initial engagement and retention.

Challenges: Balancing feature-rich design with simplicity during onboarding and moderation of community forums to ensure quality discussions.

Next Steps:
Expand AI-based recommendations for better personalization.
Introduce premium features (e.g., advanced analytics, ad-free experience).
Develop a mobile app to increase accessibility and engagement.

Launch Strategy

Soft Launch: Invite a small group of cinephiles and film/tv critics to beta test the platform and gather feedback and refine features based on usage data.

Marketing Campaign:
Social Media Ads: Target audiences with teasers of features and testimonials from beta testers.
Partnerships: Collaborate with film/tv festivals and influencers to promote Cue'it.
Referral Program: Offer incentives for users to invite friends.

Post-Launch Goals: Achieve 10,000 active users in the first three months and roll out new features (e.g., analytics dashboard) based on feedback.

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