Hulu Plus for Android First Time User Experience
The good bits:
- Hulu allows new users to browse and search its content titles before signing up. This gives a new user a sense of the product’s offerings before he commits to an account.
- A new user can also sign up for a 1-week trial membership to watch titles for free.
To be improved:
- Due to the number of choices on the intro screen, it can be difficult to decide which choice is the “right” one. Because browsing the content ultimately leads to a prompt to try the product, I wonder if it could be combined with the trial membership prompt. Perhaps they could join into a “Try it now” action that takes users to the content list with the large trial membership call-to-action button.
- Although browsing Hulu’s TV & movies is a great step, there does not appear to be a way to preview the content. If a user tries to play any of the titles, he is met with the prompt to sign up or try the 1 week membership. Very quickly, users are pushed from browsing right back into information request mode, which feels a little jarring.
- “Try 1 Week Free” involves a 3-step sign-up form. The user not only needs to commit his name, email and birth year (or Facebook login credentials), but also his credit card information. Providing a credit card up front risks distracting a customer with concerns about things like cancellation policies, instead of focusing them on getting through the trial membership sign-up. Hulu does not provide any quick-look information to reassure users about their policies (instead, they have to crack open the terms of use link).