Notable streaming service Hulu is rolling out a new home screen upgrade for Roku and Apple TV users.
As the world is experiencing a massive lockdown, people are turning into streaming services for entertainment. Hulu is one of the most popular options. Recently, the company is rolling out an upgrade to its massive user base.
Roku and tvOS users will receive this new update starting this week. Hulu says that the update will soon roll out to other streaming platforms in the future.
New home screen
Those who receive the recent update will notice a number of changes. For one, the home screen is now has a horizontal scrolling tray. This allows users to easily navigate videos and other features.
As users scroll the home screen, they will see new options that will allow them access to other videos. Video recommendations are also on the home screen.
Hulu claims that its video recommendation algorithm differs from that of Netflix or YouTube. Additionally, recommended videos are now presented in various sizes. Each video also has a full-size banner that adds emphasis to it.
That’s a wrap on #StreamingDay! Thanks for celebrating today along us, @DisneyPlus, and @ESPN+. You can keep the party going with the 24-Hour #DisneyBundle Livestream over at https://t.co/7h2pJxiv8W. ????
— Hulu (@hulu) May 21, 2020
By using different thumbnail sizes, users can easily navigate through their recommended videos. Moreover, the design also offers a great visual break from continuous scrolling. The streaming service is also using different contexts in order to determine the recommended videos.
One noticeable change is for the “continue watching” tray. It uses smaller tiles. This allows users to access more shows under this particular category. Additionally, new videos have bigger tiles and it provides more information about that particular show.
New design philosophy
Hulu is approaching this update with a completely new design philosophy. The company claims that it is using both human editors and its own algorithm to give recommendations to users. On top of that, recommendations that are curated by humans are also available.
What this means is that most of these recommendations are coming from humans. Once curated, these recommendations are then subjected to Hulu’s own algorithm.
While this is a completely novel approach, the company claims that its algorithm is capable of customizing itself based on user preferences. These are welcome upgrades for the platform as people are storming such services because of the pandemic.
Aside from changes on the home screen, there will be updates in the future that will focus on user experience. Hulu has yet to confirm when it plans to roll out these updates, but it promises it will come this year.
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