Top tier approaches to genre navigation in Accedo One

For video streaming services, a critical challenge lies in organizing their content library in a way that empowers every user to effortlessly browse, discover, and engage with content they truly enjoy. Connecting the user with the right content in an intuitive, browsable way is the simplest way to ensure a long user relationship and prevent churn. 

Leading streaming services have also tackled this challenge and came up with diverse approaches - versions of which are possible to recreate in your own service. 

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1. HBO Max

HBO Max makes an assumption that active browsers come to the app with an initial view on whether they want to watch a series or movie. Therefore, the only navigation options provided when arriving at the site are “Movies” and “Series”.  The primary interface on the homepage focuses on sparking curiosity and exploration through curated selections and creative prompts.

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Clicking through to either “Movies” or “Series”, this is where the real browsing experience begins: the user is prompted to browse through a tab menu of different categories and can make their selections from there - or switch content type in the main menu. 

The clear advantage with this approach is the user being able to browse a lot of content and content types within a single view - and would thus suit services with a vast content catalog. The downside is that the more popular genres are not easily accessible when first coming to the site. 

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How to configure in Accedo One

To recreate a similar tab view for genres in Accedo One, you need to create “Collections”. 

In “Content Manager”, navigate to “My Collections” and create a collection for each of the genres you want to surface in a genre tab. Just like for regular containers, you can use editorial or dynamic methods (e.g. genre tags) - or you can simply use a playlist from your video provider. 

Name the collection with the exact name you later want to show in your tab. Note that you cannot add additional containers to each tab - each tab will show a single collection. 

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2. Netflix 

Netflix takes a similar approach and divides its content into Series and Films. The screen real estate that is made available by moving away from categories in the main menu is used to surface popular content and user generated lists. 

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Navigating into “Movies” or "Series", the sub genres are available in a dropdown menu (not offered in Accedo One). As this essentially hides the sub genres from view and makes them harder to access, the app clearly makes an assumption that the user will be more likely to scroll through the different sub genre containers on the page itself. The containers have clear labels and are easy to browse. 

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How to configure in Accedo One

This is a very simple configuration: Simply create browse pages for “Series” and “Movies”, and add containers for your sub genres onto each respective page. 

As Netflix demonstrates, it is always great to break up content by providing extra inspiration to the user - e.g. by surfacing “Award winning films” or “Popular now” content. 

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3. Discovery+

Discovery Plus does not distinguish between movies and series, but between regular content, sport and TV programs - all of which are available to different subscription levels. The service provides browsing support of regular content directly on the Homepage, while content open to certain subscriber levels is available via the main navigation. 

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How to configure in Accedo One

Similar to the HBO Max approach, you would create collections for each sub genre - and then display these genres in a tabbed container directly on the homepage. 

As this option would display a lot of content directly on the homepage and provide less opportunity for promoting selected content and creating a truly engaging homepage, this particular option should only be used for smaller genre-type content selections, and be complemented by other inspiring homepage containers. 

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4. Disney+

While Disney’s main navigation falls in the categories above, they also provide a secondary navigation type, linking to pages dedicated to the different franchises in the Disney universe. For the user who is a fan of one of those franchises, this means a single convenient entry point to browse specific content they are interested in. 

A similar approach could be taken for main categories, featured actors or topics, or simply different content types. 

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How to configure in Accedo One

The first step in Accedo One is to create a new browse page for each of the categories you wish to link to. Then, create a new navigation item linking to the relevant browse page. 

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Ultimately, every approach will not fit every service. Understanding your users’ preferences and motivations, and targeting your content structure to these user trends will go a long way to create a satisfying browsing experience.

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