More Than Pixels: The Design Rationale

Intro

Movie search results in X could be so much better. Especially when a movie is about to be released in theaters. In response to this opportunity, with Captain America: Brave New World premiering this Friday, I redesigned the movie search experience. I think users and Marvel Studios alike deserve something nicer than what currently exists.

Movie Search Results

The design centers around highlighting:

⭐️ Which cast members have an account on X (denoted by blue border around profile image), and which are verified

🎬 Key movie information. IMDb shouldn't have all of the fun.

🎟️ Clear call-to-action to get tickets

But users aren't only searching for movies in theaters, so for movies that are available on streaming services (whether Apple TV+, Disney Plus, Prime Video, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock or otherwise) getting to those apps is one tap away.

In this example, since this is a franchise, "captain america" brings up a carousel of movies in the franchise, shown by year they were released.

This wouldn't just improve user experience, but also increase revenue. "Get Tickets" and streaming services would be affiliate links. In this example, the search results are organic, but if there were multiple movies with a similar name, the top result could be a sponsored result (and would be explicitly denoted) that would bring in further revenue.

While this redesign is for a movie search result, the same UI would work for TV shows, albums, etc.

Secondary information and call-to-actions would be updated to reflect the media shown.

Movie Details

Tapping on the movie would open a details view that includes:

🧑 Cast Details

📘 Movie Description

🎟️ Fandango Direct Ticket Purchase

🍅 Rotten Tomatoes Scores, when available

🎥 Metacritic Score, when available

📺 Movie Trailer(s)

This screen could be further expanded to show posts about this movie, include verified accounts at the top of the list.

Tons of promotional tie-ins could occur on these pages. This design sets the foundation for those experiences.

Existing UI Critique

In addition to this feature concept and UI redesign, I provided feedback on where the current UI falls short.

Conclusion

Will X become the everything app?

Time will tell.

If it does, searching for movies (and media in general) will need be a more feature-rich experience.