• Surveys

We conducted surveys on why people download videos and what they do with files. It turned out that in addition to simple porn videos, teachers often download them to show videos teaching applied subjects, religious ministers for sermons, as well as for viewing on a bad Internet.

• Cust dev

We contacted people in the USA to get more information and to cover various usage situations. We talked about downloading videos for offline viewing in airplanes and traveling. The conversations confirmed the value of the product and people's willingness to pay for it.

There is a clear connection between user goals and business objectives. Users want to know how to get content, how to consume it, and how to get more of it. By meeting this need, businesses can retain users and generate more revenue.

We have simplified the path to the main action, removed unnecessary elements, and made the most important ones easier to find and larger. For example, we have simplified the download screen by making it a single field where users can insert a link.

We paid special attention to the texts. We have rewritten the explanations, descriptions, interface texts, buttons, and fields multiple times. We also conducted A/B testing to improve the texts. We tried to make it as clear as possible with the least amount of reading required.

Example: In the first session, the user goes through a small click tour as onboarding. And the problem with any click tour is that it's always a barrier between the user and their goal. Everyone wants to click skip, doesn't read blocks of text, or clicks through without looking. So we reduced the text to pointing phrases and made only three non-skippable steps with a visual timer.

The final version came out simple, but we didn't come to it right away. We tried different images and symbols and used them for some time to understand how it was perceived.

The graphics wanted to be trending (at the time), but not too flashy. The result was two-color 3D. The whole style was based on the absorbing white space. Since the essence of the product is the user's content.

We faced some minor problems when users selected video quality. This had an non-obvious impact on the conversion rate at this stage. To solve this, we took the simplest approach to reduce cognitive load: by simplifying the process. We reduced the number of actions required, leaving only one button with the key action. This way, the user had no room for error, and selecting the quality became the next logical step in the process.

The average user had a slow internet connection, which is why they used our application to download files. However, some users left the app after the first download because they couldn't see the progress or couldn't wait that long.
To make the progress more visible, we added a message about the low internet speed and suggested that the user reduce the quality. We also included an approximate calculation of the download time.

During the development process, we realized that the player panel takes up a lot of space, especially on smaller screens. However, the main focus for the user is the content, not the interface. To address this issue, we created an adaptive panel. When nothing is playing, it minimizes to the play button. During playback, additional elements appear. When the user hovers the cursor over the panel, the full view opens.

In the initial concept, it was planned to use full-screen player controls that would depend on the cursor position on the screen and be linked to it.

At some point, we started receiving emails from users who were using our application for professional purposes. Their feedback was that in their work they use a different video codec and a specific hardware configuration.

Their request was not large enough to justify the cost of processing it. However, we wanted to help them, so we added a section with advanced settings for professionals.

For example, the main action for the user was downloading. It was the button for getting a new video that he was looking for with his eyes in the first session. Therefore, it was made more significant and stand out.