What's wrong with Redbox.com

fixredbox.md

To make a generalization, you have two kinds of customers, A and B. Type A goes to Redbox.com to see if s/he can rent a movie. "A" has a specific movie in mind and might go to a B&M store if it Redbox doesn't have it. Type B goes to Redbox.com to see what movies s/he can rent, and I'm a solid "B." I love movies but I don't read Entertainment Weekly or movie blogs, and if I watch TV it's online. I don't know when any particular movie is coming out, so when I go to Redbox.com it's because "I'm looking for a movie to watch," not "looking to watch this movie."

I think Redbox.com's main problem is that it's designed for "A," not "B," i.e. not me. Here's my experience, starting from the homepage and logged in:

1. I see a GIANT BANNER AD and five other movies, none of which I happen to be interested in. (Two of the six—an entire third of the displayed titles—say "OUT OF STOCK." Why are these even shown?)

   Oh wait, I just moved my mouse and discovered that the GIANT BANNER AD is actually a slideshow that doesn't change when the mouse is on it—which is all the time because it's GIANT. Now it shows four movies in rotation. But I don't want wait, or click on the left and right arrows that I didn't notice in the first place—by now I should be on my way to giving you money, not waiting to see these four big pictures.

   How to fix it:

   • Just show those four movies side-by-side. A customer can scan four pictures in a split second and decide in another split second if anything shown is interests him, and if it doesn't he can get on with finding something else to give you money for.

   • And don't show out-of-stock titles, or anything else I can't give you money for right now (more on this later).

2. I have three choices now:

   1. Search for Movies & Games — But I'm a "B"—next!

   2. Find a Redbox kiosk near you — But I'm at home (you can guess this with IP geolocation 90% of the time) and, as I mentioned, I'm logged in and have a rental history that should tell you I'm not a Redbox novice, so I already know where all the nearby Redboxen are—this isn't useful to me!

      How to improve it

      • Pre-populate the search box with my ZIP code, since you already know it, if my IP tells you I'm probably near there.

      • Show the nearby Redbox I most recently rented from, as well as N other Redboxen I've rented from recently (again, use my IP to guess where I am and rank the Redboxen accordingly).

      • If I'm not logged in you can still store my search with a cookie and pre-populate it next time.

      But! these are only a stop-gap, because I really don't want to know about Redboxen's whereabouts—I want to know what movies are near me. For this the homepage is useless and so I move on...

   3. Click on "MOVIES," which I assume will let me browse movies. Hey it, does! You do a few things right here: You show 10* titles above the fold, you show New Releases first but let me change the sort order, and you have buttons right at the top to filter by genre, format (DVD/BR), etc. (*Except you show many movies twice when they're available on DVD and Blu-ray—why not show the movie once and badge the image somehow to show that both formats are available? It would let you show a bigger selection to the customer while conveying the same information.)

      Unfortunately things go off the rails exactly here: "Browsing inside: All Redbox kiosks"

      I don't want to do that. I mean really, does anyone want to do that? If I'm in Iowa City do I care about a movie that's only available in Honolulu? I can click on "pick a location" but I already know that it will show me the inventory of one kiosk at a time. If the first kiosk I look at doesn't have a movie that appeals to me I have to start over with another kiosk—and browse through a selection that I've largely already dismissed. Even if two kiosks are in the same physical location—Kiosk A and Kiosk B—I have to browse them one at a time.

      But by then I've probably already given up.

      How to fix it

      Since I'm logged in you know my billing ZIP code, the location of every Redbox I've ever used, and the kiosks I've "favorited." You have plenty of data to show:

      • "Browsing inside: All Redbox kiosks near you"
      • "Browsing inside: Redbox kiosks you've used recently"
      • "Browsing inside: Your favorite Redbox kiosks"

      And if you have a user who isn't logged in:

      • "Browsing inside: Redbox kiosks near ~~~~~~"

      Where "~~~~~~" is whatever locale they searched for, either just now or previously (using a cookie). While I'm sure you have some customers who really do want to see every movie in every Redbox I'd be amazed to hear that they're a major demographic.

I'm not every user. Maybe "B's" are a much smaller part of your customer base than I'm imagining. But for me, anyway, Redbox.com is pretty broken, and on more than one occasion I've given up before getting the chance to give you money.