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Subtitles & Audio

Kinopoisk — is the largest encyclopedia of cinema in Russian, as well as the most popular online cinema in Russia with an audience of over 60 million MAU

Context and motivation

Subtitles are an important part of the functionality in the player,
and their use has been gaining momentum in recent years.
According to experts, about 50% of users watch content with subtitles constantly and another 20% periodically, as well as more than 5% of users have hearing problems, and by 2030 they will be about 15%.

Memes-screenshots from TV series with subtitles are gaining popularity on the Internet, the video content market is developing its tools for on-screen text, short videos are more often viewed without sound, subtitles help to learn languages, people love personal customization.

A little more about this (in Russian)

Problems and targets

Our product has a poorly designed solution that affects TVT (Total View Time) and Churn (User Churn) in favor of competitors who directly affect our Revenue

The product is being prepared to enter the international market,
but it is not competitive.

Task

  • Creating a smart, intuitive and scalable interface for on-screen text and audio settings

  • Optimizing the output of the audio track library



  • Development of accessibility support and international experience in the product

Key stages and my role

Collecting requirements, formulating tasks, and managing expectations

At the first stage, I discussed the details of the project and clarified the criteria for success. There were many problems of various kinds. We wanted to create a clear, smart and flexible settings interface that would allow you to quickly set the necessary parameters and remember the selection for subsequent views. It should also be able to adjust to the device (approx. devices with surround sound support), the user and the content.

Current issues in detail:

  1. Negative reviews (readability, scale)



  2. Lack of adaptation to the device



  3. No accessibility support (size, contrast, special characters)



  4. The lack of structure of the audio track library



  5. Non-scalable interface



  6. The settings are not saved



  7. Not being able to compete when entering the international

Subtitles in mobile application

Collecting issues and requests from business and product

Organizing the structure of audio tracks in the viewing settings window was an important and difficult task. Each track had its own parameters: language, sound channel, recording studio, censorship. These parameters were often duplicated, since each track was output separately.

The accessibility settings for subtitles should also have appeared in the settings,
in the first version — resizing.

All this was complicated by the nuances of each individual platform
and technical limitations, for example in mobile phones, where there is very little space.