Prime Video undergoes interface revamp for better user-accessibility

Mumbai, July 19

OTT giant Prime Video, which has promised over 40 titles in the next 2 years, seems to be bracing to serve a whole new experience as their user interface gets a revamp. The change will include a modern look and feel, dynamic visuals, a new live TV hub and improved and efficient search engine among scores of other changes.

According to Variety, the upgrade will begin rolling out this week, and is the streaming service's most significant change in nearly a decade. The new design will allow the users to easily find and watch content on the platform. It also aims to address what Prime Video members have been frustrated with for years: being able to quickly and easily tell which programming is included as part of a subscription service - and which are available for purchase.

Helena Cerna, global director of product management for Prime Video, said in a statement accessed by Variety, "We certainly wanted customers to understand the breadth of content available to them, with a clear ingress and being able to know which titles cost extra."

What triggered the change of interface is the need to highlight the broad selection of content on the service and to make it easier for customers to find the content they love. Cerna said that the OTT platform wanted to make the experience more cinematic.

The overall goal, according to Amazon, was to enhance the Prime Video UI so the interface is less cluttered than the previous Prime Video UI. It features a simplified main navigation menu that, on connected-TV devices, has been relocated to the left-hand side of the screen.

The app will launch with six primary pages: Home, Store, Find, Live TV, Free With Ads (pointing to content on Amazon's Freevee) and My Stuff. Customers will also have sub-navigation options to more easily browse by content or offer type; for example, "Movies" or "TV shows" or "Sports" on Home and "Channels" or "Rent or Buy" on Store.

The new Prime Video app comes with new carousels that play video previews when you navigate to that part of the screen. The UI features a "Super Carousel" with larger, poster-style artwork, to let featured titles pop out.

The new UI, which has been in development for 18 months, will first roll out on connected TV devices and Android app followed by Apple's iOS devices and its website.