Disney+ Parental controls
Overview
As Disney+ introduces more mature content to its platform, it must provide a safe environment for parents and children, so our streamers can enjoy their shows with a peace of mind. A set of parental control features are introduced to address concerns from parents and to comply with local laws, specifically Brazil and Germany.
Role
Design Lead, responsible for shaping strategy and vision, execution, XFN stakeholder discussions, and design planning and provide design direction to another Product Designer and Motion team.
Platform
Mobile & Tablet (iOS & Android), Living Room (Apple TV, Android TV, Xbox & PS5), Web
Challenge
49% found certain contents on Disney+ may not be appropriate for young kids.
25% of parents found Disney+ content to be more mature than what they had expected.
How might we enable parents to feel trusting of the experience in Disney+?
To understand the user’s mental model, I facilitated a cross-functional workshops to strategize the vision and generate ideas.
What are the jobs to be done?
Parents want to have their well deserved me-time. Kids want to enjoy content on their own.
Based on the priority exercise, we understood that we must have PIN and content rating controls to launch in Germany and Brazil as well as a safe gate to prevent kids from switching and/or adding profiles.
We are also interested in "Blacklist/Whitelist a theme or title” or integrate age-recommended catalog in the onboarding flow.
Ideate & TEst
We tested 2 main concepts – Account-level and Profile-level controls to better understand the user wants and needs.
FINAL DESIGNS
Feature 1
Set content rating
Each profile can customize their own content rating, which controls the content be shown in their profile. Once enabled, restricted content will be hidden in user’s profile.
Feature 2
Set and Enter Profile PIN
Each profile can set their own unique profile pin to restrict others from entering their profile.
When enabled, user is required to enter profile pin to enter their profile.
Feature 3
Prevent kids profile from switching to general audience profile
Kids profile user requires to pass a reading test to leave their profile.
Feature 4
Restrict others from creating a new profile
Only account holder or the one who knows the account password, can create new profile.
Global expansion
Disney+ Parental controls launched in Brazil and Germany in late 2019. The features have since then expanded to all EMEA, LatAm, APAC regions, Turkey, Canada, and U.S. The design patterns are able to scale to all regions quickly based on their regional rating system.
KEY takeaways
Even though the current Disney+ parental controls is limited with MVP features, the team have been consistently working with user research team to collect insights and validate concepts, so that we can eventually reach closer to our vision as well as to create an useful and delightful experience for the parents and kids.