Twitch
Gift Subscription Feature
Enabling users to gift multiple subscriptions to specific users — a highly desired feature by the Twitch community
Project Date: October 2022 / 5 weeks
Company: Twitch
My Role: UX Researcher/Designer
Responsibilities: Research, personas, sketching, wireframing, prototyping, and user testing
Team: Mentor, Group Crit Peers
Overview
Twitch is a live video streaming service with a strong focus on video game live streaming.
Viewers can chat with the streamers in real-time, follow streamers they like, and pay a monthly fee to subscribe to streamers. A portion of the subscription fee gets paid out to the streamer by Twitch and is one of the main sources of income for streamers and one of the main ways that viewers show their support.
Viewers also have the option to gift subscriptions to other viewers, ranging from 1 to 100 viewers. These are often referred to as “gift subs”. Gift subs are often given to others in the streamer’s community as an act of kindness to the other viewers while also supporting the streamer.
The Problem
❌
Twitch has a Gift to Specific Viewer option — but it is limited to only one person at at time.
If a user wanted to gift 5 subscriptions, they would need to go through the process of searching the name and going through a checkout process each time.
Currently, it takes approximately 17 seconds to gift a subscription to a specific user. Multiply that process by 5, it would take about 1 min and 25 seconds to complete 5 specific gift subscriptions.
Given that Twitch has time-sensitive events relating to subbing such as “Hype Trains” that last 5 minutes, time is very valuable.
The current process could be improved to be more user friendly, more scaleable, and can potentially encourage more gift purchases.
This requested feature is ranked #5 on Twitch’s UserVoice page.
The Main Goal
🎯
Create a solution that allows users to gift multiple subscriptions to specific users while cutting down the current time to gift to 5 users by at least half.
What do we need to understand to achieve this goal?
Why do people gift subscriptions — what motivates them to do so?
What are the pain points in the current gifting system?
How do competitors who have a similar feature handle gifting?
Understanding the users through research
Why do people gift subscriptions — what motivates them to do so?
Research Methods
Secondary Research
TwitchCon survey
Twitch subreddit
1 on 1 interviews
Unmoderated survey
The top 3 motivations for gifting subs are as follows:
To support the streamer
To give back to the streamer’s community
For exclusive incentives (Badges, VIP, or moderator status)
Research Details
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According to a survey conducted at TwitchCon, the top motivations that user have for supporting streamers are:
To provide monetary support to the streamer
Wanting attention
Desire to be closer to the streamer
Because they enjoyed the content
To get digital benefits (emotes, badges, streamer-generated perks)
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When asked “Why do people gift subscriptions” on the Twitch subreddit, people responded with the following:
It’s about supporting the community and having [gift recievers] feel included
Mostly to support the streamer and community as a whole
It might give the streamer another viewer when they go live next
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Two 1 on 1 interviews were conducted during the research period.
In the 1 on 1 interview with a frequent Twitch user, they stated that their main motivation for gifting was to support the streamer and to gift to friends who have gifted them previously. -
A survey was conducted via a Google Form that was sent out to multiple streaming communities on Twitch consisting of both streamers and viewers.
Participants were eligible for the survey if they have previously gifted subscriptions on Twitch.
Their top motivation for gifting is to support the streamer and their community.When asked what their personal criteria was for gifting to specific users, they ranked it by the following:
A long-time viewer who may not have the financial means to support the streamer
An active member of the community
Friends
What are the pain points in the current gifting system?
Research Methods
Secondary Research
UserVoice
Unmoderated survey
The top 3 pain points for gifting subs are as follows:
Can’t gift subscriptions to more than one person
Multiple gift subscriptions go to non active viewers or completely random followers
Can’t gift extended subscription duration to those who already have a subscription
Research Details
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On Twitch’s UserVoice page, where users can give feedback on what features they want implemented for the site, these were the top comments regarding gifting multiple specific subscriptions:
“How is [random gifting criteria] determined? You’re telling me if I want to gift a 5-pack it goes to people not active? That’s insane”
“This [desired feature] is much better for the community since this way, sub-gifters can target active users instead of the random selection picking out lurking followers”
“…especially during a hype train, I want to gift lots of subs but I hate how they are so random…”
-
A survey was conducted via a Google Form that was sent out to multiple streaming communities on Twitch consisting of both streamers and viewers.
Participants were eligible for the survey if they have previously gifted subscriptions on Twitch.
When asked what their pain points regarding the current gifting system, here is what most users noted:
Did not like that they could not gift specifically to more than one person
Difficult to gift on mobile
Could not gift to users and add to their duration
A specific response detailed a time they felt frustrated with the gifting system:
“In chat, it was someone’s birthday and we knew that they did not have the means to continue their subscription, and multiple members of the community wanted to gift them a longer period of a subscription. However, there was no way for a group of us to gift and add to their duration — it was either one person gifts the max amount (6 months) and they foot the entire cost. There is no way for a bunch of members to collectively add to this gift unless there was money funneled to a singular person to purchase the subscription. Sending money to someone you don’t know on the internet and trust that they will use the money properly? Obviously people would not be open to that.”
How do competitors who have a similar feature handle gifting?
Research Methods
Secondary Research
Competitive analysis
A feature that other competitors have that Twitch can potentially benefit from is…
A gifting criteria system that rewards and favors active viewers.
Competitive Analysis
Personas
Research Takeaways: What did we learn from the research?
Giftees value giving subscriptions to people who will use and appreciate it
Users want to gift quickly, especially if there is a time sensitive event going on
Here’s how we translate that into design goals…
Giftees value giving subscriptions to people who will use and appreciate it
↓
Gifters should be able to easily filter through users and select desired names to gift users. Ideally, the list of eligible giftees should reflect users who are more active in chat or have more watch time
A drop down menu that filters between viewers and followers, where each list is auto-sorted by watch time and chat activity
Users want to gift quickly, especially if there is a time sensitive event going on
↓
Gifters should be able to gift multiple specific subscriptions with as little clicks as possible and should be able to gift multiple subscriptions faster than the current system
And then translate design goals to features…
A two column list where gifters can quickly select people to gift by drag and drop or manually moving users with arrow buttons
Wireframes
Initial Design
Design Highlight: Two Column System
Double column design shows more separation between eligible giftees and those receiving gifts
Two ways to move between columns: drag and drop or using arrows to move users
Why design it this way?
I wanted to create a familiar system — something that others have used before and can recognize as soon as it pops up.
I also wanted to make something that had visual separation and was easy to digest at a glance!
User Testing
Total Participants
28
Total Time Spent
6 hrs
Number of Tasks
3
Unmoderated Testing (Maze.co)
User testing was conducted both face to face and via Zoom. Users tested the prototype via Maze.co for recording clicks and paths they took.
A link to a unmoderated user test via Maze.co was sent out to frequent Twitch users, users who were not familiar with Twitch, and other 1 on 1 interviewees.
The mid-fidelity wireframe above was tested by a total of 28 people. Each tester was given the following tasks:
Gift 5 Subscriptions
"You are currently watching a streamer and would like to gift 5 Tier 1 (1 month) subs to specific members of the community”
Switch to “Eligible Followers”
“Switch the view from eligible viewers to eligible followers”
Select First 5 Followers and Complete Payment
“Please select the first 5 followers on the list to receive gifts: SuperButterBuns, Raszy, Madiisun, Mondily, and Louminary. Then, complete the payment for the gift subs.”
Moderated Testing (In-Person/Zoom)
Affinity Map/Feedback Analysis
All feedback from user testing was compiled and sorted into three different categories: successes, pain points/confusion, and suggestions.
Here are the key patterns that we observed in the feedback…
Drag and drop is NOT intuitive! Users’ first instinct was to click to highlight names.
Multi-select is a must. Many users expected an option to multi-select, but it was not available.
Users would like a confirmation page before payment
…and here are the priority revisions that we made!
Change two column design to single column with checkmarks
Remove drag and drop feature and add multi-select capabilities
Create a “full checkout” confirmation screen
Priority Revision
Two Column to One Column Change
Before
After
Multi-Select Drag Demo
Full Checkout Confirmation Page
What may be intuitive to one person may not be intuitive to all. Initially I thought that a drag and drop was intuitive because there were existing designs that utilized that feature. However, during the testing phase, people found it more of an inconvenience rather than a benefit. This experience demonstrated how valuable research and testing can be, especially when designing for our users.
Accessibility should always be advocated for — not just for the user but for the good of the business. Although Twitch does a solid job of having good contrast, some of the font sizing is smaller than it should be for accessibility guidelines. I adjusted the font sizes from 8pt to 10pt to increase the readability of some items but did not adjust it to the recommended 12pt because I also wanted to maintain the style that Twitch currently has. My recommendation would be to make sure the site is fully accessible, as it greatly gives our users a better experience and can potentially bode well financially and intrinsically for the company in general. The more a company accommodates for a wider user base, the better.
Users value knowing exactly what they are getting when paying for a value or service. Even though dark patterns exist to benefit a business, an option should exist to offset that for the user. In this case, adding the confirmation screen was very much desired by testers, as the current confirmation screen does not have enough information. Users should be able to know exactly what they are getting — having something as simple as a confirmation screen can prevent erroneous purchases, reduce excess inquiries to the company’s support team, and increase customer confidence.
Lessons Learned
Future Steps and Features
Add “Shift + Click” multi-select capability
Most likely added on developer end — would need to communicate that over
Add finer filtering system
Current followers in chat
Current viewers in chat
Most active chatters
Add search function prototype