Letterboxd: one film, two viewings, two experiences
Letterboxd is a place for film lovers to log, rate and discuss movies. It separates having seen a film from watching it on a particular day, preserving the dates and impressions of each rewatch.
Form your own approach first, then explore the reasoning to check trade-offs and validation you may have missed. There is no single right answer.
01
DESIGN QUESTION
Distinguish a new viewing from an edit
Suppose you are designing a film diary. A user already has an entry for “A Day by the Sea”: March 2, three stars. After rewatching today, they want to give it four stars, but the film page only offers an “Edit” button.
- Task: Change only the recording controls on the film page so users can distinguish “Record today's viewing” from “Edit the March 2 entry.” You may add controls and short explanations. Keep rating rules and the diary list unchanged.
- Deliver and check: Sketch this area and write the control labels. Ask a reader to “save today's four-star rating” and then to “correct the old three-star rating to two stars.” Observe whether they choose the right control and can explain whether the other entry changes.
Explore the reasoning
- Use the date to identify the old entry, then distinguish adding from editing through action labels.
- Make the outcomes for “this viewing” and “that earlier viewing” clear, instead of calling both actions Edit.
- Use the two observation tasks to check the sketch without first teaching readers the internal data model.