IMDb redesign

IMDb has been founded in 1990 by Col Needham - that means the database itself is older than the web. How is that even possible? As Needham has a passion about movies, he long kept track of the details about every movie he watched. In 1990 he “published a series of scripts which allowed you to search a lists of credits collected by a wonderful USENET group.“ A few years later, he moved the database to the web.

In the past fifteen years the Internet Movie Database became more than just a database, which you could drill down to its content: It's a place to search, discover, rent and buy movies, expose yourself to new ideas, read news, etc.

The major problem is: They are trying too much! Certainly, it is the principle of a database that every single entry is of importance but IMDb actually focuses on too many things at a time. IMDb needs to prioritize more its core features.

Focus can be the biggest hurdle when working on a product. Actually, it is a common problem among designers to focus too much on the UI part and to completely ignore the UX and functionality of a product. During my research I saw countless IMDb redesigns, which were designed to impress their peers rather than solving real problems.

In order to not get trapped with the same issues, I put down three major points that I consider to be of major importance to IMDb users and myself:

Exploration

After strictly analyzing the current IMDb website, I spent a couple of hours sketching and trying out different interaction models. I usually create some sketches, before diving into any of the specifics. The main goals were to simplify the site map, as much as possible, and to get a feel for the behavior of the interaction.

Wireframing and Prototyping

Right after doing some sketches I started Wireframing and low-fi Prototyping in order to test and validate the concept I just created. I wanted to keep all transition as logical and functional as possible, so finally I ended up with the following results:

In order to develop a system, that is flexible enough to deal with the abundance of data from IMDb, I choose a modular layout. As it is all about being responsive without limitations, I created three optimized grids for desktop, tablet and mobile.

A endless scrolling wall of content becomes overwhelming, so I created some natural breaks to help alleviate this. These areas could be used to promote events, movies or people - one of IMDb's greatest revenue streams -, or just to introduce topics of your interest.

To keep the iconic and well-known appearance, Lorenz just slightly adjusted the old color scheme in order to create a more modern and contemporary look. The open-source font Open Sans creates a neutral and friendly appearance, while representing the simplicity of IMDb. In addition using Open Sans ensures a good readability across all screen densities and being available in most alphabets.