For love of Netflix

I have a friend and coworker named Jennifer. Here's Jennifer:


Jennifer is a recent convert to Netflix... and by convert I mean I was being downright evangelical about the glorious service that is Netflix. This is not a new blogging topic for me, but I will reiterate again that I don't work for Netflix or any known subsidiary of Netflix (...yet). I just plain love them heart and soul.

One day as Jennifer was considering subscription, she asked me why I'm such a vocal brand advocate for the red envelope. I gave her far more reasons than she was looking for, including emails such as this one:...or this one. :
So today Jennifer tells me about the havoc that Netflix is wrecking on her home life. To dramatically misquote her for a moment, "My husband keeps logging on and moving crap to the top of my queue, no matter how many times I rearrange things. Netflix is a threat to my marriage."

But Jennifer! You have come to the right person with your marital woes! Because one of the million beauties of Netflix-- which they don't advertise much but they should-- is that each account can have separate profiles... which means separate queues. Jeff, my rival blogger, has queues for each of his daughters, and when they return a movie it pulls a new one from their individual wishlists. Problem solved.

This post isn't meant to list the various (awesome) features of Netflix. My point is that Netflix, as a company, has their act together. They have the kind of vision that allows them to think, "What if our service causes untold numbers of domestic disturbances on account of a family's differing tastes?" "Well, Sir John Q. Netflix... we shalt divine a solution post-haste!"

Alright, not sure what happened there. Anyway.

Much of my job revolves around usability, which contrary to popular belief means much more than the navigation of the site. In Netflix's case, it begins with "can people find a particular DVD," but look at how much farther they consistently take it... and they stay a step ahead of the consumer, so that by the time we have a bone to pick, there's a user-friendly, why-didn't-I-think-of-that solution waiting for us.

P.S. Another service I love is Blogger because ohmygod I accidentally just deleted this entire post but they autosaved it. I just lost a year of my life.