The Writings of John Ryan Sullivan

Not that long ago when I wanted to watch a movie or television show the first step in the process, usually, was to decide which I wanted to watch. If I reach back into my mind to the time when the video rental store was my main method of obtaining what I wanted, typically I decided before leaving my house to simplify the process. I wrote about this in greater detail here.

I mention this because in the past two years I find myself watching considerably fewer movies and television shows than before. In part this is due to a change in my habits, I read more than I used to, but this is also due to the terrible design and forceful marketing of THE NEW CONTENT of most streaming services. By which I mean how most streaming services push the same four shows or movies at the user, repeatedly, despite how much scrolling you do.

Rather than rant and rave I’d like to use this post to praise one streaming service in particular: Kanopy. I would be remiss if I did not mention that Kanopy is a free streaming service that you can only access if your library is a member. Which is weird because not all of us can control where were live and some libraries (my current one) do not provide access. When I started writing this I had never posited the question: how does Kanopy make money? Which was how I concluded this post.

I couldn’t help myself and started looking online and the first result was the following article. Which makes it clear that libraries are footing a hefty bill and that academic institutions are the intended source of income. Which has led me to question my use of Kanopy for personal use. I mean, if Stanford University claims the cost of using Kanopy is “no longer sustainable” then it makes me wonder if my using the service is fair to the tiny library in Massachusetts footing the bill.

So all that being said, I have no idea if we should be using Kanopy or not, what I am writing about today is the design of the site and why I think it’s great. Hopefully we can all find this a safe topic to consider and not get tangled up in ethical issues.

While Kanopy does not allow for a much in the way of customization, it does have several different ways of allowing the user to navigate their offerings.

On my television the browse features are displayed differently, as a submenu spread out along the top of the screen. Here on my computer hovering over the Browse tab makes the drop-down menu appear. As you can see they offer number of genres and subcategories to make searching easier.

Of the many things I adore about Kanopy is the breadth of their offerings and how they allow for specific subcategories. They allow you to look at films and shows by the language spoken but also by region. And not just broad categories like Europe –

I’ve never seen the option on other sites to look at Iberian or Balkan cinema before. I find this to be a wonderful way to find new and interesting things to watch, something that has become increasingly difficult with most streaming services.

What I also enjoy about Kanopy is the site feels like a video store. Despite having a plethora of films that are clearly “cinema” they have plenty of mainstream offerings. The site is well organized so I don’t feel I have to rummage around to find what I am looking for but the offerings also don’t feel segregated from one another. So that you can look at the category of Action & Adventure and see the following –

Which I think is an interesting mix and reminds me of the selections I used to encounter searching the shelves at the store.

A feature of The Criterion Channel (which Kanopy does not offer but I want to call attention to) allows you to sort by decade, country of origin and directors. I wish every service provided this. I have used the feature of a number of times to get a different view of the films available. By selecting 1930 and no other filter you are provided with an interesting overview of what filmmakers were creating at the time.

But you may also be able to discern that at the time of this post they offer 3010 films. Which means that regardless of how you sort and sift their films the results are far from complete and comprehensive.

Which I recognize is an entirely different issue from design. The Criterion Channel, Mubi and many other streaming services offer a limited selection films and shows intentionally. My point being I enjoy that Kanopy manages to bridge the divide between the wider offerings of services like Netflix/Hulu while provided the search parameters and overall organization of The Criterion Channel and Mubi.

The final praise I wish to heap on the service is not only their inclusion of short films but giving them their own section. Given that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences offers a specific award for short films you would think some value would be attached to making these films easily available for viewing.

Typically you get something like –

Whereas Kanopy follows the same format they use for the rest of the site. Each row corresponds to a genre and they offer many rows to browse.

In closing I would humbly suggest the other streaming services look at Kanopy and steal most of their design. As a viewer I find it easy to discover something to watch and the selection is massive without being overwhelming. There’s no fussy nonsense like Netflix and their secret codes to access sub-genres (which is maddening, forcing users to go to other websites to access the codes to find something to watch!!) and navigating the site is intuitive.

In conclusion I find myself now wondering if this beautifully designed site should be used by viewers like myself. While I do not have an answer for that I do think their design and layout should be studied and incorporated by other streaming services.