Better way to organize Instant Queue?

[Kris SF]

Surely Netflix can come up with a better way to organize and view one's Instant Queue while accessing it through the Roku or other player.  I have over 250 titles in my Instant Queue and it is very tiresome to have to scroll through them one by one to try and find what's there.  Sure, I suppose I could sort them by category or in alphabetical order through the website but I have to believe there is a better way to make it work.  I can't be the only one who has a long instant queue.

[Craig in NJ]

I would think so, too, Spindaddydad. Scrolling through a list by pressing buttons on a remote is inherently more tedious than what one can do with a mouse (on NF web site) or a finger (on an iPhone).

A good measurement of this might be the the average number of motions (clicks / sweeps / drags / scrolls / spins) needed to traverse from the top to reach a movie. It just takes a few on a web page, but on a Roku it can take as many clicks as you have items in your queue.

This suggests another way to solve most of the queue mgmt issue might be to invent Roku-like devices with some means of pointing and sweeping / dragging. A software change to add user-defined categories or folders is probably easier given today's hardware, but we are getting closer to the day when TV-connected appliances might be able to recognize hand-waving motions. (Ref: XBox Natal)

[deb4nier]

The Roku "menu" lists items in the same order as the Instant Queue on your computer. So, seems like an alphabetical sort option in Netflix, would at least make finding a movie easier within Roku.

[Craig in NJ]

Alphabetical view could definitely be good and useful (and easier to implement than other ideas), but I don't think that's enough by itself. Alphabetical assumes the person knows off the top of their head the title of what they'll want to watch that night. People with over 100 titles in their queue might often prefer to visually browse through their queue to pick which one they want to watch right then. (Out of that many titles, ones they can name beforehand as their choice for that night might be more likely to already be near the top of the person's queue.)

(PS -- I assume you were suggesting an alternate view "toggle" feature that doesn't really change the queue order but lets you switch between the two views. If one only wanted alphabetical, they can already manually move each of their titles into that sequence.)

[Kris SF]

Craig, your comments are to the point. Whatever Netflix decides to do, they should do something. There simply has to be a better way, and with the volume of choices for streaming videos increasing, finding the one you so laboriously found to add to the queue in the first place ought not to be so hard. I agree, visual browsing should be retained. How about being able to sort them by star rating? And within a category folder? Comedy, Drama, British TV, whatever...

Netflix, are you listening? We love the product - make it easier to use, please.

Kris

[Craig in NJ]

LOL. I don't recall any defections once Toshiba abandoned it.

In the current case, Netflix doesn't have to care today because there's no credible competition. They do care, though, about having their service work well, so I'm betting that if Netflix's product manager for the Instant Watching thinks about it for a few seconds he/she'd say "ah-ha, of course that'd be better -- we'll have to think of how/when we can get around to that." Of course, we'd be much happier if they actually said that to us here so we can know the thought was received.

[Craig in NJ]

Please refrain from inflamatory insults. They don't help your point of view.

FWIW, I have vastly more industry-leading technology product management, development, and technology roadmap expertise than you assume, and much more than most Netflix product managers. I am well aware of the kinds of issues that can arise and how to work through them.

[Craig in NJ]

Please refrain from making inflamatory insults and from misrepresenting my words. They detract from your point of view about "Better way to organize Instant Queue."

[Pihk]

Please refrain from making inflamatory insults

Please refrain from asking people to refrain from speaking as they wish.

K THX!

[Craig in NJ]

Please refrain from making inflamatory insults, from misrepresenting my words, and from making personal attacks.

[Spindaddydad]

I have vastly more industry-leading technology product management, development, and technology roadmap expertise than you assume, and much more than most Netflix product managers

Wow, another person with industry-leading technology product management, development, and technology roadmap expertise. There sure are a bunch of your type out there. They come here often too.

[Pihk]

The user community has proven time and again that they are not capable of handling a mature discussion on such topics

[machdog314]

I called Netflix to request that they add the option for folders or groups to the instant queue.  The woman I spoke with was very nice and seemed excited with the idea since she has the same complaint regarding managing the queue.  She sent the suggestion to the developers.  She said the developers do not read suggestions from forums and encouraged others to call.  To contact them click on the “contact us” button on the bottom of the Netflix page the click on “call customer service”.