To get a sense of the impact of introducing pause ads into the video player from a viewer experience standpoint, I analysed U’s video completion rate, which averaged around 72.97% over a three month period. Examining viewer engagement data, I observed that users rarely pause during playback. When they do, it's typically at the beginning or end of a show. This suggests that the frequency of encountering a static ad would likely be very low.

For this new feature to fit in well, the integration of a static ad needed to be intuitive. This way, when someone pauses a show, they can easily jump back to playing content within as minimal clicks as possible, as a poor execution of this could lead to a challenging learning curve for our users.

Why users pause content?

Our viewers are familiar with the presence of Ads and understand what to expect from a free Ad video on service. But challenges lie in creating new expectations so understanding why users pause was really important in designing this feature for the video player.

Survey reports conducted revealed,

• paused “because I need to do something away from the screen”

• paused “because I needed to use the toilet”

• paused “because I’m a slow reader and wanted to read something in the scene”

• paused “to make a quick snack”

Competitor research revealed that each service handles this feature differently. However, a common weakness stood out: the ads were difficult to dismiss and felt intrusive. While it's understandable that these services aim to increase revenue through advertising, this approach often comes at the cost of user experience, ultimately diminishing the overall quality of the device interaction.