Hulu Web Site Redesign Focuses on Navigation, Visuals

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Hulu has a new look, which the online video site unveiled Tuesday night in a blog post.

"Tasty new website, available in two delicious flavors, Hulu and Hulu Plus," said CEO Jason Kilar, whose future at Hulu has been unclear over the past year, in a tweet.

The video venture of Walt Disney, News Corp., NBCUniversal and Providence Equity Partners, which is expected to cash out of its investment next month, focused on two things in its redesign. One was making it easier for users to find content and the second was offering an "elegant and innovative" video experience, as vp of product Rob Wong said on the Hulu blog.

Among the changes are the use of "larger, more vivid artwork to feature new additions to Hulu and last night's TV episodes," a new tray-style format to help people browse and discover contentand a "browse" that lets users jump to popular content, recently added programming, specific networks and recommendations, he said.

Once users have picked a TV show, Hulu's new page layout makes it easier for people to continue viewing where they left off. "We’ll feature the next episode if you’re in the middle of a series, point you to the first episode if it’s a new show for you or call out the latest episode if you’re all caught up," Wong said.

"Scroll down the homepage and you’ll find the most popular episodes on Hulu this week, and shows and movies that are recommended just for you based on the videos you watch on Hulu," he explained further changes. "On our homepage and across Hulu, you’ll also find ‘Staff Picks.’ These collections of TV shows, movies and short videos are hand-picked by our editorial team to help you discover new shows to watch on Hulu."

Among Wednesday's Staff Picks are a lineup of travel shows called “Armchair Adventures“ and presidential impressions from Saturday Night Live called “SNL for President."

Email: Georg.Szalai@thr.com
Twitter: @georgszalai