2 - Kristi Starling

As far as an obvious design is concerned, I think Netflix has accomplished it quite well with its profile selection screen (to be clear, I'm referring to the screen that prompts you to choose or add a profile, not the screen that prompts you to set up the initial profile before any have been created).  Robert Hoekman, Jr., the author of our book, lists as one of his qualifications that an obvious design is "the product of intent.  It has a clear purpose, a compelling benefit, straightforward usage, and a cohesive design".  The purpose and benefit of profiles on Netflix is immediately apparent to anyone who has a family account.  Speaking from personal experience, it's much easier to find the shows I'm looking for when Netflix is making suggestions and remembering shows based only upon what I personally have watched, and I'm sure my dad is quite happy to Disney movies and "Say Yes to the Dress" suggested on my page instead of his.  It no doubt makes his suggested movies a bit more accurate.  

When you sign into Netflix, it immediately takes you to the profile selection page.  You must select a profile before continuing.  The page is dark with a white dialog box in the center that simply asks "Who's watching?"  and displays each profile with a picture either set by the user or selected by the computer.  Pictures selected by default are all different from one another, making the distinctions between the profiles easy to see.  At the end of the list is an option to create a new profile.  The design is clean and simple.  A user simply clicks on his/her name or picture and is immediately redirected to his/her page with viewing history and suggestions.  If a user clicks the wrong profile by accident, a click of the back button on the browser window will return you to the profile selection screen, or hovering over the user's picture in the upper-right corner of the screen will display a list of the other profiles, which you can click to change profiles. 

Now, for a quick comparison to Hoekman's list:  as discussed above, this page has purpose and intent.  With a service such as Netflix, it is common for a family to share an account but use it separately, so these profiles do in fact conform to how users interact with the web.  There are no unnecessary features or clutter, and it does exactly what users expect it to do: direct them to their personalized home page.  It persuades the user to choose his/her profile, as it is impossible to proceed without selecting one, but it is easy to switch profiles if you pick the wrong one by mistake.  The design of the page is clean and uniform, but the different pictures associated with each account make spotting the correct profile easy.  Thus, by comparison, I believe that Netflix's profile selection page is an excellent example of an obvious design.

https://movies.netflix.com/ProfilesGate?nextpage=http%3A%2F%2Fmovies.netflix.com%2FDefault