HBO's Beautiful Design Is Also Terrible UX

HBO Max; another streaming service battling Netflix, Amazon, Disney and Hulu for your attention.

And although they have a catalogue of content that people love—like Game of Thrones—their app is the worst-rated across both the Apple and Google app stores.

From what I can tell, that quote is fairly representative of the public consensus—backed up by more than 30 million ratings, across the 8 major streaming services.

Here's how they compare:

What's interesting though, is that despite surplus user feedback condemning the app, the overall experience is actually quite good.

Instead, as you'll see throughout this case study, the app suffers from poor UX judgement, a lack of finesse and a focus on style over function.

And without that specificity, product managers may be overwhelmed by the volume of negative feedback. 

Here's exactly what's wrong, and what you can learn from it.