Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/ask-me-how-hulu-stole-6-00-from-me-with-this-one-sneaky-ux-trick-8175855a9cfe?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Lauren LoPrete 
Yep, that’s me. You’re probably wondering how I got here in the first place. Back in 2015, Cinnamon Toast Crunch had a commercial to the tune of Kelis’ Milkshake. It was… The worst. Commercial. Ever. Or was it the best? Since it got me to upgrade to a commercial free Hulu account (+$3.00).
In an effort to save money and watch less tv, I decided to downgrade my Hulu commercial-free plan to their basic streaming service. Venturing to their website was new territory (I’m typically only a Hulu-on-Apple-TV-user). I had gone to their site before to upgrade, but this time I made a glaring mistake.
I tapped into “Your Account” to update my plan. My eyes focused on the empty space across from “Hulu Base Plan” expecting to see a similar manage/update/change action in blue.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Pm90hbPuSTv-6-et_34Ryw.png">Took me 60 seconds to figure out the way to manage my plan was through the Add-ons “manage” CTA. I expected a similar button across from Hulu Base Plan.
Now, I’m in “Manage Your Subscription”.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*XGWtP4WLj_SkO70zgMoz_Q.png"><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*nNZ2eQVA17MluWpL3ZJdnw.png">
Seems pretty clear from here: My current plan, switch plans, and add-on features. I don’t need any more add-on features so I just ignore those. I chose the $7.99 plan by switching the toggle “on”.
It’s ON. You want this plan. Close tab.
Two months go by and I haven’t been on Hulu much. Fall TV is starting though, so I’m back on Apple TV looking for that teal-lime gradient icon. There are no commercials streaming between segments of SNL so I check my billing statement… Still shows $11.99 charges. Somehow my change didn’t go into effect. I returned to my account page, confused. The switch I had so intently toggled on, was off.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*I8dvtzduq1JJG3ZykaAr2g.gif">Continue? Continue what?
I must have missed a step. My bad. What an idiot I am. Scrolls all the way to the bottom… Ah! A continue button.
There’s got to be a better way.
A UI switch indicates the status as on or off. When I toggled on the $7.99 plan, I thought that meant I was good to go. If I have to confirm my action, make that obvious to me. By toggling on a switch but not continuing, I was left in subscription limbo.
Here are two alternate solutions:
<ol>
<li>Use gradient buttons to say “select this plan” instead.</li>
</ol>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/518/1*MygBQcGUFBHk9jJJv9AM2w.png"><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*VMf38kqGLOMUxuiIFejDZA.png">
2. Prompt the user to continue/save/done on a sticky footer. Surface the sticky footer when the user engages with the toggle.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*JHXot61LIM-w1_MNjHEb8w.gif">Save yourself from Subscription limbo.
While both of these solutions would provide clearer and less-frustrating UX, they keep users focused on the top half of the page, limiting their exposure to add-ons. But by employing the exit-through-the-gift-shop approach — get users to comb through the add-ons as upsell — I’m prevented from completing the task I set out to do.
If product’s goal is to upsell on this page, it prevented the UX team from designing a clearer interaction. Product designers (and Hulu) should consider how they market and display add-ons. On a page where the user’s intent is to manage their current plan, I want to focus on the plan or add-ons that I currently have. Hulu should consider moving add-ons and manage account to two separate pages.
And give me my $6.00 back.
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This is my first Medium article. Please help me improve my writing by giving me feedback, thanks! Lauren
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/ask-me-how-hulu-stole-6-00-from-me-with-this-one-sneaky-ux-trick-8175855a9cfe">Ask me how Hulu stole $6.00 from me with this one sneaky UX trick.</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Ask me how Hulu stole $6.00 from me with this one sneaky UX trick.

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