Designing for Smart TV’s
There are not many resources regarding television UX design or strategy. I’ve been piecing together what I have found but wanted to share my resources and thoughts!
First off, we need to understand what we’re dealing with here. Here was the first piece of information I was handed, another Medium article with a standard guide to building a basic TV UI layout. I realized it’s directing the readers to create in the same standard format as every other smart TV or online TV source; I’ll come back to this later. Next, I came across the usability of smart TV’s; Smart-TV Usability: Accessing Content is Key. Great article, so before diving deep into this article, go ahead and read through it if you want to get caught up to date on the topic, I’ll wait…
Okay?
So let’s take a step back and look at the comparison. We’ve come a long way in television. In the last few years, live TV has decreased significantly, while online streaming has increased. This is no surprise if you think about how we watch TV now.
The “Old” School TV Experience
When I say old-school, I mean from my millennial generation; the 90’s. TV’s had channels but no recording, no rewind. Near the very end of my grandmother’s life, at the age of 97 in 2011, she noticed immediately when baseball added instant replay. So it’s not hard for anyone to notice the changes but how do we improve the experience? How do we use this new technology to provide the best possible user experience?
Finding the Issue
My first issue is the remote control. Initially, I got irritated at the physical aspect finding that the remote controls were originally not designed for this giant screen and quick moving interactions. Diving into research testing myself, newer remote controls like the Amazon Fire Stick or the Apple TV 4K are even more simplified remotes. Their touch navigation allows for more ease of use, but there’s still the main issue here; the visual screen, the UI, the graphics… or whatever you’d like to call it. This is the big topic we’re dealing with here!
Whether you think this a problem or a success, there’s consistency is the layouts and design. Personally, I think this layout is okay (see examples below.) The vertical scroll between sections makes sense, the horizontal scroll within the sections is easy, and everyone’s use to it. Why would we want to change it?

Some designer’s like to disrupt the standard. I want to think I’m that way! I’m bold, innovative and aspiring for that dramatic change! 👊 (My inner Wonder Woman gets very hyped up on this especially that I’m still a young designer!)
Sometimes, that’s not the best way to go. It takes a lot of small steps and years of patience to make significant changes in large industries. Many designers will agree with this. Here, I’m making the first step to bring this to your attention.
What’s Innovative
The only area where I’ve seen real innovation within the niche industry is the Airplay that Apple offers. It’s taking away the remote and replacing it with the standard device we cannot, apparently, live without, our iPhones.
Check out my article here about living without a phone abroad if you want to know what that was like!
Whether you’re a designer, developer, information architect, or whatever you title yourself as, I’d love to gather your input on the topic. I hope you share your knowledge of why this is the standard beyond the deeper insight of the research that has been done. Do you see other common trends?
Please share with your comments below and let’s all start thinking about what the future is holding of design within the television industry.
