Channel Change

The most important element on live TV, obviously, is being able to flip through channels. Even with hundreds of options, research showed that there was still a sizable subset of users who flip through channels one by one. So we knew we had to make this easy.

For 10ft, we had to figure out the directional navigation system for remote controls. And we had to design for the remote with the fewest buttons, the AppleTV remote.

Since the Menu button is how users actually back out of an app, up/down was being used to access the Menu (down) and Channel Info (up). So left and right became the way users would change channels. I designed contextual hints to help new users learn.

However, once it was built, we noticed that users were accidentally changing channels on AppleTV because of how easy it is to accidentally swipe. I designed some iterations of the Channel Change interaction right before I left the company that never got implemented.

We maintained this same Channel Change interaction model across web, mobile and TV, for users who switched between devices often.

Channel Change Tutorial

Channel Change Iterations

After discovering how easy it was to accidentally change channels on the AppleTV remote, and learning that channel loading could take up to 3-4 seconds (on the traditional set-top box, it was around 2 seconds), I wanted to simplify this experience.

I created a more non-committal way of browsing through channels without actually committing to a new channel. This was a better experience for AppleTV users who might accidentally swipe. And it was possibly a faster way for channel surfers to see what’s on before actually changing the channel. But we didn’t have the chance to user test this to see if that assumption was accurate.