This is my first post. I am not a maker. I am an appreciator of the design of things, as they are or as they could be. Playing around with a rough draft of what a YouTube App remote might look like on a smart tv, I came up with this concept…
This idea was relatively well accepted on the sites where I posted as a prior survey. Now I would like to find partnerships to get this out of the paper via crowdfunding, because I don’t know anything about electronics or diy and, as you can see, there is a shovel of work to be done here.
I think there are a lot of people interested in saving menu clicks when zapping around the world’s best-known video app. So, this might be interesting for those who can produce it on a small scale by getting a fair amount and/or equipment from supporters in return.
I leave the invitation here. Suggestions without compromise are also welcome.
These are not discouragement questions just basics for evaluating an idea:
Who is the customer? [the persona]
When, were and how would this be used?
What are the competing methods for doing this? [I cast my phone to the TV and control the video from the phone]
How would the remote interface with the TV, [basic block diagram]?
What would a customer pay for this product and why?
Thank you for contributing to clarification of the idea. I opted for a brief presentation and really some data was missing. I don’t know if I can answer all your questions satisfactorily, but I will do my best.
The demand would be the user of the YouTube app that has the habit of switching between access menus with high frequency. The device would be paired with a smart tv, projector or similar device and is idealized to give direct access to sections such as Library, History, Subscriptions, Playlists and Search without having to scroll through menus.
As far as I know, currently available apps focus on YouTube’s video viewing functions, not on direct/tactile access to all sections of YT.
I do not know much about interfacing with Smart TV’s. I suspect they serve up YouTube with an internal server. I also have never seen any form of API for smart TV’s. Seems like the remote is the main way the operator can access the TV and YT controls are passed through the remote.
I would engage in the following research before spending much $ on the design.
Usage studies:
I may not be the demographic you are attracting. The configuration I use enables me to I can do all of what I want casting from my phone to my TV. I use chromecast from my phone and therefore my phone is the remote and I do not need to use the TV’s internal server. I mainly want to control the video playing functions but still have access to all the functions of YT in my account. This setup ensures that I can watch YT on any TV with my existing phone and there is no special interface to the TV as the chromecast (server) uses the USB port. With this configuration, I can watch anything I can get access to on my phone including; prime, YT & Netflix. I do not use the smart TV server functions at all.
Value Proposition
The YTC’s unique advantage is “better usability by eliminating YT menus”. It’s important to understand what a user is willing to pay for that convenience vs alternative methods used to watch YT on TV’s today. What are the main ways (configurations) that users employ to watch YT on a TV today vs the new YTC way.
Architecture
You need more to the design plan than just “pair to a tv”, you need to understand the theory of how.
How many different TV’s and methods of interfaces will YTC need to support to penetrate this user community?
What are the plausible architectures?
Do smart TV’s have API’s that can be accessed through a smart controller
Can YT running on a smart TV be controlled from the YTC with smart macros?
As far as I’m qualified, it’s still just a concept and has a lot to mature.
1 - Use
In fact, a smartphone screen can do in a few taps the same as ten or more physical remotes would do. The differential here would be convenience, not the usage experience. Personally, I prefer the tv remote control over the smartphone in certain situations where: a) I don’t want to look at the illuminated phone screen after a long time in a dark room; b) I need a more responsive body-control reading, which the tactile sense allows and the visual sense doesn’t; c) the issue of direct access to YT sections (see topic 3).
2 - Value
I have my doubts as to whether the experience with smartohone control would exceed or have exceeded the demand for the comfort of a physical remote control. For example, YT recently added three new sections to your app’s main page: Music, Games, and Recent (here and here). After some internet complaints about the distance created between the Home and Library sections, the app changed again and reordered the main menu items, not from the top, but from the center. Distances have been shortened and access has been made easier, but everything has been confusing and unintuitive, minimizing the problem without solving it. This shows the value of classic navigation (physical remote control) vs. touch navigation (phone) in the decision of media companies, especially if you remember that tv apps just keep getting more complex each year and gaining new functions and buttons.
3 - Architecture
This is the worst ground for my limitations: find out how to get direct access to YT sections without going through menus. I came up with three alternatives, but since the first idea is always the most interesting and also the most unreal, I’ll leave it last:
Macros - would dispense with any additional devices, but are unreliable depending on the context of use and still access menus.
Cloning - A copy to emulate YT App interface, with identifiable key-sections in the source code so that YTC can map these IDs (any copyright issue here).
Partnership - Google is a modern company with a very user-sensitive attitude, and a crowdfunding campaign itself could propose a YT partnership to release only the portion of the source code needed for remote access (any daydreams here? )
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