tv search experience
Lead Product Design for TV Search Experience at Accedo
Project shipped February 2025
Developed a search experience to drive engagement and content exploration
challenges
Slow Discovery
“…viewers are spending nearly five full days each year just trying to decide what to watch — time that could be spent actually enjoying content.”
— Bobby Meixner, User Testing
Difficulty Typing
“Entering and editing text… with smart TVs is currently challenging… and has a significant negative impact on the user experience.”
— Choi & Li, Journal of User Experience
Importance of Search
“More than 20% of content discovery happens through Search.”
— Lamkhede & Das, Challenges in search on streaming services: Netflix Case Study
Objective: Design a simplified search experience that drives engagement and discovery.
Objective: Design a simplified search experience that drives engagement and discovery.
competitor benchmarking
I conducted competitor analysis to determine best practices and existing patterns that would already be familiar to the user. This analysis also revealed common features that Accedo’s clients would expect, which helped us determine what to prioritize first.
keyboard optimization
I decided to reduce the keyboard size to just letters and numbers to reduce cognitive load and click count for the user. I also added a “clear” CTA, which made making new search queries much easier. This compact design gave more real estate for the content the user was searching for.
Default keyboard with irrelevant options including special characters, capitalization
Keyboard optimized for search
empty state design
I added recommended content prior to searching, providing a short-cut for the user with a successful recommendation engine.
After a failed search attempt, I added an empty state message and recommended content based on similar searches. These prompted the user to continue browsing, increasing engagement and reducing error recovery time.
Empty state prior to search, showcasing recommended content
Empty state after failed search, prompting the user to continue browsing with recommended content
search logic
To meet industry standards for an accessible keyboard search, I opted for an Instant Search mechanism. This meant that results would update after every character input, eliminating the feedback gap and speeding up the search process.
To ensure expected process speed, latency was kept under 2 seconds.
To account for more exploratory use cases, searching by cast and category will be enabled post MVP.
Instant search on TV streaming app
rails over grids
Many of our clients had limited access to promotional imagery for the content featured on their platforms. Switching from a grid to a rail design allowed us to display content images with different aspect ratios without visual clutter.
Search results in grid format
Search results in rail format
exclusions for mvp
Due to technical and timeline limitations for MVP, the team descoped Voice Search and Auto-complete Suggestions.
As less prevalent use-cases, Filters and Search History were also omitted.
final designs and documentation
My final designs for the search experience featured an optimized keyboard, enhanced empty state design, instant search, and flexible content rails. These design decisions ensured an accessible and engaging search experience.
next steps
Voice Search
Post-MVP, support for voice search will be prioritized to meet accessibility standards. It should be easily activated via remote control.
Auto-complete Suggestions
Auto-complete suggestions will provide a welcome short-cut for the on-screen keyboard input process. I highly recommended this feature for improving the user experience.
AI Semantic Search
AI assisted semantic search has the power to enhance the search experience by enabling users to search based on mood, an iconic scene, or specific themes.
Filters
For clients with especially large and complex content libraries, often with multiple subscription plans, filters will be essential for an effective search experience.
Search History
Enabling the user to revisit frequent searches will provide another short-cut for the on-screen keyboard input process.
Analytics
Implementing analytics analyzing the user path from search to stream will provide Accedo with further insights for future iterations.
