<aside> 💡 Note: Since Spring 2022, HBO Max has become 'Max' as it merged other content from Discovery into a slightly redesigned interface with more rigid UI and a bloated library mixing prestige and reality TV shows. For now, this article still serves as a reference to what made for a great couch UX for navigating a streaming service.

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What constitutes a great TV app experience?

There’s several criteria that can be formed when considering where, why, and how TV apps such as Netflix are used:

• Browsing from a distance beyond several feet (sitting on a sofa)
• Either looking for something new to watch, or resuming something previously unfinished
• Using a remote
• Making a choice based on the choices shown, or the content that was self-discovered

In making this journey success, six criteria help define what being great could mean: UI, Search UX, Category Browsing, Curation, Rigidity, Pushiness, and Content Density.

In using an Apple TV as the test device (as it, in theory, should provide the best user experience given its premium price, ecosystem, and feature offerings), five of the top streaming services were compared against each other.

Against six criteria, HBO Max stands out as the best-designed streaming service (even despite its new update’s non-native design choices) through a combination of design choices that strays from the competition’s homogenized design - for the better, and full-of-personality curation present throughout the browsing experience.

HBO Max’s home page

Takeaways

Excellent curation and lack of highly repetitive rows differentiate HBO Max as an experience that was built for and welcomes exploration.

Here’s a playbook for a great TV app interface regardless of platform:

• Let the content shine - don’t have a dense interface