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Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

techblog.netflix.com

111–120 of 198 posts

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#112

Interface performance is one of the strangest problems to have in this age of crazy processing power but it is extremely common. Some of the delay is just plain silly and avoidable, like having long and synchronous opening animations in response to an action, which only serve to waste the user’s time. (Oh how I love being on a web site like AT&T and watching their JavaScript poorly zoom open a blank box from the cent…

As far as the less-clear cases, this is basically CAP theorem, with some physics thrown in for good measure. In some sense there is always a partition of some length between two points, thanks to the speed of light: the theoretical limit of information propagation through space. So in the presence of this delay "partition," you have three choices, really, and the choice you make depends on the application. A) You can…

I think B is the way to go. Most apps aren't as competitive as CS:GO.

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#113
post #11

Mildly unrelated - does anyone else get frustrated with the ui/ux for HBO now/go? The menu switches from the right side of the screen to the left, the scrolling is wonky, etc. Man their content is good, but the app sucks.

Netflix is on another level with the care that goes into designing their streaming product. I didn't truly appreciate the Netflix app until also subscribing to HBO Now and using their Roku app. HBO is missing the most basic UX features like discoverability, recommending the next episode of shows you've been watching, ratings, etc. Great content, but basically no effort in their apps that consume their content. Netfli…

I actually find the Netflix UX frustrating. First they removed the straightforward ability to simply say that I never want to watch a show, and then hide it from me. Beyond that I can rate a show 2 stars and yet it continues to come up in recommendations. This gives me the feeling that it doesn't really matter how I rate shows because they are going to shove whatever they want at me regardless.

The only competitor I can compare it to is Amazon. In that regard I agree that Netflix obviously puts more into the interface. Amazon's splitting shows into seasons and not even grouping them together is maddening.

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#114
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially the lag that you see on some brand new cars, only BMW and Audi seem to have lag free interface, but anything else that involves touch interface is just horrid! I've recently sat in my friend's brand new Honda SUV and the interface lag is just plain silly, for a car that costs $30,000+. Why is that?

Same with in-flight entertainment systems on planes. They always have terrible, slow interfaces.

I always want to turn it “off” because it’s too distracting, and the only way is to turn the Brightness down to off. It goes like this: BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, oh now it’s off. Then 5 minutes later, the airline starts its welcome mostly-advertising video which TURNS THE DAMNED THING BACK ON AT FULL BRIGHTNESS. Then it resumes DirecTV at which point I have to say: BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, wait, BrightnessDown, annnnnnnnd now it’s off.

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#115
post #86
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially the lag that you see on some brand new cars, only BMW and Audi seem to have lag free interface, but anything else that involves touch interface is just horrid! I've recently sat in my friend's brand new Honda SUV and the interface lag is just plain silly, for a car that costs $30,000+. Why is that?

I found this advertisement from Mercedes interesting: https://i.redd.it/wwxk8nqh88ex.gif I can't speak for the quality of Mercedes interface (and this is obviously marketing for non-programmers) but LOC seems like an odd thing to be emphasising.

Sounds like it's full of spaghetti code.

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#116
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially the lag that you see on some brand new cars, only BMW and Audi seem to have lag free interface, but anything else that involves touch interface is just horrid! I've recently sat in my friend's brand new Honda SUV and the interface lag is just plain silly, for a car that costs $30,000+. Why is that?

Believe it or not, the software quality in these things is often quite cruel, and even a mediocre javascript framework might perform awesome against it. I've seen enough things things like handcoded UI frameworks in C++ (in order to be fast), and then doing things like blocking network calls on the main thread from there. Some newer systems are based on QT or Android. These typically have better performance, because…

I recently got a Mazda3, their newer MazdaConnect system is running an iMX6 (dual CortexA9 w/GPU and video accelerators) and uses Opera as the interface. All of the core UI is written in Javascript.

It's also highly hackable. =)

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#117
post #86
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially the lag that you see on some brand new cars, only BMW and Audi seem to have lag free interface, but anything else that involves touch interface is just horrid! I've recently sat in my friend's brand new Honda SUV and the interface lag is just plain silly, for a car that costs $30,000+. Why is that?

I found this advertisement from Mercedes interesting: https://i.redd.it/wwxk8nqh88ex.gif I can't speak for the quality of Mercedes interface (and this is obviously marketing for non-programmers) but LOC seems like an odd thing to be emphasising.

At one undiscovered bug per KLOc, that's basically advertising that their software is a disastrous ball of mud.

KLOC are something you spend, a debt you accumulate.

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#118
post #99

Interface performance is one of the strangest problems to have in this age of crazy processing power but it is extremely common. Some of the delay is just plain silly and avoidable, like having long and synchronous opening animations in response to an action, which only serve to waste the user’s time. (Oh how I love being on a web site like AT&T and watching their JavaScript poorly zoom open a blank box from the cent…

> like having long and synchronous opening animations in response to an action I love animations when they make the UI more understandable. I can't stand them when they are more than a couple hundred milliseconds though. I don't even think "synchronous" when I think of animations. That sounds terrible. If they are quick animations it doesn't seem as big of a deal as the long running ones though.

For me the most insulting part is the inversion of priorities in these designs. The top priority of a UI designer SHOULD be to make the user as productive as possible, yet making me wait for something that is by definition not necessary (like an animation) is nonsensical. A related backward trend is this idea of pushing something in front of my face as a modal panel, with complete disregard for the fact that I was working on something and am now (a) distracted, (b) completely unable to continue doing what I chose to do, and (c) will have problems even after the modal goes away, taking extra time to figure out how to refocus on whatever I was originally trying to do before being interrupted.

Re: Crafting a high-performance TV user interface using React

#120
post #77
post #60

Link is down for me, so I'm reacting to the title. I don't have an issue with the performance of the Netflix UI on my PS4. I have a huge problem with the design of the UI. First, there is no reason we can't have more configuration flexibility. I don't ever want a program to auto play and I have no use for the video loops that auto play when I hover over a program. Let me disable these features. I don't want "my progr…

Agreed! I was just looking over their web interface, under Playback settings, they at least now have a way to disable Auto Play

That's not the same thing. That setting enables/disables the playing of the next episode after you complete watching an episode. Even with that setting disabled, when you click on a series Netflix starts playing the next episode, or if it's not a series, the video.
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