Netflix is going back to its roots with a revamped TV interface. Yesterday, the streaming giant announced a brand-new look for those who use the service on a TV. It's officially launching today, but it will take Netflix some time to push the new user interface out to all compatible smart TVs, streaming boxes, cable boxes, gaming consoles, and everything else. SEE ALSO: Netflix for Android can now download your favorite shows automatically Netflix's aim with this redesign is for content to be easier to find and to help users get watching faster. It builds off the Netflix mentality of them wanting to improve the customer experience. Stephen Garcia, a Director of Product Innovation at Netflix, wrote in a blog post that the “new interface was based on rigorous research and testing around how we can make it easier to find titles on TVs.” Image: netflix Navigating Netflix on the TV can sometimes be a challenge compared to the mobile experience, where you can scroll and everything is a finger-tap away. Most remotes have just a few buttons for navigation, so it's inherently harder to move around the screen. The main fix is a new sidebar on the left-hand side which lets one access Search, Home, Series, Movies, My List, and New. Netflix found that many users may not know the exact content they want to watch, but they do know whether it is a TV show or a movie. The sidebar is also where you'll switch profiles. Furthermore, it's much easier to access the content you’ve added to "My List," a section that can sometimes be hard to find since Netflix often moves categories around the UI on devices like the Amazon Fire TV. By giving it a permanent place in the navigation, users should be able to quickly find the content they've already saved without having to through rows and rows of genres. Overall, the updated interface seems sleeker and easier to navigate. Netflix is starting to roll out the new look globally, and Garcia concludes the post with a tantalizing hint of more features in the works: "This new design is one of many improvements we will be rolling out over the coming months."<doc-sep>Netflix today announced an upcoming overhaul for its TV applications. In a blog post, the company explains that it hopes the new design will make it easier for users to discover content to watch, while the time spent browsing… The streaming giant says that one of the primary goals of the new design is to make it easier for users to switch between series content and movies. This is encapsulated in a new slide-out navigation pane, which offers options for search, home, series, movies, list, and new. The new TV interface was designed to make the Netflix experience simpler and more intuitive in a few different ways. First, it is now easier to search and view new content added to the service. It is also far simpler to start browsing with either a series or movie; our research has shown us that while a member generally isn’t sure what exact title they want to watch, they have a pretty good sense of whether they are in the mood for a quick series episode or a longer movie experience. Elsewhere, Netflix says the new design will make it easier to find new content and navigate to your personal list of saved content. It touts that its testing of the new interface “helped members find something great to watch.” Other than the new side navigation bar, the Netflix interface is largely unchanged and is still tile-based with autoplaying trailers and a vertical scrolling design. One important thing to note here is that Netflix did not specify to which platforms the new interface will be coming. While the company generally keeps the interface of its TV applications the same across various platforms, it didn’t specifically mention Apple TV (or any other platform) in today’s blog post. Instead, Netflix simply said that the update will start rolling out to “members all over the world today.” As of this writing, it doesn’t yet appear to have hit the Apple TV. Subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More. Check out 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Apple news:<doc-sep>Netflix today revealed a new design for its "TV experiences," or TV-based apps, that aims to make it easier to find TV shows and movies on the service. In addition to the rows with various themes, Netflix subscribers watching on a TV will now see a sidebar on the left side of the app that expands when they scroll over to it. This UI has Search, Home, Series, Movies, My List, and New hubs, making it far simpler to jump directly to specific sections of Netflix you want to get to without having to scroll around looking for them. Otherwise, browsing around Netflix on a TV app appears to be largely the same, with video previews that automatically play once you've stopped on a show or movie. Netflix's director of product innovation Stephen Garcia said that the new update came out of "extensive research" into how its users browse for content. While this may feel like an obvious update to some, validating that this TV experience was better for our members took extensive research, testing and technology improvements. Along those lines, we will continuously learn from our members and evolve the TV experience so that it gets even more simple, fun and easy to find the stories that make Netflix great. In our testing of this new interface, we saw that that this simpler design helped members find something great to watch. The company didn't directly confirm which platforms this update will arrive on, but it typically uses "TV experiences" as an all-encompassing reference to apps on streaming boxes, game consoles, smart TVs, and anywhere else Netflix is viewed on a TV set. This should mean that fourth-generation and fifth-generation Apple TV users will see the update alongside other platforms, with a rollout that begins worldwide today.<doc-sep>
Netflix has spruced up its interface for connected-TV devices — in the hopes that subscribers will more quickly find and start watching stuff on the service. The new TV interface, which is rolling out worldwide starting Wednesday, features a menu ribbon on the left-hand side of the screen that lets users access six areas: search, home, TV series, movies, My List (a watch-list of titles they’ve bookmarked), and new (which shows recently added titles). The redesigned TV user interface was designed to improve content discovery, given that navigation “can feel a bit tougher when you are restricted to just a few buttons on a remote control,” Stephen Garcia, director of product innovation at Netflix, wrote in a blog post. One of the key changes is that the UI splits out TV shows and movies into different one-click menus. “Our research has shown us that while a member generally isn’t sure what exact title they want to watch, they have a pretty good sense of whether they are in the mood for a quick series episode or a longer movie experience,” Garcia said. The update also makes it much easier to access My List watchlists on connected-TV devices. Before, that’s required scrolling down through several rows of categories. “While this may feel like an obvious update to some, validating that this TV experience was better for our members took extensive research, testing and technology improvements,” Garcia wrote. The look of the new Netflix TV interface uses some of the same visual elements, like icons, that the company uses in its mobile apps. Here’s a demo of the new Netflix TV UI in action: The streaming giant’s last major overhaul of its TV interface was in 2013, when it introduced a more visually oriented design designed to present a “cinematic” experience on big-screen TVs. In late 2016, Netflix added video previews to its connected-TV interface, another feature meant to spur viewers into streaming more content. Netflix’s service is available on hundreds of devices, including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Chromecast streaming-media players; smart TVs including those from Hisense, LG, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba and Vizio; and game consoles including Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Wii. As of the end of June, Netflix reported 130.1 million streaming members worldwide, up 25% year over year. However, the company reported lower-than-expected second-quarter 2018 subscriber net additions on Monday, which caused Netflix’s stock price to retreat from recent record highs.